2017.10.06 - EPISODE #3
Los Angeles | Artist
Doug Aitken, contemporary artist, is the protagonist of the third chapter of the #HouseOfMolteni project, set in Los Angeles, presented through an exclusive interview to the photographer Olivier Zahm.
Who is Doug?
California-based multimedia artist Doug Aitken is creating immersive installations which are blending different forms and disciplines: architecture, installation, performance-art, but also photography, advertising and video.
Doug Aitken is certainly one of the most important young American artists who is able to transform art into a multi-media experience which speak to everyone but also push the limits of art itself.
Which are your Doug's favourite pieces?
In a recent show in Denmark, called "The Garden", he invited the public to destroy household items in the middle of a tropical garden. Each visitors were invited to stay ten minutes in "The Garden", with a bat and protective suit, in a bulletproof glass chamber surrounded by a beautiful green jungle.
Visitors were free to do what they want and smash the tables, chairs and lights to pieces. The spectators were an active part of this installation while the process was recorded and live streamed for those watching from their screen on the artist's website.
With "Mirage" in Palm Spring, Doug Aitken encouraged the visitor to enter a house entirely made of mirrors, to reflect California's Desert beauty and solitude, as well as contemporary narcissism. It was "like a human-scale kaleidoscope" said Doug Aitken.
Doug Aitken, Still Life, 2017. Aluminum lightbox, LED lights, chromogenic transparency, acrylic | 59 3/4 x 108 x 5 inches (151.8 x 274.3 x 12.7 cm) | Edition of 4, with 2 AP | DA 563. Courtesy of the Artist, 303 Gallery, New York; Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zürich; Victoria Miro Gallery, London; and Regen Projects, Los Angeles.
DesignGIO PONTI
ARMCHAIRS
Designed in 1953, the D.153.1 armchair is part of the furniture of Gio Ponti’s private house in via Dezza in Milan. This re-edition is produced by Molteni&C based on the original drawings from the ponti archives.Brass structure, cover in bicolor white-blue leather, “Punteggiato” fabric, designed by Ponti for Rubelli in 1934 or in the Molteni&C fabrics range.
DesignWERNER BLASER
SINGLE UNITS
The prototype of the first item of modern furniture ever produced by Molteni&C, the chest of drawers designed by Werner Blaser in 1955, is available again in a limited and numbered edition of 100 pieces, made of avodiré wood just like the original.
DesignFOSTER + PARTNERS
COFFEE TABLES
Teso, design Foster+Partners, is a sculptural objet highly unusually shaped. The table’s base is formed by a robotic arm, which is used to press and twist a perforated disc of steel into a tough, tapered cylinder.
Doug Aitken
Doug Aitken is a contemporary American artist known for installations incorporating video, photography, sculpture, and performance. He creates moving works intended to take the viewer unaware, eliciting responses that are unexpected and profound.
Born in 1968 in Redondo Beach, CA, Aitken went on to study at the Art Center College of Design and moved to New York in 1994. His work can be found in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, among others.
FOLLOW ON
2021.05.07 - EPISODE #12
George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg
A very special episode set in Amagansett, New York. The two Canadian designers, founding partners of Yabu Pushelberg welcome us in their beach house, releasing an interview about their background, design identity, with a special focus on the Surf sofa.
2020.04.14 - EPISODE #11
Let us introduce you to Giancarlo Valle, the eleventh guest of the digital project #HouseOfMolteni. Read the full interview to discover his background and his jouney into architecture and design.
2020.02.21 - EPISODE #10
Let us introduce you to Arpana Rayamajhi, the tenth guest of the digital project #HouseOfMolteni. Read the full interview to discover her background and deep passion for different styles and aesthetics.
