Da Vetro: Playful and Utilitarian Glass

In the Da Vetro collection, seven designers translate social language, such as balance and expectations, into vases, carafes, domes and containers. The collection of 22 borosilicate glass objects designed by Ferréol Babin, Dean Brown, Catarina Carreiras, Federico Floriani, Pascal Hien, Tomomi Maezawa and Giorgia Zanellato results from intensive research residencies at Italian cross-disciplinary lab Fabrica. Bridging the qualities of critical and craft-oriented design with contemporary application, these delicate yet functional and affordable vessels respond to human gesture and poster but also draw from speculation and social commentary. Headed by French designer and Fabrica creative director Sam Baron, the Da Vetro collection was accomplished through the expertise of master glassblower Massimo Lunardon. Each individual piece is numbered and produced in a limited edition of 30.

Ferréol Babin’s Balance carafe plays with the perception of fragility as the carafe appears to be teetering on collapse, while actually counteracting the rectangular planes that make up our interiors. Bloom vase by Pascal Hien, Postures vases by Tomomi Maezawa, and Up containers by Giorgia Zanellato recalibrate how flowers might be placed and supported. Nage vase by Babin strikes literal reference to swimming pools in miniature. The act of lifting and handling these vessels is challenged in both Dora carafe by Zanellato and Pegar domes by Catarina Carreiras.

“The objects are designed to strike the right balance between the personal expression of Fabrica’s international young talents, and the specific influences of their cultures, the knowledge of Massimo Lunardon, the master Italian glass blower we are collaborating with, and also Please Do Not Enter’s desire to offer outstanding design objects at an accessible cost,” states Sam Baron, French designer and creative director of Fabrica Design Studio.

Da Vetro collection will be showed at Los Angeles-based gallery and concept store Please Do Not Enter in three separate exhibitions. Founded by two French contemporary art and design collectors Nicolas Libert and Emmanuel Renoird, Please Do Not Enter features an array of exclusive contemporary art and design pieces in Downtown Los Angeles.

“We loved the idea of a collection that fused rare craftsmanship with a strong, contemporary aesthetics,” says Nicolas Libert, co-founder of the gallery. “It also reveals the at times indistinguishable frontier between usable design and art.”

The first of three Da Vetro exhibitions will run at Please Do Not Enter in Los Angeles, USA, on 11 November–5 December 2015.