Above: Designs by Mediterranea Design
Dear Shaded Viewers,
This past October I took my yearly trip to Italy, starting in Rome to attend a soirée at my NYC gal pal Tracy’s chic penthouse apartment in Esquilino and to celebrate my friend Consuelo’s birthday in the historic center. From there it was a just a quick train ride down to Naples where I once again attended the EDIT Napoli design fair.
Each trip to Naples reveals more hidden treasures within its labyrinthine streets and around the glorious Bay of Naples, where Mountain Vesuvius—at once brooding and beautiful— serves as a constant reminder of the uncertainty of our existence.
Thanks to EDIT Napoli, I was summoned to places I hadn’t been before, from a breathtaking opera house to enigmatic tombs. On a gorgeously sunny Friday, our group of journalists took part in the fair’s EDIT CULT program, an itinerary that wove its way through the city, with a series of exhibitions and installations exploring design creativity.
One of the first stops of the day was the Real Teatro di San Carlo, which is the oldest continuously active venue for opera in the world, having opened in 1737. The theater was commissioned by the Bourbon King Charles VII of Naples. The scenery you see here on the theater’s stage is a collaboration between renowned Japanese architect Kengo and Italian fabric brand Alcantara, created exclusively for the opera Simon Boccanegra.
The waves created by the draping of Alcantara’s fabric are meant to symbolize the continuous change and dynamism of nature, reflecting the very essence of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera.
The theater’s auditorium was renovated in 2009, with updates to the outmoded stage machinery and installation of air conditioning. (Thank Minerva for that, because air conditioning is my religion in high summer!)
Another stop on the EDIT CULT tour was the Palazzo Reale, the royal palace that was the home of the Spanish viceroys and the Bourbons of Naples (for more than 100 years) until Victor Emmanuel III ceded it to the state in 1919, after Italian unification. Since the late 19th century, the western half of the palace has been a museum of the Royal apartment and in 1924, the eastern half became the National Library.
In the palace’s theater, a tribute to Neapolitan architect, designer and professor Filippo Alison took center stage. In 1973, Alison curated the iMaestri Collection for Cassina, a furniture company founded in 1927 in the town of Meda, in Italy’s northern region of Lombardy. Cassina is credited with introducing an entirely new method of production in the 1950s, marking the shift from artisanal to serial production.
Alison’s iMaestri Collection, seen above, was a project that featured reissued furniture designs by early 20th-century masters of modernism.
Alison’s reissues of the Willow 1 armchair, originally designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh in 1904 and the Hill House 1 chair, designed by Mackintosh in 1903, above. A Scotsman, Mackintosh interpreted Art Nouveau by giving it a more modern attitude, with strong associations to the Vienna Secession.
A Neapolitan with a Scottish surname, Filippo Alison was born at the foot of Mount Vesuvius in 1930. His 1973 iMaestri project gave a second life to modern furniture icons by Mackintosh, Le Corbusier, Gerrit Thomas Rietveld and Charlotte Perriand via mass production. After the collection was exhibited at the 1973 Milan Triennale, it made its way to The Museum of Modern Art in New York. Credited with connecting Naples to the international design scene, Alison was the director of the School of Specialization in furnishing and product design at the University of Naples from 1998.
ALPI, a company at the forefront of reconstituted wood decorative surfaces, celebrated their 40-year anniversary in the design world with a retrospective at the Real Museo Mineralogico, the Mineralogy Museum. Designs included were irregularly shaped wooden totems by Konstantin Grcic, prisms by Angelo Mangiarotti and three archaic forms designed by Alessandro Mendini. I loved how the pieces engaged with the crystalline forms of the natural minerals in the museum.
It is always a delight to chat with designer and artist Allegra Hicks at EDIT Napoli and her projects are always the highlight of the EDIT CULT program. Known for her works that blend art and craftsmanship, Allegra presented a project in an Ancient Greek tomb in the Ipogeo dei Cristallini that was inspired by Neapolitan legends.
The piece referenced the myth of the siren Parthenope and the egg she laid before dying, which is said to be hidden in the foundations of Castel dell’Ovo. With symbolism echoing the myth of the siren, Allegra created a macrame sculpture that represented the siren’s egg featured in the legend—a reflection on the fragility of beauty and its preservation.
Allegra tells the full story in this video interview I conducted with her in the tomb:
Artist Caterina Roppo’s evocative installation in the gloriously gloomy Complesso Museale Santa Maria delle Anime del Purgatorio featured an apparition rendered in copper floating within a rebar frame. Caterina, who lives between Italy and Mallorca, describes copper as “a conductor of energy, intertwining with the fabric, creating a form that is not static but alive, like a lung that expands and contracts.”
The main fair of EDIT Napoli was once again held at the State Archives, where marvelous design objects were juxtaposed with the space’s gorgeous frescoes. These ceramic pieces by Arciuolo Antoniali are united by a bold red stripe.
Paris-based brand Galgo creates furniture that reminds me of strawberry ice cream and licorice and caramel candies.
German designer Luca Gruber and his stacked geometric glass lamp.
3D-printed chair by Spanish designer Alejandro G. Slok for Goslo Design Studio. Produced from recycled locally sourced waste materials, the chair, in the words of the maker, “induces a sensation like sinking into a plush couch. The intentional printing texture has dual purpose, ensuring comfort and breathability.” Alas, I did not get to try out the chair or meet the designer.
“Lazy Swim” is the name of a collaboration between Laura Dominici and Basi Schu, playful objects reminiscent of swimming scenes, such as these stacked towels and Pool Bench—crafted from stainless steel and pool noodles. The bench and towels are sitting on the designers’ Pool Rug, 100% Tibetan wool produced under fair conditions in Nepal.
Zurich-based architect and designer Marco Zelli was inspired by the artwork of Donald Judd for these lamps, rendered in juicy colors.
I chatted with designer Cristina Firotto about her Rome-based brand Madlen.Ceramics. “With my ceramics, I give value to the irregularities that are part of the nature of things, to accept their mutability and rediscover the beauty of everyday life.”
The Mario collection from Verona-based brand Zanchi is inspired by Italian Rationalism, with lines that are defined, sharp and essential, creating a harmony of forms. Founded in 1976, Zanchi began as a family project and soon became a reference point for Veronese craftsmanship.
Based in Calabria (where my great grandfather is from) Signora Luna produces handmade objects made by the brand’s founder, Giovanni Sposato, and her team. She launched the brand after working as a restorator for 15 years, mastering the ancient gilding technique of gold leaf.
Designs from Studio
These ceramic designs from Santopeccatore are handcrafted in Italy and have high aspirations: “Santopeccatore was born in Apulia to celebrate our humanity and sanctify our sins through the archetypes of a rural world which is all country, elevating them to design objects.”
Italian brand Eleit.it has proposed a new way to host ice cream socials. (The center chamber is made to fill with ice cream.)
The brand also produces Made in Italy ceramic display bowls and candleholders.
Eleit.it designer Arianna De Luca
The last stop during our EDIT CULT tour was an aperitivo on an expansive terrace, overlooking the storied Bay of Naples and Mount Vesuvius. The “flat clothes” hung from a clothing line were a project from ABET
“Giulio Iacchetti and Matteo Ragni design an evocative installation for EDIT. The ABET work is suspended between metaphor and illusion and hosted on the terrace of the Archivio Militare di Stato for the entire duration of the show.
Those who allow themselves the pleasure of walking up the Pizzofalcone district to reach the site of the installation will be able to enjoy an exclusive view of the Gulf of Naples, with the profile of Vesuvius and the island of Capri serving as a backdrop for the work by Iacchetti and Ragni, ABET’s design curators.”
During EDIT Napoli, all of the visiting journalists received, much to their alarm, “volcano alert” texts on their phones—except me! I was super jealous. (Turned out the text was just a survey to prepare people in Naples for a potential eruption of the Phlagraean Fields. I’ve done some research about that and trust me, it will be no picnic.)
But as I’ve told my friends and then reported to a group of journalists I met at the aperitivo, it’s terribly important to plan one’s death, so you don’t expire in some humdrum way that will not be gossiped about for decades at cocktail parties. So I’ve planned to die, one day, on a visit to Naples during a major eruption of Vesuvius, in which I’ll be entombed and immortalized in lava like the bodies at Pompeii, with a petrified martini glass held aloft. See? Isn’t that far more interesting than dying from pneumonia or a heart attack?
We were invited to a very chic party at the home of architect Giuliano Andrea Dell’Uva at the Palazzo Mirelli di Teora. I attended with my gal pal Alexia Petsini, the Milan-based lifestyle, fashion and design journalist.
After the cocktail, we attended the EDIT Napoli dinner at Concettina ai Santi, the haute pizzeria which is actually one of my favorite places to dine in Naples. It was a looooong table!
Every year when I visit Naples, I always stay at the SuperOtium Hotel, next to the Archeological Museum. It’s an absolutely perfect place to stay in Naples—quiet, excellent location, affordable, lovely owners and staff, and beautiful rooms—look at those gorgeous majolica tiles!
When I arrived in Naples, I headed straight to this charming little trattoria near the waterfront. I was over the moon for this pasta dish with a whole baby octopus.
No trip to Napoli is complete without indulging in a decadent sfgoliatelle—they are only good in Naples! I had one for breakfast every day at Caffè 33 across the street from my hotel.
No need to wait in line with all the tourists for pizza at Da Michele—my go-to place for classic Neapolitan pie is Lombardy 1892. I always get the white pie with sausage and friarielli (Neapolitan broccoli rabe grown in the volcanic soil of Mount Vesuvius).
Excellent pasta with mussels—Sunday lunch near Capodimonte.
Thanks for reading.
Baci, baci,
Glenn Belverio
