Giuseppe Arezzi, nominated by Domitilla Dardi and Margherita Guccione (MAXXI Museum, Rome) and invited by the Italian Institute of Culture of Parisas part of the "Promesse Dell'Arte" residency program, presents the exhibition “Dal Soggetto all’Oggetto - Binomio"

"From the Subject to the Object" highlights Giuseppe Arezzi’s method as a designer: "my projects are always the result of an anthropological research having the contemporary man as its protagonist”.

During his residence in Paris, Arezzi focused his attention on a particular type of Parisian housing which is still in use: the Chambre de Bonne. The Chambres de Bonne are small houses located in the attics of the bourgeois buildings built at the beginning of the 19th century. The literal translation of the term is “maid’s room”: these small lodgings – no larger than 10 square meters – were in fact intended for servants. Today they are occupied mostly by young people like students or temporary workers.

Felix Macherez’s photographic project was fundamental for my study of these small apartments and of the people who inhabit them, having everything that is necessary for survival within a few square meters: a small kitchenette, a sofa bed, a table or desk, a shower and some appliances. The few pieces of furniture are often used to perform more than one function and to intelligently inhabit the available space."

The ultimate goal of the research is to design a piece of furniture that can translate into an object the spatial features of the Chambre de Bonne.

Binomio is a hybrid piece, a two-sided object extending on three simple shelves placed at different heights from the floor. Its functions are many: it can be used as a desk or as a dressing room, but it can also be a table for dining alone, a bench to take off your shoes as you enter the house, a hanger, a bedside table, a bookshelf, an altar or a prie-dieu, as well as a support for any type of object.

Binomio is made of solid beech wood and lacquered with bordeaux varnish. It is a domestic totem, imposing with its height but simple in its forms: ready to inspire and host many of the countless daily actions.

Binomio, presented for the first time at the Italian Institute of Culture in Paris, is handcrafted in Ragusa, Sicily, and it is edited in collaboration with It's Great Design by Margherita Ratti

Photo Credits: Studio FotoGiunta, Melissa Carnemolla, Félix Macherez