Cesto, 2021
©Foto Massimo Listri
Gaetano Pesce (La Spezia 1939)
At 17, Pesce wrote a manifesto on L’incoerenza dell’artista (The Artist’s Incoherence), and at 20 he co-founded Gruppo N. In 1964, he began collaborating with Cassina and graduated in architecture in Venice in 1965. Between then and 1980, when he relocated to New York, he moved from Venice to London, Helsinki and Paris, teaching in various cities. In 1972, he took part in the Italy: The New Domestic Landscape exhibition at MoMA and exhibited at Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris in 1975. He rose quickly through the ranks of the professional world from 1980, carrying out architecture, urban design, interior design and product design projects across the globe. He became a pioneer in the use of foamed plastic materials in industrial design, and also collaborated with B&B Italia, Zerodisegno, Swarovski, Meritalia and Melissa. The Centre Pompidou dedicated a solo show to him in 1996, and since then his works have been exhibited in some of the most prestigious venues: at the Milan Triennale and the Venice Biennale, in Basel and Los Angeles, at MAXXI in Rome and at Palazzo Ducale in Mantua. He has produced various installations for the Milan Furniture Fair. His works are on display at MoMA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Vitra Design Museum and the Centre Pompidou. Among other prizes, he received the Design Excellence Award from the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2005, the Designer of the Year Award in Cologne in 2006 and the IIC Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010.
The Senzafine basket was created using an extrusion machine with flexible resin, adding pigments in the colors of the Italian flag. This work is an example of the possible use of industrial production to create unique pieces that are always different. Gaetano Pesce was a pioneer in addressing the subject of diversified or aleatory production in Italian design, granting objects the right to diversity. (Giulia Tosciri)