In his sculptural work, artist Raffaele Salvoldi is best known for working in wood. His intricate sculptures rise like architectural monuments and are composed of hundreds of wooden planks from the construction game, Kapla, which are stacked up to resemble elaborate, gravity-defying structures.
For Milan Design Week 2023, Salvoldi, who is also a photographer and director, has joined forces with leading marble brand Salvatori – which has previously collaborated with the likes of John Pawson, Kengo Kuma, Piero Lissoni, Patricia Urquiola, Michael Anastassiades – to co-create a three-sculpture installation.
One part of Raffaele Salvoldi's collaboration with Salvatori is currently on view Room of Mirrors at the brand's via Solferino 11 showroom
This time, Salvoldi isn’t using Kapla, but natural stone. ‘Wood and stone are two completely different materials. Wood is forgiving enough to offset any technical imprecisions, whereas with stone, you have to be precise down to the last millimetre,’ Salvoldi explains. ‘The meeting with Salvatori came about purely by chance but it was immediately clear that we were on the same wavelength. I’m not only fascinated by natural stone, but I also share Gabriele Salvatori’s passion for seeking beauty in everything and by beauty, I don’t just mean in the aesthetic sense, but as a tool for deciphering our world.’
Raffaele Salvoldi works on a piece at Salvatori's quarry in Tuscany
Displayed both at the brand’s showroom and boutique in Milan, each of the sculptures – titled Bianco Carrara, Grigio Versilia and Pietra d’Avol – is more than three metres high, and composed of rhythmic, spiralling blocks of stone. In keeping with the brand’s sustainability mission, the material used by Salvoldi derives entirely from waste material from the marble production process.
Two of Raffaele’s artworks will be on display on the ground floor of Salvatori’s showroom at via Solferino 11. The first greets visitors at the entrance, while the second will be in the Room of Mirrors where its multiple reflections will create a dazzling kaleidoscopic effect.
The third piece will be constructed during Design Week at the Salvatori boutique on the corner of via Palermo and Largo Treves, where, as part of a live performance, the artist will build the work in real-time for all to see.
As CEO Gabriele Salvatori explains, ‘the collaboration with Raffaele is a perfect fit with our philosophy of promoting designers, artists and work that demonstrate how human ingenuity and talent can become tools to raise awareness about safeguarding the planet, the most precious thing we have. Through Raffaele’s works, we want to restore dignity to every single fragment of raw material by taking a parsimonious approach and highlighting the idea that “top-grade” and “second-grade” materials don’t exist. Instead, it’s up to us to be smart and use each element that nature provides in the best way possible.’
Raffaele Salvoldi’s installation with Salvatori will be on view from 18-23 April during Milan Design Week 2023. salvatoriofficial.com
-
Designer Marta de la Rica’s elegant Madrid studio is full of perfectly-pitched contradictionsThe studio, or ‘the laboratory’ as de la Rica and her team call it, plays with colour, texture and scale in eminently rewarding ways
-
‘Nothing just because it’s beautiful’: Performance artist Marina Abramović on turning her hand to furniture designMarina Abramović has no qualms about describing her segue into design as a ‘domestication’. But, argues the ‘grandmother of performance art’ as she unveils a collection of chairs, something doesn’t have to be provocative to be meaningful
-
A local’s guide to Los Angeles by defiant artist Fawn RogersOregon-born, LA-based artist Fawn Rogers gives us a personal tour of her adopted city as it hosts its sixth edition of Frieze
-
What makes fashion and art such good bedfellows?There has always been a symbiosis between fashion and the art world. Here, we look at what makes the relationship such a successful one
-
Remembering Oliviero Toscani, fashion photographer and author of provocative Benetton campaignsBest known for the controversial adverts he shot for the Italian fashion brand, former art director Oliviero Toscani has died, aged 82
-
Distracting decadence: how Silvio Berlusconi’s legacy shaped Italian TVStefano De Luigi's monograph Televisiva examines how Berlusconi’s empire reshaped Italian TV, and subsequently infiltrated the premiership
-
Louis Fratino leans into queer cultural history in ItalyLouis Fratino’s 'Satura', on view at the Centro Pecci in Italy, engages with queer history, Italian landscapes and the body itself
-
Out of office: what the Wallpaper* editors have been doing this weekA snowy Swiss Alpine sleepover, a design book fest in Milan, and a night with Steve Coogan in London – our editors' out-of-hours adventures this week
-
Inside Jack Whitten’s contribution to American contemporary artAs Jack Whitten exhibition ‘Speedchaser’ opens at Hauser & Wirth, London, and before a major retrospective at MoMA opens next year, we explore the American artist's impact
-
Frieze Sculpture takes over Regent’s ParkTwenty-two international artists turn the English gardens into a dream-like landscape and remind us of our inextricable connection to the natural world
-
Harlem-born artist Tschabalala Self’s colourful ode to the landscape of her childhoodTschabalala Self’s new show at Finland's Espoo Museum of Modern Art evokes memories of her upbringing, in vibrant multi-dimensional vignettes
