Patricia Urquiola: Time to Make a Book by Rizzoli International Publications

preface

TIME TO MAKE A BOOK Only he who constantly changes will remain true to himself –Confucius (551-479 BC) You are more authentic the more you resemble what you’ve dreamed of being. –All About My Mother (Todo sobre mi madre), Pedro Almodòvar (1999) Making a book about Patricia Urquiola is no easy task. There is no quick way to synthesize the depth and complexity of her pieces, to transpose the literal and phenomenal aspects of her work. Perhaps this is why very little has been published on the subject: it would mean drawing up a balance sheet, overturning an hourglass, beginning a new chapter by archiving the past. It would mean accepting the sadness that inevitably accompanies the excitement of a new beginning. It would require a frenzy of energy, a surge of pure adrenaline capable of tackling the blank page, and drowning out the cacophony raised by past fragments, present moments, and traces of things to come: projects in America, Japan, Brazil, the shared ideas, thoughts, and values that drive aesthetic transformation, that are changing even now, indicating new routes and new ways to travel. For Patricia, there is much to do; much to experience. Not simply to experience form and style, which arise from complex mental processes, but to experience her own method of creating, tenaciously personal, a combination of fierce discipline and wide-ranging expertise. A method that breathes life and art into figures, symbols, echoes, memories, visions, icons, objects, and spaces. That method transports her projects into a different universe, populated by objects simultaneously familiar and new, where past and present are never merely the mechanistic and simplistic precursors to the future, where clear thinking and lightheartedness come together to deny the consequences of trivial banality. Out of a dense and multivalent professional life, she is entering a promising new creative phase, born from a word that unraveled across the page under her paintbrush: awareness. This vital moment of transition sees her moving along several different tracks, traversing geographical and creative landscapes with dexterity and enthusiasm in the pursuit— but not the conquest—of new objectives. Time goes quickly by, but she knows how to stop when she needs to, or at least she knows how to slow down, to change gears. She changed gears to work with us and with Omar Sosa, on this book that is more of a project than a simple object: a distinct event that is intimately connected to the

ÂŠ 2013

Stages of prototyping. Bohemian with different bases, chaise longue in Rizzoli International removable leather.

Tropicalia cocoon, hanging chair, Moroso 2008

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playground

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Playing in the open air. Shells made with multicolored ribbons, making outdoor hammocks into vibrant nests.

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ÂŠ 2013 Rizzoli International Publications. All

The former back is transformed into a light-filled restaurant. A traditional carpet gives the space definition, along with the transparent hangings Rights Reserved. around the skylight.

The restaurant upends the concept of interior space, mixing garden furniture with indoor elements.

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The first piece in the line is a chair designed for the Caribbean resortâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s restaurant. The cottage is a new kind of open-air retreat.

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Gianluigi Ricuperati Time is reconnecting, gathering in on itself. This is the time to write a book that goes beyond celebration to outline a new beginning. Human beings are always changing, our bodies evolving across the generations, so that we are never in the same body: but we are the same body, and this is our punishment and our only opportunity. It’s difficult to see where we’ll be in the days to come, impossible to be our future selves. Patricia embraces this uncertainty, she is open to any kind of creative adventure, even those that are not “professional” or “marketable.” This expert designer of spaces and objects has made an art of living in a moment when spaces and objects will never be the same. Patricia’s right eye is looking for something counter-intuitive—a surprise, a narrative twist to grab onto, to keep her interested in human phenomena. Her left eye wants something timeless, something into which she can weave threads of experience that are nothing and everything we have. In my head, David Bowie sings, “I’ve never done good things, I’ve never done bad things,” and I think about success, and persistence, and career trajectories, and planning, and risk, and ambition, and the need to build and furnish whole boxes of glass and cement, to launch them into American skies, and the patience of cane reeds woven together, supporting our weight, and chromatic power, and however the hell you design an object. On a wall, someone has written “the most beautiful things in life are not things.” Patricia Urquiola’s left eye sees the truth in that statement. Her right eye is searching for a place in the world to create new things.

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A Conversation between Patricia Urquiola and Gianluigi Ricuperati Gianluigi Ricuperati: Vladimir Nabokov

any case, maintaining a relationship with

once said that novels are always born

clients is of the utmost importance.

from a “first throb,” a mysterious, internal shudder. When you’re designing

GLR: Do you feel more empowered in your

something, do you experience a first throb

rapport with clients today, compared to

of inspiration? Does it depend on the job?

when you started?

Or are you constantly taking notes and drawings? In short, what is your creative

PU: Yes.

process? GLR: And are you actually more empowered, Patricia Urquiola: My mind is constantly

or do you just feel more empowered?

humming with interests, associations; I’m constantly extending new antennae. My

PU: As far as my thought process is

creative process is a natural, vital part

concerned, I’m less worried about client

of me. It’s with me wherever I go. Then,

relationships today. There’s less tension

of course, there are work situations,

than there once was. If this is what you

opportunities that arise from contracted

mean by empowered, then the answer is yes.

projects. My personal interests and my

I’m calmer now. If I see that they’re

work obligations are connected in a

not interested in a project I just take

very intuitive way. I’m not the kind of

some time; I’m lucky enough to have a

designer who is constantly producing

studio that deals with a wide variety of

new designs, and I don’t relate to that

interests and develops projects on many

kind of process. I stay where I am and I

different scales.

reside with my interests. Then, of course, there are encounters and conversations

GLR: Do you still find yourself proposing

with my collaborators, who always push

things that clients don’t like?

me to consider new approaches. Sometimes I receive definitive briefings, but other

PU: Yes, even though I’m not sure I’d

times the parameters are much more open.

say that they “don’t like” the projects.

Sometimes it’s even the client who needs

Sometimes, for whatever reason, companies

a proposal from me; in that case I figure

aren’t entirely comfortable with more

out how to move forward and I begin. If

experimental pieces. It’s all part of the

someone gives me a briefing that’s too

game. Today I recognize that it is just

rigid, I step back, think about it, then

a normal part of the process, but when I

leave through the window and come back

was younger I really agonized over these

in the front door with another idea.

rejections. Now I understand how stupid

I find conversation very stimulating.

it is to begin a project without the

Sometimes I’ll have a fascinating idea

total support of the client: manufacturing

that fails to materialize, and then later

processes are extremely complicated and

something else comes up and those dormant

if the company isn’t with you one hundred

ideas find a place to flourish. It doesn’t

percent it can become very difficult to

always happen, but it can. Sometimes

work together. It’s an interesting journey

experimenting with a new material, or

when everyone is in the right mindset,

a new technique, will open up a new

but if there’s reluctance on their part,

approach, creating a product that is

everything can get very thorny very fast.

totally different from what was requested. GLR: Some designers think of themselves as GLR: And what happens then?

rock stars, but you seem to have a very different persona.

PU: It depends. If the project still works for the company, or the client, we move

PU: Honestly, I think that after Jasper

forward. If not, we start from scratch. In

Morrison, designers from my generation

Patricia and Gianluigi Recuperati in Perugia for Festarch 2012. Prototypes outside the Publications. All Rights Milan studio.

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Reserved.