Roberto Sironi
Simone Cenedese

Roberto Sironi is a Milan-based Italian designer born in 1983. His design practice is defined by a research-based and process-oriented approach, where thinking and making converge in the creation of artefacts according to a narrative dimension that incorporates anthropological, archaeological and geographical references. This approach materialises through a body of work that breaks with the primary function by blurring the boundary between functional object and sculpture. His works are conceived as contemporary ultra-signs, where the transformation processes re-signify matter, revealing its hidden qualities and giving it new meanings. He is fascinated by materials and their origin, considering them to be bearers of knowledge in their essence. His studio, founded in 2015, embraces different types of design such as bespoke, installation design, research and design consultancy, through collaboration with institutions, art galleries, companies and private clients. Roberto Sironi also combines his practice with teaching and research at the Design Department of the Politecnico di Milano, where his work focuses on new design-driven technologies.

Simone Cenedese, born in Murano in 1973, grew up in the furnace founded by his father Giovanni in the 1970s. Giovanni Cenedese’s glassworks immediately established itself as an excellence in artistic glassmaking and, thanks to the talent of Simone, a tireless experimenter, it has become an international reference point for many artists and designers wishing to explore and give shape to their ideas. One example of this is the enduring collaboration with Laura de Santillana (1955–2019), an international glassmaking icon. Together with Simone Cenedese, then a talented young glass master, the artist developed her first flat shapes—the famous “philosophical shapes”. Simone has succeeded in applying a modern, 
up-to-date style and design to a very old material. From this combination, only seemingly at odds, come the works of this young and dynamic artist, designer and craftsman. He experiments a great deal with colour in his sculptures, vases and chandeliers, using more than forty dyes obtained from long-treasured recipes—nothing banal has ever come out of his furnace.