Seriously playing the game of design
So for this edition of Doppia Firma, we have allowed ourselves to be seduced by the evocative power of “playfulness” as a tongue-in-cheek, at times detached artistic attitude, and as an actual game. We have invited 24 designer and artisan duos to play this doubles match with us, to submit or create works that arouse a sense of surprise and curiosity in the visitors.
Play has long been a metaphor for many types of actions: chess is, after all, a tactical intelligence test played out on a small battlefield. Card games are often based on strategies and cunning. Boardgames call for alliances, predictions and a certain amount of unscrupulousness. And generally speaking, they all involve one decisive factor: a relationship. You can play on your own, but playing with someone else is always better.
The designers and artisans selected for this edition of Doppia Firma have played (albeit very seriously) together to experiment with colours, techniques, materials and forms that have taken them outside their comfort zones. Each piece conceals a secret, or represents a message to be discovered, or it reveals unexpected information that captures the attention of the visitors.
The playfulness we aim to celebrate is, for us, a light-hearted yet serious means of placing creative work under the spotlight. Whether it’s the work of the designers or of the artisans, their talent and the dialogue in which they have engaged have allowed both to acquire expertise to the point they no longer even remember the effort involved in the technique; instead, they can just revel in the joy of making.
Work is no game. It is commitment, at times even sacrifice, and above all it is something that stimulates our intelligence and enhances our humanity. We are not insects, we are human beings: we creatively transform the world around us so it consciously represents us.
But for these duos of designers and master artisans that pay tribute to Italian traditions whilst also expressing international visions, work always has the stimulating energy of “ludus”, of play: not to waste time or pass the time, but to experience a more intense way of doing things, of improving and earning one’s living. For this very reason, it keeps their hearts young, their minds elastic, their eyes alive.
And this is what arouses the sense of admiration in visitors discovering the key to the success of authorial design at Palazzo Litta: the happiness of doing something wonderful, and doing it well.