Design & Italy: Ron Arad
[English & Italy]
Edited By Alba Cappellieri
August 2008
Mondadori Electa
Distrubuted by Trans-Atlantic Publications Inc.
ISBN: 9788837051518
107 pages, Illustrated
$24.50 Paper Original
"A mutant artist, designer and architect" is how Alba Cappellieri describes Ron Arad, Israeli by birth (Tel Aviv, 1951) but British by adoption and an outsider on the international design scene. His works can be linked to a small number of formal references, design matrixes that Arad redevelops with clever shifts of meaning and value, altering the technology and material - from steel to plastic - and transforming limited editions into industrial products.
From his first project in 1981, the legendary Rover Chair, handmade in his One Off studio in London, to bestsellers such as the Bookworm (Kartell) and the Wavy Chair (Moroso), to his interiors (the Maserati Showroom and the Hotel Puerta America) and his architecture (for example, the Opera House in Tel Aviv and the recent Mediacite in Liege) this book illustrates the stages in a success where art design and architecture move spontaneously though each other, exploring heterogeneous market segments to the same effect. What emerges indirectly is the systemic culture of a country - Italy - that brings design process and production together and was the first to recognise and support Ron Arad's talent.
