20TH CENTURY DESIGN

19 JANUARY 2021
Auction, 1014
116

Superstudio

Estimate
€ 10.000 / 12.000
Price realized  Registration

Superstudio

Tavolo

struttura in metallo verniciato sfumato dall'oro al rosa, piano in legno laminato bianco

Produzione Italia, 1965 circa

cm 160x160x72

 

 

This table stood in the conference room at the first headquarters of the Superstudio in Piazza di Bellosguardo 1, where I saw it on 1 April 1968 when I stopped by for the first time. The table was crafted by the artisans who collaborated with the three members already composing the group: Adolfo, Cristiano and Roberto. I don’t know who designed it, but the design was intelligent: it was the first such table I had seen which did not stand on a central column; despite this fact, the legs did not constitute an impediment to the legs of the people seated around it. The table incorporated elements from the Superstudio’s work: the legs, for example, were made of pipes left over from outfitting the MACH2 discotheque in Via Torta near Piazza Santa Croce, and finished with the paint used on the lighting tracks that characterised the club’s interior – as shown in the photo. The first stages of creative work at the Superstudio were carried out around this table; this is where the Monumento Continuo and the environment for the MoMa show were conceived. This was the site of our broken-off interview with the Newsweek journalist who fled, calling us ‘Radicals!’; the anecdote, recounted to Germano Celant, may be said to have originated the denomination of the entire ‘movement’. Above all, it was in front of this table that Christian used a self-timer to snap the first official photo of us all and it was on it that our Hidden Architecture was photographed.

- Gian Piero Frassinelli

 

A TABLE, METAL STRUCTURE, LAMINATE WOOD TOP