gufram / the rock furniture

gufram / italian design history / 1968 and the radical spirit of turin anti-design / the polyurethane 'multiples' / artist piero gilardi .......................................

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gufram / the rock furniture

castello di rivoli, rivoli (turin), italy
may 22 - september 1, 2002
http://www.castellodirivoli.org
http://www.gufram.com
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the gufram'multiples', produced from 1967 to 1976
are icons of italian radical anti-design -
a general survey of transgressions,
rejections of mere functionality and its formalism.

gufram is a small italian company based in turin.
founded in 1952 as an artisan firm and specialized in
chair production, under the direction of the gugliermetto
brothers 'gufram' took on its current name in 1966
(gu-fra-m / gugliermetto-fratelli-mobile),
and began producing design furnishings
(same year of the founding of two other important radical
groups in northern italy: archizoom and superstudio).

polyurethane
- from the military industry and the automobil sector to
furniture production - around 1970 the invention of the
cold press moulding system was a huge success.
polyurethane material was definitely cause for great
enthusiasm. this extremly versatile material was suitable
for a range of uses from naturalistic mimesis to self
generating metamorphoses. painted or in many cases
the foam was used with a self-skin which finished the
manufactured product.

multiples series
with an emphasis on creative freedom over the functional
demands imposed by production, gufram took part
of the radical movements of the late sixtees .
these design objects showed the many influences of pop art,
conceptual art, illusionism, naturalism and ... irony.

the 'multiples' series began in 1967 with a collaboration
with italian artist piero gilardi.
gilardi designed the first series of 'sassi' (stones) in 1968.
in 1971 giorgio ceretti, pietro derossi and riccardo rosso,
members of the architectural group 'strum', designed the
'pratone' (large lawn), a seating unit, a well-chosen example
of hypertrophic nature in the form of a rug that resembled
an overgrown lawn.
that same year saw the introduction of the 'bocca' (mouth),
a sofa-sculpture inspired by a painting by salvator dalì -
mae west's face, which can be used as a surrealist apartment.
'cactus', the clothes-stand, was brought out in 1972,
designed by guido drocco and franco mello
(the curator of this exhibition).
all these objects shot to prominence in the domestic furniture
industry. the 'multiples' series are still produced in limited
numbers.

italy : a new domestic landscape
gufram was immediately pounced on by the media,
and came to international attention in 1972 with
the new york exhibition 'italy : a new domestic landscape'
at the MoMa - museum of modern art.

'recognizing that the object in our society often serves as a
fetish, some designers underscore that quality by assigning
to their designs an explicitly ritualistic quality.
the object is given sculptural form and conceived as an
altarpiece for the domestic liturgy.
other designers seek neither to add anything to, nor to
alter, the profile of our environment; they use the device
of giving their designs the guises of nature'...
confronted with the erosion of the simplistic doctrine of
functionalism, some designers produce objects whose function
is not evident from their form, and whose structural properties,
in fact, contradict the behavior one would expect from that form.
in such cases, no longer does 'form follow function' but,
on the contrary, it aggressively conceals it.
(from the catalogue -
italy : a new domestic landscape, moma, new york, 1972)

with this exhibition this radical movement was pensioned off
and consigned to a museum, the home of all mummified creations.

politically active groups /
in the belief that design can change the world
the fun-foam production by gufram played a prominent
role in the development of design in the early seventies.
the turin artists, designers and architects focused on a
'political' protest culture.

the 'capitello' an anti-classicist metaphorical initiative by
studio 65 destroyed the noblest part in classical art,
the 'head', and, by placing it on the floor the 'capitello'
had become a seat.
burdening the object with more general meanings in a
formally provocative manner appears to be the original
vocation of counter-design, but not its final destination.
it may have been the printed page...

the artists, designers and the the manufacturer were not
in any doubt about the 'mundane' function of the limited
edition products which, by their very nature, were not likely
to satisfy the demands of the general public.
they were purchased by art collectors, and as in the best
antiquarian tradition, the valutation of these objects rocketed
sky high.