roberto sironi’s rare marble collection at carwan gallery alludes to prehistoric structures

‘aphanès’ by roberto sironi at carwan gallery 

Carwan Gallery unveils a new collaboration with Italian designer Roberto Sironi — a collection of sculptural marble furniture created in dialogue with Italian marble editor Palmalisa Zantedeschi. Titled ‘Aphanès’, the exhibition marks a new direction in Sironi’s formal language while expanding on topics explored in his previous work, such as the history of architecture, a research-based methodology, and a fascination with ancient and prehistoric material culture. ‘Aphanès’ comprises a bench, side tables, coffee tables and low tables, a console, and a desk —all cut from blocks of rare marble in super-limited editions. 

turning rare marble into stone age-inspired assemblages

Drawing inspiration from Stone Age megalithic architecture, ‘Aphanès’ by Roberto Sironi (see more here) deploys the simplicity of structural archetypes to expose the richness of the material, namely an extremely limited reserve of rare marble featuring exquisite patterns and colors. It is a novel body of work that continues the designer’s research-based approach, also evident in RUINS (the first Carwan commission by the designer, developed between 2018-2021), where he investigated industrial and classical architectural remains from the Mediterranean to create assemblages of their fragments.

In this latest collection, the designer goes back to the very beginnings of human aspirational building culture by referencing the Dolmen, prehistoric stone-table structures. As a result, the monolithic assemblages exude an aura of ritual and mystery, sparking a visual short circuit, as their minimalist forms contrast the vibrant surface of the marble.

At the heart of the project lies a reverence for the material itself: the two selected stones were extracted decades ago from no longer active quarries without specific information about their geographical origin. The material’s most prominent feature is, of course, its unique internal structure that, with the appropriate cutting and finishing, reveals exquisite patterns and shapes in an arresting kaleidoscope of yellows, greens, and purples. More so, each object is handmade near Verona, in Italy’s leading marble region, using custom finishing by hand to highlight the details of the material itself and expose the beauty hidden inside the stone.

revealing what is hidden 

‘This process of revealing what is hidden within the stone lends the project its title, with aphanès (αφανές) being an Ancient Greek word meaning that which does not appear, is hidden. In that sense, the design process becomes one of exposing the ‘nude nature’ of the stone, with an emphasis on allowing what nature has formed over millions of years to show,’ writes Carwan Gallery. The result of more than two years of research and careful work with the available material, Roberto Sironi’s micro-megalithic meditations respect the original formation process of these stones, with the understanding that their intricate patterns are a visual documentation of the history of the earth itself. 

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exhibition info:

name: Aphanès 

location: Carwan Gallery | @carwangallery, Athens, Greece 

design: Roberto Sironi

marble supply: Palmalisa Zantedeschi | @palmalisa_zantedeschi

photography: George Sfakianakis | @g_sfakianakis, Federico Villa | @federicovillastudio

exhibition dates: May 5 – June 18, 2023