stepping into the dreamworld of barnaba fornasetti

Barnaba Fornasetti gives a tour of otherworldly universe

Barnaba Fornasetti meets designboom in the apartmento of the Fornasetti showroom, perched at the corner of Milan’s famed shopping streets, Via Senato and Corso Venezia. After ascending levels of plates, vases, and home décor displayed against the typical blank, monochromatic walls of a showroom, the uppermost floor suddenly bursts into decorative excess. A striking green wall opens the space, appearing at first like marble, though something feels slightly off. On closer inspection, brushstrokes reveal a witty trompe l’œil. Here, the eye is meant to be tricked – to fall into a vortex of Ionic columns with a single glance at a rug – signaling that you’ve stepped into the imaginative universe of Fornasetti, where reality and dream continuously blur.

barnaba fornasetti at casa fornasetti in 2021 | image by Fantacuzzi Galati Cortili

playful characters and archival pieces shape fornasetti world

The milieu of printed characters, whose gaze seems to follow you as you move through the corners of the showroom, feels as though they are plucked from illuminated manuscripts. Despite their wordlessness, they are remarkably loud in the way the tell tales in raised palms and wide eyes. Barnaba, in sharp contrast, is incredibly quiet. Sitting near the spinning record player, in a very soft voice one must lean in to catch, he recounts the stories of the dream-like world of his family and the cultural influences that have created the fable that’s been printed in the porcelains and silks of Fornasetti’s objects.

For the last few decades, Barnaba, the son of the late Piero Fornasetti, has steered the ship as the brand’s artistic director. ‘I try to respect the DNA of the company my father started. The differences are quite minimal and often imperceptible. Sometimes it’s difficult to distinguish what was done before and after leading the company.‘ As Barnaba approaches new objects in the still-growing portfolio, he approaches it as an act of iteration. ‘Even if our archive is extremely vast, it’s often not necessary to make new things,‘ he comments of the contemporary works. ‘We can simply edit, or revisit, the pieces that already exist. At most, we readapt the design to other forms.‘

the desk at casa fornasetti | image courtesy of Fornasetti

casa fornasetti as a treasure trove of dreamy figures

Barnaba is speaking to the internal logic that exists within the design language: blossoming with characters, often rendered in the style of metal plate etching. Within all of its characters and spaces, it’s almost as though a fable stretches over the dozens of faces atop ceramic plates, the families of owls that perch on vases, and the perception-bending hallways that are found on the expanse of a rug. Barnaba points out that ‘there are some more popular figures, like the face of the woman and the neoclassical architecture.’ Then, there are others that are ‘lesser-known details, like the flowers, which [he] would like to feature more,’ as he expands the universe of the brand. The collections of characters are an echo of the family’s historical penchant for collecting objects.

Following in his father’s footsteps, Barnaba still adds to their treasure trove of ‘drinking glasses, vests, masks, vinyl discs, and various other things.’ He sources these additions by visiting mercatini, or street markets, that are full of oddities, antiquities, and knick-knacks. And not just the open-air ones that punctuate the streets of Milan, but also exploring the stands and bazaars of where he finds himself in the world. He shrugs a bit before adding, ‘it depends on the moment.’

the garden at casa fornasetti | image by Guy Hervais courtesy of Fornasetti

gio ponti, orfeo tamburi and more influence visual language

The history of Milan, and even of Italy, is inextricably linked to the history of the Fornasettis. There are stories of how artist Lucio Fontana, and architect and founding editor of Domus magazine, Gio Ponti, would pass through their iconic private residence to print their works. From these stories, one can only imagine the glamorous coterie of Italy’s great creatives that Barnaba bore witness to from a young age. Nevertheless, when asked about these iconic names that knew his father, he gives a soft laugh: ‘I was too young to remember Fontana and the others who would come to the house to print.’ Fornasetti smiles, then recalls, ‘but I do remember Orfeo Tamburi. He would come over and joke with my mother!’

When asked about his dream for the future of the brand, Barnaba points out the incredible number of drawings and paintings that Piero made, ‘from when he was young all the way until the end of his life.’ He talks about creating an exhibition, not just with these works, but also with artists and creators outside of the world of design. Before leaving, Barnaba turns to the spinning record player that’s under a reproduction of the room divider, Stanza Metafisica. A simple ladder and a small flight of stairs lead to niches in an otherwise endless plane. A cast shadow indicates a light source somewhere out of frame, an energy source from beyond that shapes the composition. It was created in 1958 from a design made by Piero Fornasetti, probably within a few years of Barnaba’s birth. Unbothered by the passersby who snap photos of the plush interiors, he gently turns up the knob that controls the volume of the music playing. And then, as silently as he entered this space – this extension of the universe he and his father have built – he leaves the showroom.

butterflies at casa fornasetti | image by Guy Hervais

The Zodiac Suite of the Transatlantic liner, Andrea Doria, 1951 | image courtesy of Fornasetti

preliminary sketch for The Zodiac Suite of the Transatlantic liner, Andrea Doria, 1951 | image courtesy of Fornasetti

the late Piero Fornasetti | image courtesy of Fornasetti

the Fornasetti showroom in Milan | image by Ludovic Balay

project info:

name: Casa Fornasetti & Fornasetti Showroom

brand: Fornasetti | @fornasetti

location: Casa Fornasetti, Città Studi, Milan; Fornasetti Showroom, Via Senato, 2

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