Gaetano Pesce: Abstraction is boring
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"Abstraction is boring and limited as a mode of expression. Reducing and reducing designs means that at the end you have nothing. Strong, straightforward images are more powerful. Minimalism was an important step in the creation of modern design, but it´s over. It´s good for IKEA and places like that, but has very little to do with design. Design is now about making something richer than minimalism."

Gaetano Pesce was born in 1939 in La Spezia, Italy, and studied architecture and industrial design in Venice from 1959 until 1965 in Venice. He lived in Padua until 1967, where he worked as an artist and filmmaker. He has designed for companies such as Cassina, B & B Italia, Bernini, and Knoll International. His architectural work includes the Organic Building of Osaka, the Children’s House for Parc de la Villette, the Gallery Mourmons in Belgium, and the office for the New York advertising of agency TBWAChiatDay.

In all his work, he expresses his guiding principle: that modernism is less a style than a method for interpreting the present and hinting at the future in which individuality is preserved and celebrated.
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"The future of design is not in standardised products, but rather in unique pieces. When I made the Sansone for Cassina, I remember people coming into the showroom and saying "We want that table." But they couldn't have it; I could make them something similar, but not exactly the same. I was inspired by a beautiful story from Japan about ten teacups: the first one was perfect; the second had a little fault; the third, a few more faults. The last one was like a rag: uttery destroyed. The story says that the first one was the least expensive, while the last one was so expensive that only the emperor could afford it. Why? Because that last one was the most full of personality. Design should be unique and sublime."
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