Articles tagged with: design
Food and art is sMART
Pretty, pop, delicious, social. A new exhibit at the MART in Rovereto seems to show that the key to getting people into the museum is to talk about food. Or to talk about food as art, or food in art. How to draw crowds is a dilemma that all museums face now, more than ever, …
Tuscany’s sustainable wool seeks ideas from young designers
Why is this man sitting on the floor of a warehouse full of piles of coloured clothing?
He’s the most important part of a process of wool recycling that takes place in Prato, just a few kilometers from Florence. He’s cutting the zippers and trim off old clothes so that they are pure wool, with no …
Museums in Basel: Modern Art, Architecture and Design
Swiss-born, Tuscan resident Katja Meier delights us with a modern take on Basel in this guest post… just in time for Art Basel (June 14-17, 2012)
In the early 90s I spent a year working at two of Basel’s theaters. These were my first jobs after graduating from Zurich University of the Arts, and whenever I …
Easy Tech: fun design objects at Slow Design until March 25 2011
Until March 25 2011 at Slow Design (a store at Pitti 13r), go check out the really fun creations in the Easy Tech collection by Eva Parigi and Matteo Zetti of ZPSTUDIO. Easy Tech are objects made out of upcycled reused materials so that you end up with a sheet of PVC made into a …
Philippe Starck for Kartell: presentation of new Masters chair
Florence, November 5th at 6:30pm: an invitation to the presentation of Philippe Starck‘s lastest design for Kartell – the Masters Chair. A new object of desire? I may have to sit on it to find out.
The sinuous and curvy open-backed seat is billed as a “summa stilistica” of famous design classics: a space-age version that …
Made in Italy: a ceiling lamp with personality
We just installed our new Frizzi, a ceiling lamp made in Italy by Nemo and designed by Karim Rashid in 2005. It’s our first real design object in the house, if you don’t count designers who work for Ikea.
Frizzi is part of a series called “Living Objects“, and this made me pause to reflect on …
Alessi Objects and Projects, Munich
Alessi: perhaps the most famous brand of Italian design, as well as one of the more accessible (you can own a little piece of modernity for 25 euros).
An exhibit at the International Design Museum in Munich, Alessi Objects and Projects, looks back over the recent decades of Alessi design: the final phase of …
Italian Trend: contemporary design bookshop cafe’s
Lately I’ve noticed a trend that I like very much: the bookshop/library, contemporary design, cafe/restaurant. I mean really, this combines everything I love best! This week I had the fortune of finding two examples of these polyfunctional spaces, and I expect that more will open soon.
Handmade in Florence: Jody Mattioli
I recently met Jody Mattioli, a young artist who designs and hand-makes the most exceptional metal objects. I was struck by the originality of his sole wine rack in particular (see photo), and think it would make an excellent last minute Christmas gift. You can buy his pieces in the ZeroZeroDesign online shop and he …
ArtTrav is a blog about expat life, art, and travel in Italy and Europe. I am Alexandra Korey, a Florence-based art historian turned blogger.
My goal is to help travelers and residents like you experience countries through culture and local living. If it takes geeky, long articles to do that, so be it! 
