fferrone presents STILL NOW. The Dinner at Villa Mirabello

Felicia Ferrone, founder and creative director of the brand f f e r r o n e, participates at the Milan Design Week with STILL NOW. The Dinner, an installation where creative languages reinterpret time as past and present merge.

Set in the 15th century Villa Mirabello, one of the oldest villas in Milan, never before open to the public during Design Week, the project steams from an imaginative interpretation of a dinner drawing on different inspirations from Renaissance banquets to the still life paintings of the 1600s to the most recent contemporary art references.

STILL NOW. The Dinner unfolds as a monochromatic installation which evokes the still life of the seventeenth century, where everyday objects, enveloped in the iconic ultramarine hue, are distilled down to the essence of their form.

In this absolute and theatrical scenario, Ferrone's glassware creations, contemporary in design, often characterized by some as reminiscent of the past and to others seen as futuristic, emerge from the monochromatic landscape in dialogue, proposing new ways of being through recontextualization and contemporization.

These objects from the early part of the 20th century - found in flea markets and secondhand shops - capture what the designer refers to as ‘Neo-Grannyism’ as an exploration of memory, form, and revalorization to emphasize how good design is a value that transcends obsolescence and our throwaway culture.

Ferrone illustrates how good design can rise above trends, extend the life of an object and give us a new perspective on sustainability while establishing more meaningful connections to our past and present.

This reflection on the assemblage of the objects collected inspired the designer to study still life paintings from the 1600s, which historically depicted glassware, vessels, and other everyday objects.

From this historical study, a collaboration between photographer Jonathan Allen and designer Felicia Ferrone gave life to Ultramarinus: Memories of the future, a series of contemporary still life photographs. These ethereal images highlight the formal qualities of the glassware set off by the monochromatic forms of the everyday objects, inviting us to look at objects differently, through a narrative of beauty and form, reiterating the value of timeless design that translates into a more conscious use and valorization of the objects that surround us.

The photographic series takes its name from the Latin word ultramarinus, meaning 'beyond the sea' as the intense blue pigment derived from the powder of ground lapis lazuli was imported to Europe by Italian traders during the 14th and 15th centuries from what is now known as Afghanistan.