MASK | GamFratesi

For the whimsical, expressive installation MASK, we wanted to restrict ourselves to using a single element, made entirely from textile. The repetition will create a playful installation that highlights colour. Textile is the ‘mask’ of a piece of furniture: it changes its personality or makes it act in an unexpected way. We play with the iconic shape and expression of ancient masks. As an ancient human artefact common to many cultures, masks are not only used in ceremonies, but hold different meanings for protection and ritual as well as being used as ornamentation and for performance. Our aim was to emphasise the celebration of textile through this antique tradition.

Apart from being a textile we often use for our furniture and interior designs, we appreciate the honest construction and natural colour palette of Canvas. This associates well with the natural materiality of ancient masks, usually carved in wood instead of being decorated with several colours.

GamFratesi

GamFratesi is a Copenhagen-based design studio. Stine Gam (Denmark, 1975) trained as an architect and has an MA in furniture design. Enrico Fratesi (Italy, 1978) trained as an architect and has an MA in industrial design. Gam and Fratesi gained experience in architecture studios in Japan and Scandinavia before establishing their own design studio in 2006. Both designers travel extensively to develop and research new projects. Their design takes its creative drive from a fusion of tradition and renewal, and an experimental approach to materials and techniques.

Drawing on their own background, the designers are inspired by Danish furniture and craft traditions as well as the Italian intellectual and conceptual approach. They create furniture that respectfully reflects tradition while featuring embedded stories, symbols and associations, often expressed in a minimalist idiom.

The studio has received numerous awards, including the Elle Deco International Design Award (EDIDA), International Young Designer of the Year 2013, Finn Juhl Prize 2015, Vico Magistretti Award by De Padova, finalist in the Compasso D’Oro and the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture Good Design Award. GamFratesi’s work has been included in exhibitions at the Triennale di Milano and Palazzo Litta Milano, and solo shows at the Danish Museum of Art & Design, Copenhagen, and at Trapholt (Museum of Modern Art and Design) Kolding.

Their exhibition Mindcraft was shown at the Istituto filologico and at San Simpliciano in Milan, at the Danish Embassy in Tokyo and at Design Miami/Basel. GamFratesi collaborates with international companies including Cappellini, Kvadrat, Hermès, Ligne Roset, Porro, Gubi, Gebruder Thonet Vienna, Louis Poulsen, Fredericia and Axor.

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