MATERIALIA

Church of San Marco dei Sabariani in Santa Teresa, Benevento

SWING Design Gallery is pleased to announce MATERIALIA, an exhibition presented in the deconsecrated Church of San Marco dei Sabariani in Santa Teresa di Benevento, under the Patronage of the University of Sannio and the Benevento Delegation of the Fondo Ambientale Italiano (FAI). The gallery, founded and directed by Angela da Silva, will present eleven designers from around the world—all of them women—in an extraordinary space located in the historic city center. The splendid seventeenth-century church, which with few exceptions has been closed to the public since 1980, will open its doors to some of the most compelling actors in the emerging contemporary design scene, for an exhibition that explores material in its many aspects. In a meeting of ancient and modern, the church’s many-colored marbles and stuccos will be put in dialogue with new fibers and forms: An architectural jewel of the past will converse with contemporary objects in a curation that brings together designers divergent in style but alike in the investigative, experimental approach they take to materials and processes of production. The exhibit explores the depth of technical possibilities, both aesthetic and conceptual, in the nature of the works: from Birgit Severin‘s rubber vases—a metaphor for the caducity of existence—created using a combination of 3D printing and free-hand modeling, to Alissa Volchkova‘s reworking of Wedgwood’s famous china—metamorphoses of industrial production into unique and precious objects; from Ilaria Bianchi‘s seating designs covered in a fabric that is extracted from stone—blending artisanal upholstery with innovative technology—to Lucia Massari‘s glass collage plates; from Ahryun Lee‘s tactile bottles—materializations of the tastes and memories of childhood—to textile designs by Studio Haze (Sarah Linda Forrer & Stella Derkzen) that celebrate the beauty of nature as told through the dissection of a flower; from Ariane Prin‘s creations with metallic dust that, as it rusts, causes the work to take on unexpected resemblances to Elisa Strozyk‘s wooden textiles that transform in the space in unexpected ways; and from Jenny Nordberg‘s mirrors—a perfect marriage of socially conscious design and innovation—to Jungin Lee‘s sculptural seating design—fragile “presences,” inspired by origami,that celebrate the essence of the materials and the beauty of irregular forms. MATERIALIA brings together past and present, attesting to how the contemporary is an amalgam of layerings and permeations, simultaneous presence and an unceasing relationship to history.