FATTOBENE

FATTOBENE , the research and promotion platform for timeless Italian objects, will debut at Milan Design week in VIA PALERMO, 1 in the centre of the Brera Design District. FATTOBENE has been invited by Internoitaliano to ponder over the theme of ‘Italianism’, to create a dialogue with Lanificio Leo and Matteo Ragni’s Tobeus on a common passion for beauty and quality. FATTOBENE will offer a small atlas of icons, to create a journey through the fabric of Italian heritage  within the rooms of Via Palermo 1.

FATTOBENE selected the objects for Via Palermo 1 based on beauty, longevity, and unique design.

The event wants to highlight their stories, and to closely appreciate their quality through direct experience. As the website founders explain, “Over here even the most humble object, like a glue or a notebook, can become a source of wonder. Our aim is to help people discover it”.

The exposition corner will show: Valobra soap (Genoa, since 1903), Eritrea scented paper (Piacenza, since 1927), Marvis toothpaste (Florence, since 1908), Nautilus candle (Leghorn, since 1885), Coccoina glue (Voghera, since 1927), Tassotti notebooks (Bassano del Grappa, since 1957), Zenith 548 stapler (Voghera, since 1948), Cifra 3 clock (Solari of Udine, since 1966), Tre Spade coffee grinder (Forno Canavese, since 1894), a set of traditional pasta tools and Leone Pills (Turin, since 1857).

Through this special journey the objects perform a group-storytelling of Italy. And so we discover that the almond scent of Coccoina glue is an idea by Aldo Balma to appeal his clientele, while in the same year Vittoriano Casanova, pharmacist, is making Eritrea scented paper, a special “therapeutic mix” to benefit nervous ailments.

Many entrepreneurs gamble on innovation between the nineteenth and twentieth century. In 1903  Virgilio Valobra has an intuition: individually packaged bars of soap in elegant art-deco boxes. Meanwhile in Florence Ludovico Martelli launches shaving creams and lotions capable of influencing emerging grooming rituals, while in Piedmont the Bertoldo Brothers establish the brand Tre Spade and create “the perfect grinder”, a little cast iron wonder to preserve the fresh aroma of coffee.
During the same years the Navy in Leghorn contracts Graziani waxworks to make a candle ‘that won’t drip at sea’, and the company comes up with a candle with a hollowed out tip that naturally collects the melting wax. And in Turin Luigi Leone is busy making his eponymous candy,  becoming the official supplier to the Royal House, and carving a place in Italian rituals of that century.

The post-war economic boom gives us Zenith staplers, which revolutionizes office mores by ‘shooting’ staples with millimetric precision, and Cifra 3 clocks, a cult hit with design lovers, project by Gino Valle, architect, and lettering by Massimo Vignelli.

Finally there are ‘archetypes’, such as pasta tools, mini-sculptures recreated in lavish detail by tagliapasta.com; or notebooks, like the ones Tassotti historical printing house makes using the patterns of the 17th century Remondini archive: true graphic-art masterpieces, and a testament to the abilities of the Italian gaze since time immemorial.

FATTOBENE in Via Palermo, 1 Brera Design District
Via Palermo will host FATTOBENE’s showroom & special temporary store where some of the objects displayed as well as BOX N.1, a collection of five iconic products matched to their stories, will be available for sale. 

TUESDAY 12, WEDNESDAY 13, THURSDAY 14, SATURDAY 16: 10 am to 9 pm
FRIDAY 15: for Brera Design District Night, 10 am to 10 pm
SUNDAY 17: 10 am to 5 pm