At Design Miami/Basel in Switzerland last month, Gallery Libby Sellers presented a solo show of work by Eindhoven-based designers Simone Farresin and Andrea Trimarchi.
Collectively known as Formafantasma, the duo unveiled a textile series titled “Colony”. Specifically commissioned by Gallery Libby Sellers and the Audax Textielmuseum in the Netherlands, "Colony" is an extension of their critically acclaimed “Moulding Tradition” ceramic series.
The mutual starting point of both these projects is the very topical, geo-political issues of migration, assimilation and the historical cross-flow of cultural currents between North Africa and Italy.
“Colony” narrated the traces of Italian colonialism in Libya, Eritrea and Somalia. Old map, new maps, historic dates, contemporary news and modernist architecture were all woven together to create new visual and conceptual patterns.
Gallery Libby Sellers explained that Formafantasma “collated data as both the physical material with which they layer their designs as well as a theoretical compass to chart changing perceptions of production techniques, artistic heritage and the notion of 'tradition in a globalised context".
