This is the Parisi catalogue

Brianza like California and Como like Los Angeles – who would ever have thought it? Yet before the fame of furniture makers overshadowed that of designers, the idea might well have been anything but far-fetched, because just as there is the ‘Motor Valley’ in Emilia, a potential ‘Design Valley’ had taken shape between Brianza and Milan in the post-war period. Subsequently, the focus narrowed—or nearly narrowed—to the Milan Design Weeks, with their many performances and few ideas, but that is another story altogether. Meanwhile, between Cantù and Como, one of the most brilliant pairs of Italian designers and architects took shape: Ico and Luisa Parisi, practically the Eameses of Lake Como. While the American design duo had founded, in 1943 at 901 West Washington Boulevard in Venice, Los Angeles, what would become one of the most important and influential design studios of the entire 20th century – the heart of Mid-Century Modern – a few years later, in 1948 to be precise, Ico Parisi and Luisa Aiani opened ‘La Ruota’ in Como, which, unlike the Eames’ studio, was less of a studio and more of a workshop.

In true Italian style, La Ruota is more of a cross between an art gallery and a trattoria, where practical thinking dominates discussions and nothing is left to chance, starting with the friends who drop by, with whom the Parisi family will shape, at 24 Via Diaz, that blend of conceptual and practical work. Joining them are Lucio Fontana, Bruno Munari, Fausto Melotti and Francesco Somaini: architecture, art, design and a critical spirit intertwine in the Parisis’s journey, giving rise to a body of design work that is now fully showcased in the beautiful volume edited by Roberta Lietti, Ico & Luisa Parisi. Glass, ceramics and objects. A catalogue raisonné (Silvana Editoriale), which follows the volume Ico Parisi. Design. Catalogue raisonné 1936–1960, edited in 2017 with Marco Romanelli.

The catalogue thus appears as a journey through an Italy that is freeing itself from fascism, yet which recognises in rationalism the tools and vision necessary for the future. A pupil of Giuseppe Terragni, Ico Parisi is one of the most eclectic masters of Italian design, yet, in collaboration with his wife, he goes beyond the boundaries of design to venture into what might be described as an artist’s work, particularly in his vases, where, thanks to collaborations with the master glassmakers of Murano, the Parisis define new spatial concepts.

The centrality of the Parisi’s design to Italian culture – and beyond – is thus revealed in a volume that showcases what is usually regarded as peripheral to a designer’s output, yet which here contains all the elements of absolute originality: the finest fruit of a continuous interweaving of arts and practices. This blend is often encountered in Italy only at the threshold—between the peripheral and the borderline, far removed from the rhetoric of Milan and even Rome. It represents an extremely contemporary perspective that, through its use of colours and materials, offers a continuous and unfettered possibility of happiness. Long live the Parisi!