For Salone del Mobile 2022, SIZED and Antonio Forteleoni—a Sardinian-born, Los Angeles/New York-based architect and designer—collaborated on an installation encompassing the windows of Forteleoni's Milan studio, with seven new works on display. The exhibition was on view from the street for a total of 168 hours straight, shifting its illumination between dusk and dawn. Visitors were welcomed and encouraged to participate with the installation at multiple moments through day and night and the duration of the show.
Starting with a single sheet of galvanized steel, Forteleoni explores and seeks new manifestations that meld prehistoric idioms with futuristic expressions. Referencing the traditional shapes of the Nuragic Sardinian sculptures from the final phase of the Bronze Age and the early Iron Age, Forteleoni applies an architectural approach to the seven works on display—four lamps, a table, a vase, and a stool. This architectural approach of subtraction is followed by the addition of the subtracted forms to create a functional element.The pieces are produced entirely by Forteleoni in Sardinia from hot dip galvanized steel.
The decision to work with this material was inspired by the French sculptor Jacques Couelle's modern residences found on the North Shores of Sardinia. The process and materials are also a direct reference to the final works of Isamu Noguchi, who worked on a series of pieces using hot dip galvanized steel for his exhibition at GEMINI G.E.L. in Los Angeles in the 1980s. After the work is galvanized they are patinated with water from the Mediterranean Sea—a final nod to Forteleoni's hometown.
Forteleoni also looked to the work of Sardinian born sculptor, Costantino Nivola, who began his career creating “sculpture for architecture,” working alongside the great masters of Modernism. In 1954, Nivola's bas relief for the Olivetti Showroom in New York City marked the beginning of the success of Italian production on the other side of the Atlantic. His career was also influenced by his life-long friendship with the Swiss architect Le Corbusier, his houseguest on Corbusier's rare trips to the U.S.