Design – The NOMAD CIRCLE travelling showcase returns to the Italian island of Capri to celebrate collectible design and contemporary art at the historic 4th-century monastery Certosa di San Giacomo. Vaulted rooms, magnificent cloisters, vibrant gardens, and splendid views of the Mediterranean Sea frame installations and exhibitions of international artists, designers and galleries. Check what we liked the most at NOMAD Capri 2023.
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As part of the Art in Flux, a year-long curatorial project and journey in collaboration with Gucci, Cedric Mizero presents Ikibibi, a conceptual installation celebrating the unchosen moments of life. The Rwandan artist is known for collapsing the local and global into a universal and deeply human message. In Capri, he explores the connection between the past and the present, symbolised by a birthmark, a scar created by the DNA of one’s pre-life existence. Through visual representations, the artwork invites reflection on personal narratives and the beauty found in the unchosen aspects of our lives.
Nina Yashar, style arbiter and founder of Milan-based Nilufar Gallery, presents the new eclectic Clora collection by Italian designer Christian Pellizzari. Ethereal flowers made from Murano blown-glass climb the walls and breathe life into the space highlighting how Nature resiliently adapts to climate change.
Nilufar also introduces the Acquario collection by Analogia Project, evoking the frothy surface of a restless sea. The series explores the transposition of the natural world into the domestic realm. Analogia Project’s Andrea Mancuso uses ceramic and glass to create an artificial oceanographic landscape, with items resembling branches of fictitious corals and invented aquatic plant life.
For NYC gallery Friedman Benda, American artist Misha Khan has created a bulbous creature rising in the Certosa di San Giacomo’s central cloister. Through a wildly imaginative approach that embraces spontaneity and non-conformity, Kahn allows the illogical and the irreverent to take over his process. The piece is made by harnessing lo-fi and ad hoc techniques – such as improvisational moulds and collage—to virtual reality.
Chahan Gallery from Paris debuts at NOMAD with the project Cruise. Chahan Minassian creates a room in a cream, turquoise, and bronze palette. The installation plays with oxidations and textures, which echo the idyllic atmosphere of the island of Capri.
Piacenza-based gallery Volumnia presents a harmonious composition of Italian historical design furniture and ceramic pieces from the ‘30s to ‘70s. The Gritti bookcase by Andrea Branzi for Memphis, 1981, is at the centre of the display.
Italian architect Michele De Lucchi of aMDL Circle presents Bronzes, an exhibition about his latest artistic research: three bas-reliefs from the series Ideographic Architectures and three sculptures from the Haystacks series that highlight the material as a new protagonist. De Lucchi reflects on the potential of bronze and transposes some of his architectural models, which have always been sculpted in wood.