Reality or Illusion?

In celebration of New York Design Week 2016, Ferruccio Laviani has created an installation for Foscarini that challenges the mind and begs the question: what is reality and what is illusion? Upon stepping into Foscarini Spazio Soho, visitors will enter a graphic world, resembling an Ames room that gives the sensation of suddenly growing and shrinking proportions. The striking effect, created by a multicolored pattern displayed across surfaces, challenges perspectives. This technique results in the sizes of objects and people seeming larger or smaller than they are in reality. Against this background illusion, the giant versions of Foscarini icons loom over the setting and underline the sense of wonder.

“To create something from nothing is in itself an illusion; to give it volume, to make it physical, is an illusion,” said Ferruccio Laviani. “This installation sets out to challenge our imagination to discover what is real and what is not,” he continued. “The objects on display become deceptive in terms of size and presence: what is reality and what is illusion?” 

The installation is a way for visitors to personally experience and discover the new “extra-large” versions of some of Foscarini’s well-known lamps, such as Big Bang, Spokes and Twiggy. For several years, Foscarini has been reinterpreting its products of greatest character in L and XL versions to furnish large spaces, scaling up their characteristics and personality.

In addition to the Laviani-designed Giants installation, Foscarini will unveil the new Buds collection of lamps, designed by Rodolfo Dordoni. Buds table is a new LED lamp made of a high-density plastic base and a shade created through an elaborate glass blowing technique to optimize the light quality. Innovation of the materials and techniques used to create the lamp, as well as its unique series of three distinct shapes in three colorways makes this lamp a piece of design history to own. Foscarini will also introduce a reengineered series of Buds suspension lamps, redesigned for optimal LED light quality, which will also be presented in three distinct shapes in three colors.