COMPATT

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Compatta: note sulla collezione | Compatta: notes on the collection

THE CALL OF EART

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FEDERICA SALA

Design curator

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Federico Peri is a designer with a meditative approach, who has mad

e

simplicity his philosophy of life, with listening central to everythin

g

he does. His human dimension, his innate delicacy and his ability

to observe details also shape and define his creative output. Having

gained a well-deserved place amongst the top newcomers to the

Italian design scene, he works with a variety of companies, showin

g

an impressive abilit

y

to merge into and yet innovate an existing language. His light,

subtle style imbues forms with poetry and offers a new focus on

metacorporeal breathing, a technique and wonderful human capabilit

y

that puts us in touch with our deepest, most genuine identity and our

emotional fabric.

This concept underlies his first partnership in the ceramic

coverings world, after CEDIT’s invitation to exploit the potentials of this

fresh (for him) material

.

He has therefore decided to keep close to the ground, as if

overwhelmed by the force of gravity, and to reply to the call of the

earth, celebrating humankind’s ancestral relationship with raw, unfired

earths, weakened by centuries of civilisation and industrialisation but

now exerting a strong appeal and inspiring renewed curiosity.

Sweeping the horizon, Federico Peri’s gaze is caught not by th

e

raised features which we usually notice when we look at a landscape

,

but by the ground beneath our feet, and the minerals and earths i

t

contains. We are now used to identifying the trees and other above-

the-ground elements of the world around us, but know very little abou

t

what cannot be seen. It is as if we fail to look beneath the surfac

e

of things - and not only in a metaphorical sense.

In contrast, with the Compatta collection Federico Peri switches

the focus back to the Earth (with a capital E) and its primordial rol

e

in the construction of shelters and the creation of vessels and

containers. We are at the dawn of the Anthropocene, and this is the

starting point for Peri, who uses a geologist’s eye and an architect’

s

hand to bring this earthy, alkaline

flavour back into our homes

.

On the one hand, the collection embraces warm and cold shades such a

s

clay, sand, silt and gravel, while on the other it rediscovers the age-old