analecta romana instituti danici xxxiv - Det Danske Institut i Rom

ANALECTA ROMANAINSTITUTI DANICIXXXIV

ContentsLuigi Pedroni: Roma, Luna e i Liguri 7sisse tanderup: The Georg Jensen and Alessi Design. 19A comparative analysis focusing on the use of memoryManlio Lilli: “... super possessione cuisdam Costae Montis, qui dicitur Genzano” 39Popolamento dell’area dell’abitato moderno di Genzano di Roma tra l’età repubblicanae la media età imperiale

The Georg Jensen and Alessi DesignA comparative analysis focusing on the use of memoryby Sisse TanderupAbstract. The dimension of memory has become a central theme within several fields of research, including architecture,philosophy, psychology and medicine. However, memory has not yet been explored more substantially asan independent identity category in design research. This article deals with the use of the memory theme in designexamples from the two companies Georg Jensen and Alessi. Italian design practice is characterized by a traditionof involving memory categories from Italian history, philosophy, art and tradition in the design process. Alessi’smotivation for involving the concept of memory is that it adds a cultural dimension to the design objects, enablingthe objects to make an identity-forming impact. Compared to this, Danish and Scandinavian design practice hastraditionally focused on form and function with frequent references to the forms of nature. This does not necessarilymean that the memory theme does not form a part of Danish design. Whereas memory is used deliberately inItalian design, it is perhaps manifested more intuitively as a non-culturally generated memory in Danish design, amemory, which is founded in the organic, in nature metaphors.Recent investigations within psychology researchstate that there is a connection betweensensation, feeling, pleasure, emotion andmemory in the formation of experience.Material culture studies, for example withinanthropology, medicine and the naturalsciences, deal with the relationship betweenmemory objects and memory places. In contemporaryresearch in cultural heritage andcollective memory it is presupposed that materialthings can have a symbolic as well asa material capacity for connecting past andpresent and for pointing towards the future.Similarly, it has become a widespread opinionthat the act of collecting, keeping andpreserving also implies creating something,for example a special identity or history.It is primarily within the architectural,sociological, philosophical, psychological,archaeological, and literary researchdisciplines that the dimension of memoryhas become a central theme. Until recently,memory has only been referred to as an extraaspect of the identity forming elementsin design, for example in Tim Dant’s bookMaterial Culture in the Social World (1999),Grant McCracken’s Culture and Consumption(1988) and Donald A. Norman’s EmotionalDesign. Why we love (or hate) EverydayThings (2004). Memory has not yetbeen explored more substantially and exhaustivelyas an independent identity categoryin design research.The concept of “memory design” refersto the idea that design carries the potential toform identity. Memory requires consciousness- the ability of abstraction and reflection,and at the same time it requires intui-

20 Sisse Tanderuption and empathy. Some forms appeal moreto the user than other forms, which may besocially and culturally determined. Furthermoredesign first becomes memory designover time. Memory is bonded with storytelling. Both in the way the designer tellsa story through his design and in the waythe user recognizes the story in his perceptionof design. Memory design first requiresrecognition and then cognition. Recognitionis emotional whereas cognition is based onan experience, which is both culturally andnon-culturally founded.In a globalizing world people may worrythat differences in national identity are neutralized.The present article emanates fromthe assumption that there, in fact, are nationaldifferences in the use of the concept ofmemory in design.In the following analyses of design objectsfrom the Italian company Alessi andthe Danish company Georg Jensen I will investigatethe use of the memory theme in design.Italian design practice is characterizedby a tradition of involving memory categoriesfrom Italian history, philosophy, art andtradition in the design process. Alessi’s motivationfor involving the concept of memoryis that it adds a cultural dimension to the designobjects, enabling the objects to make anidentity-forming impact. Compared to this,Danish and Scandinavian design practicehas traditionally focused on form and functionwith frequent references to the formsFig. 1. Humberto and Fernado Campana, blow-up citrus basket 2004 (photo: Alessi).

22 Sisse Tanderupgets his existence through the objects thatthe city throws out. In the process of collectingthe rag picker catalogues what hasbeen lost and forgotten. 4 In his GesammelteSchriften Benjamin explains that the ragpicker does not collect at random. The ragpicker shows loyalty to individual objectsthat have been collected and saved by him.Through his act of collecting he expressesa protest against the typical, all which canbe classified. Walter Benjamin explains that“collecting is a kind of practical memory”. 5In Das Passagen Werk Benjamin describeshow he sees the rag picker as a magicianwho sees through the collected objects andinto their past and history. To him collectingis a primitive form of studying. The collectorcan assume various guises: child, memoirwriter, researcher, antiquarian or flaneur.What characterizes the collector is that hehas a special eye for things. With his sensitivitytowards things he promotes a profoundlydemocratic attitude to the materialworld because no objects stand above otherobjects. This can only be seen as a critiqueof what is. 6 When Humberto and FernandoCampana remind us of the back side of culture,of the forgotten people – the poor people,by transforming it into design we as usersbecome aware of what we tend to forget.A designer can thus work as a kind of collectorin his design process through his sourcesof inspiration. In a Benjamin-sense, a collectionfirst gains meaning when designersthrough their design pass on stories that canbe recognized by the user, provoking a largerawareness. Tim Dant writes that “Collectingis a passionate rather than a functionalform of possession”. 7 He cites Belk:Collecting is the process of actively, selectively,and passionately acquiring andpossessing things removed from ordinaryuse and perceived as part of a set of nonidenticalobjects or experiences. 8If a nest is moved from a tree and into ourliving rooms it is deformed. It is no longercapable of protecting eggs. It is apparentlyintended to function as a fruit basket. However,it no longer hides and protects its contents.It reveals and exhibits it. In this waythe functional aspect is set aside in favour ofthe reflective aspect in the design process.Donald A. Norman writes in his book Emotionaldesign (2005) that:Reflective design considers the rationalizationand intellectualization of a product.Can I tell a story about it? Does itappeal to my self-image, to my pride? …A favourite object is a symbol, setting upa positive frame of the mind, a reminderof pleasant memories, or sometimes anexpression of one’s self. And this objectalways has a story, a remembrance, andsomething that ties personally to this particularobject, this particular thing. 9... Reflective design covers a lot of territory.It is all about the message, about cul-

The Georg Jensen and Alessi Design 23ture, and about the meaning of a productor its use. For one, it is about the meaningof things, the personal remembrance somethingevokes. For another, very differentthing, it is about the message a productsend to others. 10However, Norman is mistaken when he assumesthat a favourite object only evokespositive memories. The fruit basket is morecomplex in its duplicity. It evokes a culturecriticalconsciousness in the user if it is interpretedas a protest against the fact that we, inthe Western World, take luxury products forgranted, a luxury that the poor people in theBrazilian streets cannot afford. In this waythe basket becomes a carrier of our culturewhile at the same time representing the oppositeof culture: Nature.Georg Jensen and memoryThe basket “Silverbody” (Fig. 2) by theDanish goldsmith Kim Buck was designedfor Georg Jensen in 2003. The reference toa bird’s nest is more evident than seen withthe basket by the two Brazilians as the silvertendrils are bent inwards in Kim Buck’sversion. The title “Silverbody” is a play onthe Danish word for hollowware (korpusarbejde,literally body work). At the same timethe title points out the bodily and sensuousand aspect of the design. The basket is constructedby numerous silver tendrils thatinteract organically as the network of strawin a nest. The winding and organic tendrilsdiffer from the angular and spiky basket byFig. 2. Kim Buck, Silverbody 2002 (photo: Georg Jensen).

24 Sisse TanderupAlessi. Through a more natural design theshape reminds even more of a bird’s nest.The round shape is an expression of life accordingto Bachelard, who in The Poetics ofSpace writes that...images of full roundness help us tocollect ourselves, permit us to confer aninitial construction on ourselves, and toconfirm our being intimately, inside. Forwhen it is experienced from the inside,devoid of all exterior features, being cannotbe otherwise than round. 11The shape appears light, almost floating,soft and flexible, thereby differing significantlyfrom a more classical hammered silverbowl by Georg Jensen. Its body of silvertendrils yields for pressure. At the same timethe basket signals slowness as constructingit is time-consuming. Through this designKim Buck perhaps tells that permanenceand slowness need protection in our society.It must be possible to formulate such protectionwithout it turning into an idealization ofpre-industrial society. Design objects meansomething to us as they form a part of ouruser identity. They tend to sneak into ourlives as much more than just objects. As regardsAlessi the designers deliberately thinkthe dimension of memory into the designobjects. In this way the addition of meaningforms a part of the idea phase. This, however,implies a risk that the design becomessomewhat strained. After all, it is not evidentthat the Alessi basket evokes memoriesof poverty in the streets of Brazil becausethe basket is a luxury article, and it is difficultto connect luxury with poverty. In thecase of Georg Jensen the designers work ata more intuitive level, and it is thus moreup to the user to read a meaning in the object.Kim Buck’s basket does not point atthe forgotten people of culture as the twoBrazilians do with their basket. Memory ismerely expressed in Danish design as a nonculturallygenerated memory, which is anchoredin the organic, in nature metaphors.There is a returning use of the organic formsof nature, right from Georg Jensen’s preferencefor birds and insects in his silver jewelry,Henning Koppel’s three pots 12 that remindof swans in motion where the handlesform abstract wings, and to Allan Scharff’sbird pot ”Ibis” from 1990 that stretches itsneck standing. The bird is pinioned withoutits wings. It can only fly in a figurativesense when lifted and used. Nature as a motifevolves with time. Whereas the motif iseasily recognized in Georg Jensen’s ornamentsit is transformed to abstract form withHenning Koppel and Allan Scharff. Scharffexplains:To me, simplifying a form is a constantchallenge. It always fascinates me to explorewith how few lines I can describea certain bird without it losing its specialcharacter. If I also succeed in maintainingits formal function it gives me doublepleasure. 13

The Georg Jensen and Alessi Design 25Fig. 3. Alessandro Mendini, Tea and Coffee Towers2003 (photo: Alessi).Fig. 4. Wiel Arets, Tea and Coffee Towers 2003(photo: Alessi).This means that the connection between formand function has high priority with Scharff,which, however, is not always the case withHenning Koppel’s and Kim Buck’s design.It is difficult to pour from Koppel’s pots, andthe bevelled tendrils in Kim Buck’s basketare too sharp-pointed for it to function asa fruit basket. Even though function is importantin Georg Jensen’s design it does notnecessarily determine the form.The philosopher Gianni Vattimo generallyconsiders works of art as monumentalprecipitations of human experiences,claiming, therefore, that all works of art arememories. The power of monuments is theirability to communicate traces, and therebymemories, to future generations. 14 This alsoapplies to design. Alessi’s latest series, “Teaand Coffee Towers” for the dining table,holds a reference to the twin towers of theWorld Trade Center in New York. Historically,towers are cultural symbols of power.But when towers are moved from the socialsphere to an intimate sphere, they geta new meaning. Through the “Tea and CoffeeTowers” project, the designers try to displaytheir personal view of the world, whereform no longer follows function but ratherfollows memory. The designer AlessandroMendini is in search of the origin of designin his contribution (Fig. 3). In his project hehas collaborated with a wood carver. Thehand marks are made plain (elucidated) inthe objects. The tea pot reminds of a mixturebetween an abstract bird with a silverbeak and an urn. But in this project there

26 Sisse TanderupFig. 5. Wiel Arets, Tea and Coffee Towers 2003(photo: Alessi).Fig. 6. Toyo Ito, Tea and Coffee Towers 2003(photo: Alessi).is no doubt that form is signalling use. Anotherproject by Wiel Arets refers more totowers than to coffee and teapots (Fig. 4).The two towers are formed in thermoplasticwith a silver core. They almost lean toeach other, which separates them from thetwin towers. In a preliminary study by thedesigner, it is easy to see how the designerhas worked with the human touch throughthe traces or marks, which the hands leavein the material (Fig. 5). In other cases, thereference to the towers is less obvious. Thisis the case with Toyo Ito’s coffee set withthe title “ripple” (Fig. 6). The title refers tothe designer’s idea of working with ripplesin water as a theme in his architecture. 15 Ina rough drawing (Fig. 7) of the saucers thereference to ripples in water is clear and atthe same time the frogs on the cups emphasizethe water theme. Furthermore, frogs ina Japanese context are architectonic symbols,as frogs are placed as symbols of happinessby the entrance to Japanese houses. 16There are no distinct (clear) handles, onlyfrogs, which cling to the edges of the cups(Fig. 6). In several cups the frogs are aboutto fall down. This could be a reference tothe persons who jumped out of the burningtwin towers after the terror attack at 9/11 in2001. “In their twin position the twin towersincarnate the definitive order”, according toJean Baudrillard. 17It is this perfect symmetry and this pairof twins, which truly is of aesthetic quali-

The Georg Jensen and Alessi Design 27ty but first and foremost is a tautology ofform, which makes you want to break it. 18Ito tries to break this order with his designversion of the floating towers that are splitup into nine versions of different sizes, creatingdiverging identities. A frog settles atthe top of a sugar bowl. On another tower,a tower for spoons, two frogs are movingat the lowest part of the cylindrical form. Afrog is rocking at the edge of a third tower.At the side, the saucers are piled, invitingthe user to take a saucer and stabilize the cupwhen it is used. However, the towers havedisappeared, but have not been destroyed,according to Baudrillard:Although they are smashed up they haveleft the impression of their absence. Everyonewho knows them cannot stop to imaginethem, the houses and their silhouettesagainst the sky, visible as they werefrom all parts of the city. Their end in thematerial space transfers them to a perfectlydeveloped imaginary space. Thanksto terrorism they have become the mostbeautiful global buildings, which they absolutelywere not while they existed. 19Ito points out a critical ‘view on towers’ ascultural power symbols. He may think thatin the twin towers, which have disappearedfrom reality, the balance had been disturbedbetween culture and nature. The frog canFig. 7. Toyo Ito, Tea and Coffee Towers 2003(photo: Alessi).hardly keep its balance at the edge of thecup. Water becomes dominant as a source ofinspiration for the design compared to theoriginal idea of using towers. The designtowers in a way sail about on an abstractwater lily and in that way become immaterialobjects. Through divergent expressions,Alessi’s designers create a different society,where dreams, feelings and stories play agreater part than rationality and reason. Away of thinking, which is shared by the twopsychoanalysts Francesco Fornari and D.W.Winnicott with whom Alessi cooperates.They maintain that our choices in life aremainly controlled by feelings and that we,as humans, need toys, which can make usremember the joy and confidence in childhood.Aldo Rossi (1939-97) is an example ofan Italian architect, designer and theorist

28 Sisse Tanderupwho work deliberately with memory in hisdesign. As a designer he is attached to Alessiin the 1980’s. Rossi writes about design objectsthat:It appears to me that what is beautifulabout objects, as opposed to architecture,is that they precisely do not requirecomplex research and therefore allow usto blend function and feeling, utility andmemory, in the way in which we alwaysdo with objects we have used or still use. 20In another connection Rossi writes that wetend to see design objects as domestic appliances.The consequence is, accordingto Rossi, that we deprive design objects oftheir aura. An explanation can be found withBenjamin 21 who writes that the decline ofthe aura of the original work of art is causedby the fact that mass production neutralizesthe genuineness, inviolability and remotenessof the original.In 1979, Rossi and a group of architectsset out to create their own “Tea & CoffeePiazza” for Alessi (Fig. 8). The aim of theproject is to “create an experimental designresearch liberated from the limitations,which are often a consequence of industrialmass production”. Therefore, the designersin the project use historical materials likesilver and copper that have been forgottenby the industrial culture. In his autobiographyfrom 1981, Aldo Rossi describes howhe loved the strange shapes of the coffeeFig. 8. Aldo Rossi, Tea and Coffee Piazza 1983(photo: Alessi).pots in his childhood kitchen. The coffeepots are miniature versions of the fantasticarchitecture he later encounters. 22 In Rossi’stheater a coffee pot, a teaspoon, a cream jug,a teapot, and a sugar bowl meet in a kind ofpuppet theater. When Rossi places a clockon the triangular gable he draws a line tohis memories of his childhood school wherelife passed slowly. 23 In his design versionthe objects are placed in a theater, whichthe flag on the top indicates. He creates apoetic world where designs meet in an intimatespace. According to Gianni Braghieri 24design, to Rossi, is not as bound to functionas is architecture. Rossi’s poetic and somewhatvague drawings could not be realizeddirectly, and, indeed, he has been criticizedfor the fact that the different coffee pots he

The Georg Jensen and Alessi Design 29Fig. 9. Aldo Rossi, The little scientific theatre designed together with Gianni Braghieri 1978 (photo: Braghieri).designed for Alessi do not function optimally.The “Tea & Coffee Piazza” project drawsa line back to Rossi and Braghieri’s small“Theater of Science” from 1978 that wasconceived as a kind of machine intended toconducting architectonic experiments (Fig.9). The theater is constructed of paintedsheet metal and wood and is made up of amounted scene and various interchangeablearchitectonic elements and backdrops. Thetitle is a reference to the Theater of Sciencein Mantua and the Anatomical Theater inPadua and other Italian theaters from the 18 thcentury. 25 The small theater may be viewedas a cross between a machine, a theater anda toy. 26 It uses the classical shape of a theaterand, with Aldo Rossi’s words, sets the stagefor a story to unfold. At the same time thetheater is meant to make us remember thepast and the present. In the theater there arereferences to objects from Rossi’s personalmemories, a memory, which is culturallyoriented in the sense that there are referencesto architecture. The central part of the sceneholds references to Rossi’s cemetery projectin Modena in Northern Italy (1971-78). Tothe left there is a reference to the blue coffeepots in his childhood kitchen. In A ScientificAutobiography he explains that the designof the coffee pots inspired him to create architecture.27 Rossi’s design is miniature architectureand is capable of something elsethan architecture. The square is not tied to afixed place in his version of “Tea & CoffeePiazza”. This means that memory gets a newmeaning in a design context. On one side thesmall scientific theater reminds formally ofRossi’s “Tea & Coffee Piazza”, but it differssignificantly with respect to choice ofmaterials as the theater is made of metal andwood whereas the piazza is a luxury productmade of silver and crystal. Luxury productscan be obtained by the economic upperclass, which is the reason that Rossi choosesto design other coffee pots as for example“La Cupola” that was intended for a widertarget group (Fig. 10). 28In Braghieri’s opinion the “Tea & Coffee

30 Sisse TanderupFig. 10. Aldo Rossi, Coffepot 1989 (photo: Alessi).Fig. 11. Alessandro Mendini, Marcel Proust chair1978 (photo: author).Piazza” seems more stiff formally comparedto the “Theater of Science”. 29 The reasoncould be that the “Tea & Coffee Piazza”merely was thought as an experimentariumfor the development of ideas in the designprocess than as an object designed for production.The Alessi museum in Crusinalloin Italy, which holds the “Tea & Coffee Piazza”,is indeed intended to be a place fordesign innovation. The museum also exhibitsobjects that did not succeed because theymay serve as inspiration for future design.According to Gianni Braghieri, 30 design hasgreat potential of memory, as design is connectedto rituals. For example, many ritualsare involved in Italian coffee-drinking. ForItalians, coffee-drinking is about stoppingtime for a short while at cafés and bars. It isa sort of totem, 31 which, according to Mitchell,is a special thing:Special things can range, therefore, fromwhat we might call rather ordinary, secular,and modern “special things” likecommodities, souvenirs, family photos,and collections, to sacred, magical, uncannythings, symbolic things, associatedwith a ritual and narrative, prophecies anddivinations …Totems may have a historicalconnection with …the notion of the“found object” that comes to the beholderby chance. 32In a time where much changes and is con-

The Georg Jensen and Alessi Design 31Fig.13. Alessandro Mendini, Corkscrews (photo:Alessi).Fig.12. Alessandro Mendini, “Geo”drip coffeemaker 2007 (photo: Alessi).sumed so rapidly it is not surprising thatmany designers seek back in time for tracesof their own past. Perhaps the purpose is tocreate a critical consciousness of our ownhistory. 33 Alessandro Mendini is a designerwho, like Aldo Rossi, is in search of lost time.Mendini creates a chair in 1978 (Fig. 11) asa tribute to Marcel Proust’s novel “In Searchof Lost Time”. The novel is not structuredchronologically. The chain of events ratherfollows an associative, dreamlike structure,which occasionally is interrupted by poeticdescriptions and different philosophical reflections.To illustrate Proust, Mendini usesan original chair from the 18 th century andimitates the impressionistic painter PaulSignac (1863-1935), who was known forhis pointilism – small dots of pure colours,which are not mixed on the canvas but aremixed in the eyes of the spectator. Later,when Mendini works with design for Alessihe reminds us of the Proust chair by creatingcoffee pots (Fig. 12) and corkscrews wherethe dots still appear (Fig. 13). The repetitionof the dots has a memory-evoking effect ifthe viewer is familiar with the chair.Memory ornamentsOrnaments are decorative objects of differentmaterials worn on the body or on clothing.Memory, identity and rituals are oftenwoven together in the perception of ornaments,for example in connection with engagementsor weddings. In this way, ornamentsbecome an expression of a personalaffiliation. In an interview about ornaments,Carolina Vallejo explains that:…the reason that there is a strength in beingan ornament and not a painting or asculpture, is that, when we see something,

32 Sisse Tanderupwhich is worn close to the body, we identifyourselves with the feeling of wearingit and thereby get a personal experience. 34Fig. 14. Henning Koppel, Silver cuffs 1961 (photo:Georg Jensen).Georg Jensen’s silver ornaments are differentfrom ordinary everyday design becauseof an inherent duration or permanence. Thesilver ornaments can be kept, inherited andpassed on through generations, because sliverdoes not fade with time. On the contrary,silver acquires patina and value with use.By making connections between past andpresent, silver can be memory-evoking, justlike photos. A family album provides a settingfor our personal memory and for storytelling. This also applies to ornaments. Theycan be worn by generations, and the story ofan ornament or a piece of jewellery is alsoa story about our cultural history. What didthe designers want to tell their contemporariesand the future about emotions, dreams,thoughts and values? Jewellery can be wornover and over and signals slowness, repetitionand thereby memory.Michael von Essen, curator at the GeorgJensen Museum in Copenhagen, explains 35that when he is lecturing he often wears silvercuffs designed by Henning Koppel (Fig.14). The cuffs are miniature versions of thesilver fish dish “Number 1026” from 1954.During his lecture, Michael von Essen passesaround the silver cuffs among the audience.People are surprised by the weight ofthe silver. According to von Essen, there is ahierarchy as regards memory factors wherethe weight of the design object is the primarymemory factor. A heavy silver ornamentor silver product is attributed a higher value.As an example, the expectations of the usersare not always met when they realize thatsome of Georg Jensen’s silver brooches arehollow. The users expect a certain degree ofheaviness and are disappointed when theylift the objects. Quality and weight are thusconnected in the minds of the users. Von Essenmentions knives as another example ofthe connection between weight and memory.In the 1960s Georg Jensen introducedcutlery made of aluminum as an alternativeto the more expensive silver cutlery. However,this was a rather unsuccessful initiativebecause the new material was regarded astoo light. The cheap aluminum cutlery wasnot saleable. A heavy knife is used more becauseweight signals quality, and functionally,silver cutlery does not as easily fall fromthe table because of its heaviness. Designobjects made of inexpensive materials areusually not kept and thus are not passed onto future generations. The sound of the cufflinksis another memory factor according to

The Georg Jensen and Alessi Design 33nature. Her necklace of silver from 1957 37reminds of rain drops on a branch. She isinspired by fairy-tales and poetry. As a childshe saw “The Tinder-Box” with the filledwith ornaments and jewellery:Fig. 15. Jacquelin Rabun, CAVE ring 2003 (photo:Georg Jensen).von Essen, for example the clicking soundwhen the user opens them. However, soundis also a factor, which is quickly forgotten,like the sound of voices.In his design, Georg Jensen is inspired byhis personal memory of the nature of Denmark:“Silver has this wonderful moonlightglow – some of the light of a Danish summernight. It can be like twilight, and it can looklike a ground mist when it gathers dew”. 36Georg Jensen seeks the magical glow ofmoonlight by letting the hammer strokesstay visible. The stroke marks change the refractionsof light, which adds a mat glow tothe objects. Traces from the hammer strokesare visible in several of Georg Jensen’s theornaments.The Danish designer Nanna Ditzel doesnot work with hammer strokes in her ornaments.Her ornaments have the appearanceof sculptures. She is inspired by the wavesof the sea, the light flyers of the air and thegentle play of light when she designs. Toher, it is important that everything in contactwith the body meets it with kindness, fits itscurves and speaks the organic language ofAnd I went home and made ornaments usingall the materials I could get my handson, and I have worked with ornamentsever since. 38The American designer Jacquelin Rabuncreated the collection “Cave” (Fig. 15) forGeorg Jensen in 2003. 39 The collection ismade in silver and consists of a set of earrings, a ring, a bracelet and a pendant. Thepieces are shaped as small spheres of differentsizes. The pendant consists of sevenspheres, which symbolize the seven weekdays. A cave is formed in one of the spheres.In this way, time is made specific throughthe spheres. The cave symbolizes reflectionand ones inner space, representing the possibilityof withdrawing and seeking peace. 40The cave is a paradox. It is empty inside, buton the outside it comprises the entire world.The Swiss architect Raoul Bunschoten explains:A cave is defined by the entire earth. Thevery existence of the cave implies that theearth is looked upon as an architecturalobject. The earth is an object in a muchgrander space. 41

34 Sisse TanderupIn an announcement, Jacquelin Rabun characterizesher own collection:Cave, beyond its pure and organic form,is above all, the story of the beauty of theinner world. Cave encapsulates the journeyof a woman built on her experiences,inundated by her outer environment andengulfed by the flux of time. Here she reflectson the past, present and future, onher strengths and weaknesses, her dreamsand regrets, her fantasies and frustrations,her independence and dependence,her loves and sorrows. Cave is a journeythrough the inner world, a special placefor meditation where the woman celebratesand confronts her life.The French philosopher Gaston Bachelarddescribes how we see the house with all itsopenings and niches as a cave and womb,as the place of our memories, dreams andday dreams. Our memories about the worldoutside do not have the same weight as ourmemories about the space that we call ourhome. A poetry of nearness arises in the“Cave” collection, which binds the tactileand the metaphysical space together on thebasis of intimacy, sensation and dream. Inthe latest collection a diamond has enteredthe cave, transforming it to a fairy-tale cave– a kind of Aladdin’s cave. All things contain,with the words of Nanna Ditzel, morethan just function:A chair is an instrument for sitting, yes.But also an expression of a certain time,of eroticism, vigour, human emotions,dreams. 42MomentoAldo Rossi is fascinated by the concept oftime - and by clocks that are incorporatedinto many of his projects, for example his“Theater of Science” from 1979, his schoolin Broni from 1979 and the tea and coffeeset “Piazza” from 1986. The watch “Momento”was designed by Aldo Rossi in 1986(Figs. 16-17). “Momento” means momentin Italian. Gianni Braghieri 43 worked withAldo Rossi from 1970-1986 and has toldthat, to Rossi, memory is beyond chronologicaltime. In Rossi’s optics, memory belongsto a circular conception of time, where thepast, the present and the future are interwoven.The watch is composed of two simplesteel frames: An inner frame that envelopsthe works and the dial and is mounted inan outer frame. The inner frame can be dismountedby a single push on the crystal dialand used as a pocket watch and easily remountedin the outer frame. The watch canbe used in three different ways: As a wristwatch, a pocket watch and as a necklace ina leather strap. The watch uses Arabic numbers,which seems old-fashioned becausemost watches today do not display numbers.However, the steel frame is in a contemporarydesign and in this way, Aldo Rossi createsan idiomatic connection between thepast and the present. Actually, watches are

36 Sisse Tanderupus of nature and naturalness. Globalizationdoes thus not seem to have neutralized thedifference between the design identities ofdifferent countries. What Alessi and GeorgJensen have in common is their attempts tocouple poetry and memory in their designs.Memories have a special capacity for addinglife, closeness and engagement to designproducts, both when the designer deliberatelyor intuitively involves the dimension ofmemory in his design.Sisse TanderupM.A., Ph.D.-fellowVonsildvej 69DK-6000 Koldingsit@dskd.dkBIBLIOGRAPHYAlessi, A.1921 The Dream Factory. Alessi since 1921,Milan.Bachelard, G.1994 The Poetics of Space, transl., Boston.Baudrillard, J.2002 Terrorismens Ånd, overs., København.Baudrillard, J.2003 Power of Inferno, Copenhagen.Benjamin, W.1982 “Der Sammler”. In: Das Passagen-Werk,Erster Band, Frankfurk am Main, 269-280.Braghieri, G.1991 Aldo Rossi. Work and Projects, Barcelona.Bunschoten, R.1998 Metaspaces, London.Dant, T.1999 Material Culture in the Social World –Values, Activities, Lifestyles, Buckingham,Phil.Gilloch, G.1997 Myth and Metropolis. Walter Benjaminand the City, Cambridge.Horsfeld, H.2005 Nanna Ditzel, København.Leslie, E.1999 “Telescoping the microscopic Object:Benjamin the Collector”. In: Coles, A.(ed.), The Optic of Walter Benjamin,London, 58-91.McCracken, G.1988 Culture and Consumption, Bloomington-Indianapolis.Mendini, A. (ed.)2003 Tea & Coffee Towers, Milan.Mitchell, T.2005 What do Pictures want? – The Lives andLoves of images, Chicago.Norman, D.A.2004 Emotional Design: Why we love (or hate)Everyday Things, New York.Rossi, A.1981 A Scientific Autobiography, 1st ed.,Cambridge, Mass. & London.Rossi, A.1991 “Invisible Distances”. In: Adjmi, M. (ed.),Aldo Rossi Architecture 1981-1991, NewYork, 272.

The Georg Jensen and Alessi Design 37Rossi, A.1994 “Introduction – Michael Graves as aDesigner”. In: Buck, A. & Voght, M. (eds.),Michael Graves Designer Monographs 3,Berlin, 8-10.Tanker bliver ting1994 Tanker bliver ting. Nanna Ditzel Design,København.Thulstrup, T.C.2004 Georg Jensen - sølv & design, København.Vattimo, G.1985 La fine della modernità, Milano.NOTES1Bachelard 1994.2Ibid., 99.3Ibid., 98.4Gilloch 1997, 164–165.56Benjamin 1982, 271.Leslie 1999, 89.7Dant 1999, 148.8Ibid., 148.9Norman 2004, 6.10Ibid., 83-84.11Bachelard 1994, 234.12Thulstrup 2004, 96.13Ibid., 158.14Vattimo 1985, 73.15Mendini 2003, 103.16“Water overspreads the earth and even flows in human bodies. Human beings are part of nature. Architecture,too, is part of nature and in no more figure of this flowing state. The reason why I designed this coffeeset in abstract with ceramics was what I wanted to express the blank spaces that spread infinitely. And ofcourse, the frogs allude to water. Once in Japan, ceramic frog-shaped ornaments were placed at the entrancesof houses as good luck symbols” Ibid.17Baudrillard 2002, 8.18Baudrillard 2003, 8.19Ibid., 13.20Graves 1994, 9.21As a young man, Aldo Rossi studies the writings of Walter Benjamin, which Rossi refers to in several of hiswritings as for example in A Scientific Autobiography and his article “Invisible Distances” (Rossi 1991, 89).22Rossi 1981, 2.23Ibid., 78.24Author’s conversation with architect Gianni Braghieri, professor at the Department of Architecture at theUniversity of Bologna, December 2007, about the relationship between design and memory. Braghieri was astudent of and later worked with Aldo Rossi.25Braghieri 1991, 100.26Ibid.27Rossi 1981, 2.28Author’s conversation with architect Gianni Braghieri, December 2007.29Author’s conversation with architect Gianni Braghieri, December 2007.30Author’s conversation with architect Gianni Braghieri, December 2007.31“Totemism, as has been noted, is the most recent term- a nineteenth-century concept in anthropology andcomparative religion” (Mitchell 2005, 193).32Ibid., 193-194.33Alessi 1921, 43.34Danish newspaper Politiken, 4th section, June 3rd, 2004.35Author’s conversation with Michael von Essen, curator at the Georg Jensen Museum in Copenhagen, September2007.36Thulstrup 2004, 23.37Horsfeld 2005, 48.38Tanker bliver ting 1994, 9.39Thulstrup 2004, 168-172.

38 Sisse Tanderup40Ibid., 169.41Bunschoten 1998, 38.42Tanker bliver ting 1994, 7.43Author’s conversation with architect Gianni Braghieri, December 2007.44Officina Alessi Watches (Alessi spa, Crusinallo, 1990), 2.