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Italiano 
by Cinzia Munari
“I want design to be like the other arts, I want it to give joy and excitement to people.” Christian Piccolo begins this way, designer from North-East of Italy who loves basic, minimal. It was already clear at the time of University, when he decided to dedicate his thesis to one color: white.
Why white?
White in the ‘60s was taken as an attempt to communicate between language and objects, making them ghosts of themselves and leading to a reflection on the role of the object itself. With white you have the ability to camouflage your works with the surrounding space, making the background part of the work.
What is Design according to Christian Piccolo?
Design is a discipline which finds, thanks to creativity, an application to forms. It is the harmony created with the material you decide to work, to shape, up to the object that amazes and fascinates with its lines. With design I want to convey cleaning, linearity and not all the confusion to which, alas, we participate.
I had the chance to see some works of Piccolo and I submit you three, in my opinion, really interesting. Backbone/Library, Bottle/Vases and Drop/suspension version lamp.
Backbone. You have the impression of being in front of a ladder, but actually when you approach you notice something different. No, it’s not a ladder, it is a library! That movement it makes, a sinuous twist of the object, it seem to come straight from the wall, giving the idea of having to climb a classic spiral staircase.
Bottle. The elegance of these vases makes you think of “Modi’s” women, with those long skinny necks on sloping shoulders. The refined craftsman work that, by hand, creates these pieces completes masterfully what Piccolo has put “on paper”, what designer has brought in drawings.
Drop. According to me this is the most interesting among the pieces of Piccolo. The suspension lamp is, as defined by designer, clean, linear, simple. And as my favorite designer, Vico Magistretti, said “Simplicity is the most complicated thing in the world.” In fact, being able to touch with an ellipse that gives life and light to the scene below in so, definitely, direct way, making it the absolute protagonist, I would say that is the result of a good job.
Piccolo is working on new projects (including a table), which will go into production in 2016, but he does not want to reveal anything … we’ll see!
Cover: Christian Piccolo, Goccia, Stylnve Ceramiche
