Gioia Meller Marcovicz is a rare designer in that she
started off as an haute couture expert, and switched tracks
to one-off and industrially produced furniture. She is fond
of quoting artist David Hockney’s deadpan humour: “Art has
to move you and design does not, unless it’s a good design
for a bus.” But she adds her own words to sum up her career:
“Whether through industry or art, my aim has been to find
solutions, but art pieces give you more freedom.”
After 14 years (1977-91) directing Zwei, her successful
fashion business in London, she was hungry for a new
challenge and decided to go back to college, first to the
London College of Furniture and then the Royal College of
Art. At her RCA graduate show, Issey Miyake commissioned
her distinctive sofa design with drop-down arms. From that
starry point onwards she continued to produce winning solutions
including Bia, a floor lamp with rotating lampshades of
overlapping forms, for ClassiCon, in 1995. Eight years later
she was living in a palazzo in Venice, and she launched the
production company Gioia to develop and market her own
furniture and lighting.
The secret to her success in furniture can be traced in
her approach to fashion: “I never cared about the decorative
aspect of clothes, for instance using patterned fabrics
or adding extra pockets, bows or buttons. The importance
lay in the cut, the fit, the shape, the structure.” Her clothes
were plain, simple and wearable, multifunctional designs
to suit entirely diverse situations. It is significant that her
furniture also embodies these concepts, without relinquishing
sensuality or freedom of movement. Her work is innately
adaptable: a sofa turns into a bed, a larger table collapses
into being a coffee table, a dining chair is tipped over to
become a lounge chair, the armrests of a chair are pushed
to the side to make it into a three-seater, and the shades
of a lamp are twisted to create different forms or functions
for reading or simply to tilt their illuminating function to the
ceiling or wall.
The secret to her success in furniture can be traced in
her approach to fashion: “I never cared about the decorative
aspect of clothes, for instance using patterned fabrics
or adding extra pockets, bows or buttons. The importance
lay in the cut, the fit, the shape, the structure.” Her clothes
were plain, simple and wearable, multifunctional designs
to suit entirely diverse situations. It is significant that her
furniture also embodies these concepts, without relinquishing
sensuality or freedom of movement. Her work is innately
adaptable: a sofa turns into a bed, a larger table collapses
into being a coffee table, a dining chair is tipped over to
become a lounge chair, the armrests of a chair are pushed
to the side to make it into a three-seater, and the shades
of a lamp are twisted to create different forms or functions
for reading or simply to tilt their illuminating function to the
ceiling or wall.
Being a designer who is also her own manufacturing
director, she is highly adept at finding and working with the
most suitable firms in Europe, especially Italy and Germany.
Now her next collections of small, exclusive editions are
being developed for eventual showings at two leading galleries,
one in London and one in Munich. The Monolith, her
latest design for a dining table and chairs for up to ten people,
is a sign of things to come. Made entirely from sheet
stainless steel, it is a sculpture that you can use in the normal
way for dining, and evolved from thinking about how
her large palazzo living room could best match her sociable
lifestyle. The main meeting room of her palazzo was, like
most in Venice further back in history, used for business, and
she was anxious to ensure that its lofty atmosphere was not
compromised by a large, strait-laced dining arrangement.
The space needed something with impact yet neatly sized
and manageably adaptable.
Her modest cardboard model piqued the interest of
a Parisian art collector she knew, who immediately commissioned
The Monolith for his home. That meant Meller Marcovicz could choose such a precious material as stainless
steel, not an option for an industrial range. Because it
is a heavy metal, she used the finest gauge (3 millimetres) so
that two people can carry the table, which has a top measuring
90 centimetres x 2.5 metres. Taking advantage of the
material’s capacity to be bent and welded, she has devised
an easy-to-use machine with a top that rests on a bed of
rollers. For use, it can be smoothly rolled into position and
then, with its custom-made hinge, opened up like a book.
The chairs’ adaptable formula allows them to “merge” into
the sculptural form, being fitted with hinges that fold up to
fit the chairs into the table, and down for sitting.
“I didn’t invent the concept of hiding chairs in a nest,”
says Meller Marcovicz, “but I’ve added the sculptural value.
The function is engrained, while the art aspect dares
to go off the cliff.” With its artistic roots discernable in
the work of Serra, Judd and Kapoor, The Monolith strikes a
compelling and versatile balance between art and design.
Gioia's monolith
A steel monolith demonstrates Gioia Meller Marcovicz’s skill in drawing the line between art and design. Design Gioia Meller Marcovicz. Text Lucy Bullivant. Photos 747 Studios.
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- 09 January 2009
- Venice