On the other hand, charcoal provides health benefits and has been used since Ancient Egypt as a water and air filter as well as for medicinal purposes. For the exhibition, and working with the glass blower Massimo Lunardon from Vicenza and a woodcarver, Studio Formafantasma developed a series of glass vessels filled with wooden filters and other accessories. In a forest near Zurich the wooden pieces were charred in collaboration with Doris Wicki. The designers also prepared charcoal drawings portraying burning trees, fume and black rain.
On 14 June, the team built a charcoal kiln next to the Vitra Design Museum Gallery while serving charcoal-filtered water and charcoal bread baked according to an old recipe to aid digestion.
The works by Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin of Studio Formafantasma are permeated by a deep vein of tradition and nostalgia. The two Italians who studied in the Dutch city of Eindhoven and continue to live and work there frequently come back to the artisanal methods of their Southern European homeland. In their various reinterpretations, however, they exhibit an approach that is unmistakably Dutch: the statement of their objects is more important to them than their function.
