Argentinian designer Andrés Reisinger took a spiritual approach when producing the furniture for his latest exhibition, 12 Chairs For Meditation.
Exhibited at Nilufar's Viale Lancetti gallery during Milan design week, the show was developed around a vision that the founder of Reisinger Studio experienced during meditation.
This led him to design a series of 12 chairs, featuring different forms and materials, which he arranged in a formation based on Orion, one of the most prominent celestial constellations.
These were presented around a mosaic mural depicting a circle of 12 apples, seemingly floating in a blue sky filled with clouds, while a meditative piece of music composed by Reisinger played in the background.
The designer told Dezeen that the vision came shortly after he began taking lessons in meditation from a professional tutor.
"I was already meditating before that, but she taught me how to meditate in a very specific way," he said.
Reisinger's vision saw him looking down over the Nilufar exhibition space from the top corner – a perspective that no one ever experiences in reality. He described the view as "very blurred, but I could see how things were".
After successfully pitching the idea to Nilufur founder Nina Yashar, the curator for the show, the designer started producing the chairs one by one.
"I didn't make them all together like you would in a design project," Reisinger said. "Sometimes there were months in between. It was more like a diary."
"It was not about making everything make sense," he continued. "It's not like a chess game, where you're trying to put pieces together."
"I wasn't trying to make something visually pleasing; I was trying to make them something that you can relate to and feel."
The chairs feature both rectilinear and curved geometries. Some are quite rudimentary while others feature complex forms; one design is akin to flower petals while another looks like a bird's wing.
Most chairs feature white bouclé upholstery but some are more simply made from white-washed timber. One of the most elaborate examples is adorned with beaded edges and a tassel skirt.
"Some pieces are more special than others but each has a peculiarity," said Reisinger.
Symbolism is an important theme throughout the show. The repeated use of the number 12, a powerful number in numerology since ancient times, combines with the image of the apple, a reference to the Garden of Eden.
"The apple is the fruit of desire," said the designer.
"That symbol goes further than the fruit itself. There is a reason why it's an apple, not a banana or a kiwi."
Reisinger first created this image of "levitating apples" as a digital artwork, which was then recreated as a six-by-six-metre mosaic mural using Venetian glass tiles.
The designer is best known as a digital artist, although his work increasingly combines digital and physical. Most notably, his virtual Hortensia chair was brought to life by Dutch furniture brand Moooi.
"Reisinger's work represents one of the most intriguing interpretations of our contemporary era," said Nina Yashar.
"Even within the physical confines of this exhibition, Reisinger manages to evoke the ethereal essence of his digital creations – elusive, transcendent, existing beyond the constraints of space and time as we know them."
The exhibition photography is by Alejandro Ramirez Orozco. Studio shots are by Marcello Maranzan.
Milan design week took place from 15 to 21 April 2024. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.
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