Sucabaruca | Luca Nichetto

The idea of “Sucabaruca” coffee set stemmed from the encounter with John Baker and Juli Daousti in September 2013 at their gallery in Toronto. After their experience with the studio Claesson Koivisto Rune, they encouraged me to realize in turn a product suited to their gallery/shop using only the craft resources available in the area. The common thread previously woven by my friends and colleagues Mårten, Eero and Ola seemed to be the way to go and so I wanted to create a product that could also complement their project “Ceremony”. For many years now my life has been divided between Stockholm and Venice, the town where I was born and where Caffè Florian – among the oldest cafés in Europe – is, I immediately came up with the idea of designing a coffee set that aims to combine the modern ritual of filtered coffee, which unites several countries including North America and Scandinavia, with the renowned tradition of my land, where coffee has been a cult drink for centuries. The “Sucabaruca” coffee set is rich in cultural and formal references that come from the influences of several people involved in the project. The main cone-shaped body is reminiscent of “Carmencita”, the famous character created by Armando Testa in 1966 for the tv show“Carosello”. The patterns, hand-engraved by hand in the ceramic, are meant to emphasize the uniqueness of the pieces, as well as for the tray, manufactured using materials such as Canadian maple wood or marble, which always reveal new and unique patterns when carved. Just like in a game, the set elements can be stacked and combined as desired, indulging in the different personalities offered by 3 colour palettes, from total white, inspired by the fashion designer Martin Margiela, to pastel tones, characteristic of Japanese architectures, and eventually pop colours, a tribute to the eclectic artist Jean-Paul Goude. It is a project that, from the start, has been involving people from different cultures and countries: Juli and John who, with passion, collect and distribute in Canada products mainly from Scandinavia and Japan; the Canadian ceramist Alissa Coe, who made the prototypes, skillfully interpreting our project; and Lera Moiseeva, designer and artist of Russian origin, but New Yorker by adoption, who contributed to the development of the coffee set in collaboration with Nichetto's studios in Sweden and Italy. All these people have enriched the project, making it an extraordinary melting pot of ideas and energy on an international scale. Luca Nichetto + Mjolk Opening Location: Mjölk, 2959 Dundas Street West, Toronto, ON M6P 1Z2 Date: 22 January 2014 Time: 7 -9 pm