The Energy Is The Future | Riccardo Giovanetti

The exhibition at Triennale Design Museum in Milan, celebrates 100 years of Solvay, leading company worldwide in research and production of innovative materials for the world of industrial design. The exhibition project, conceived by Riccardo Giovanetti, originates from the client’s specific requirement of creating an exhibition path beginning from water-reactive materials, constituting the past, the present and the future of the company. Key materials, such as soda and bicarbonate, both representing the company’s memory through its first one hundred years of history, are characterized by the fact that, when coming into contact with water, they react releasing a sequence of bubbles that appear on surface. From this particular phenomenon arose the intention to create an imaginary space reproducing the idea of a big water container, streaked with a series of bubbles rising gradually from the bottom straight upwards. This fictional landscape is created through a set of acrylic opaline discs, suspended in midair and set out along a progression thinning out upwards. The whole lends the entire structure a strong dynamism, establishing at the same time a firm connection with lights. Thus, the visitor finds himself plunged into an extraordinary, ever-moving environment, tanks to the gentle swing of the discs, hung by thin, transparent cables. The sequence of the discs is conceived according to an apparently casual logic that is, actually, a carefully planned one, in order to alternate a clever play of full and empty spaces. The pictures on the wall complete the exhibition path, intensifying the exposition’s ascensional motion through an arrangement decreasing upwards. The light reflecting on the column of discs, creates a charming interplay of reflections and shadows that significantly contribute to mark out a soft and extremely articulate space at the same time.