Concept EXPERIMENTATION Produzione Privata is the experimental laboratory of Michele De Lucchi It was founded in 1990 as a continuation of the Memphis movement and above all, to design and implement experimental objects, free of commission, with maximum freedom of expression. These projects, which are independent from the logic of the market and industry, originate from a manual know-how of artisanal crafts and a philosophy based on the analysis of human needs. Many objects of Produzione Privata contain a tale with references to literature, art and the observation of nature. There are lamps, vases, chairs and unexpected objects that take shape when imagination meets the right material and the right technique. PHILOSOPHY OF MICHELE Everything evolves. The universe, the world we experience and human life are all ever changing and everything that man produces, deserves to be part of this evolution, including design. Experimentation follows the motion of expansion, perhaps destined to never end. As man progresses, he needs to create new ideas, in order to understand his ambitions and to challenge his identity. Vanguard is to advance towards a sense of modernity, step by step, because every time modernity is reached it has already evolved. The objects of Produzione Privata are imaginations, that not only express themselves but also interpret one man’s visions to make his own space and be contemporary in his time. Despite the existence of billions of chairs, lamps and tables, there is still room for new chairs, new lamps and new tables, because every object is linked to the imagination of its time. Together they are participants and witnesses to the changing needs of mankind. "I gave birth to Produzione Privata because I always felt too far away from my projects: there is often too much distance between the inner world of design and the disenchanted world of consumerist production, use and ultimately destruction. I would like to invest products with richer feelings and humanity, rooting out the indifference of a standardized mass product. I'd like to be able to get items that do not fade at various stages of communication, dissemination, distribution, sale, use and abandonment, that are inevitable for objects that do not communicate anything anymore. Perhaps I desire most of all to grab the ambition to live the profession a little less as a "professional" and a bit more as an "artisan". I believe that the ideal condition is to "create" and "produce" simultaneously and I realized it today, with the help of skilled Italian craftsmen, turning my office into a kind of workshop of a Renaissance artist." Michele De Lucchi CRAFTS: WORKING AND THINKING WITH HANDS "Artisanship is not only a central theme of the debate on modernity but also a very current lifestyle in this digital era. Doing things with your hands is still crucial to obtain a life of balance. Many sociologists, anthropologists, doctors and scientists are analyzing this very issue in the relationship between industry and crafts, technology and manual skills, individuals and teams. Being a craftsman is a great privilege and advantage. It is, first of all, a sign of appreciation and a quest for quality. A craftsman who works with his hands has a direct relationship with what he produces and therefore knows exactly what his hands create and never accepts that which does not correspond to his idea of perfection. He is also in touch with the continuous evolution of his skills and this is a source of gratification and satisfaction. Especially when experimenting and trying out new things with winning results. Learning through doing, as they say, frees you from the fear of making mistakes and assures that errors are part of the evolutionary process. So the craftsman has the advantage of being able to make mistakes, quickly recognise them and avoid repeating them. Learning from mistakes, as is rightly said, liberates you from paralysis of the fear of trying something new and of waiting in vain expecting to be able to swim before entering the water." Michele De Lucchi "The hand is what unveils and gives form to thought." "The hand is the tool that liberates a vision." "Thinking with your hands is creating with actions." Denis De Rougemont, Thinking With Your Hands, 1936-37 "My biggest inspirations come from the strangest and most unexpected combinations of different cultural, technical, scientific and artistic positions. The world is increasingly a big soup where everything fits together and where the skill lies in capturing aggregations never considered before." Michele De Lucchi WORKSHOPS Produzione Privata is comprised of seven workshops, uniquely dedicated to a material or a design concept: glass, wood, metal, marble, ceramic and porcelain, ready-made and minimal machines. Each material can be transformed, manufactured, interpreted according to various processes and our products are developed using traditional manual techniques, however occasionally we also experiment by integrating modern technology in ancient crafts.