Artemide hosts showroom party for product launch
(Germany) – New fixture Criosfera launches in Frankfurt.
Taking place in its flagship store in Frankfurt as part of Light + Building fringe events, Criosfera was unveiled to guests by Carlotta de Bevilaqua, CEO of Artemide, alongside designer Giulia Foscari, Founder of Una/ Unless studio. The launch was followed by a cocktail party and dinner.
The inspiration for the fixture – the cryosphere, encompasses all components of the earth system that are frozen; 90% of such ice is in Antarctica. That same ice is the largest repository of data on our climate history, enabling scientists to trace the climatic history of our planet, extracting from captive air bubbles, trends of CO2, greenhouse gasses, and temperature, from past glacial and interglacial eras. The marker for climate change is thus the Ice Core – a cylinder of stratified ice, extracted from the depths of our planet’s ice sheets.
The ‘ice core’ of the Criosfera light fixture, consists of a layering of blown recycled glass with an optic core to mimic the refractive nature of the ice surface and maximise the diffusion of light, evoking the stratification of the polar ice.
The external blown glass cylinder is the structure inside, which the optoelectronic engine disappears without visible shadows. Engravings are impressed into the hot glass before blowing to make its thickness wavy and irregular.
The core fits into three different essential structures shaped like the scientific instruments used to extract and analyse ice cores. They are composed of surfaces made with laser cutting, a technology that optimises the use of materials.
Foscari is architect, curator, activist, and a board member of the Antarctic Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC). Based in Venice, Italy, UNA is an architecture office focussed on cultural projects whilst UNLESS is a non-profit agency for transnational research on Global Commons. Foscari is also a board member of the Antarctic Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC).
Foscari said: “Criosfera is not ‘just’ a light. It is a resolution, a manifesto of our times. One that is imbued with optimism that we will individually and collectively, defend intergenerational justice.”
