Alberto Biagetti and Laura Baldassari of Atelier Biagetti never shy away from playing with pop culture and its icons throughout their collections. After exploring the deeper meaning of our society's obsession with bodybuilding, money and cats (see their Pet Therapy project of 2022), the Milanese duo presents ‘The King’, a furniture collection and installation that pays tribute to Elvis Presley, on show as part of Milan Design Week 2023.
Elvis Presley-inspired furniture: ‘The King’ by Atelier Biagetti
Laura Baldassari and Alberto Biagetti
Design, art and craft merge in the collection (on display for the week at the studio, Piazza Arcole 4), which reflects on the quest for immortality. Presley’s legendary status is the starting point for a deeper pondering of the power of superstitions and beliefs, and their role in cementing a myth’s reputation in our collective minds.
For ‘The King’, the design studio is clad in red and transformed into the imaginary home of a legend, where traditional domestic spaces become a grand stage. The idea, reads a note from the studio, is to represent the approach to the home of a generation that is now used to sharing even the most private moments.
The collection includes a large modular sofa, conceived as a platform and ideally adapting to both domestic and public spaces, a sculptural object (a hybrid furniture piece that can be a table or seat) shaped as stacked guitar cases and made in collaboration with Ravenna’s mosaic academy, and other celebratory pieces that include giant cakes illuminated by palm trees and a Christmas tree-like sculpture.
As part of the experience, Baldassari (who is an opera singer as well as a designer and artist) will sing a series of iconic tunes that start with 1785 Plaisir d'Amour by German composer Martini, and ends on Presley’s Can't Help Falling in Love, from 1961.
‘“The King” is a reflection on the desire to be loved forever, on the idea of a myth that leads to the creation of a legend, an enormous power capable of influencing and activating visions; an apparently useless relic for many becomes a sacred object for some,' says Biagetti. 'Elvis Presley is the pivotal figure in our story about a spectacular house where everything is questioned to subvert the traditional view of private space, which becomes a stage.'
‘The King’ by Atelier Biagetti is on view until 23 April 2023
Atelier Biagetti
Piazza Arcole 4
Milan
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