Italian furniture brand B&B Italia is launching a new minute incarnation of Gaetano Pesce’s ’UP5’ chair. Named the ’UPJ’ – where the ’J’ aptly stands for ’junior’ – the iconic design has been scaled down to child-sized dimensions.
Originally launched in 1969 as part of a seven-piece collection of polyurethane foam seats, the chair is an emotional piece of design that combines craftsmanship with social commentary and humour. The sensual shape of the piece suggests a woman’s body, the womb being the seat while the ottoman symbolises a ball and chain - a design that was intended to communicate Pesce’s denouncement of sexism.
No stranger to changing scales, a giant seven metre-high version of the ’UP5’ was recently installed at the MAXXI in Rome as part of the museum’s major Pesce retrospective exhibition. Now, reduced to tiny proportions, the chair’s playful character is further enhanced, making it a perfect introduction to classic design for a new generation.
