Pietro Franceschini: “If we have to go beyond, let’s go beyond”

Florentine by birth but cosmopolitan by inclination, blessed with a curious and romantic spirit, Pietro Franceschini moved to Lisbon after completing his studies, and then traversed the world, driven by a desire to engage with different design and architectural entities. Travelling is still the prime element that marks out his career path, the places changing according to the projects that interest him.  Portugal, Egypt, France. The place that had the most profound effect on his oeuvre was New York. It was here that his ideas on design and production underwent a radical change. While there, his products became intellectually driven, distanced from the lessons learnt in Europe and adhering strongly to the Object Oriented Ontology philosophy, by which objects are elevated to a higher status than just inanimate things. Attracted by the idea of collectible design, he returned to Italy where a number of different collaborations have helped him hone a consistent language, also through the use of materials such as metal, brass, sheet metal and marble. His collections have become increasingly experimental: his classic, majestic pieces display a youthful and playful approach with a neotenic bent, that condition by which an organism attains its maturity without losing all its juvenile characteristics.