Sonia Pedrazzini
Design Atelier

Via Castello, 20
29121 Piacenza (I)

Phone +39 0523 323373
Fax +39 0523 323373

studio@soniapedrazzini.it

The Sonia Pedrazzini Design Atelier is a creative and eclectic studio involved in design, art, packaging and communication and that – both on theoretical and applicative level – is interested in the cultural and pop aspects of contemporary society.

Surely for everyone, Giorgio Morandi means something. As soon as we hear his name, our minds recall the famous still life paintings--so motionless, so silent, and touched by that inimitable, opaque light. If you mention “Morandi”, you immediately remember his bottles-like how mentioning “Dali” brings to mind melting clocks or thinking of the colorful Marilyn when mentioning “Warhol”. However, when we distance ourselves from those images we already have in our mind, and we deal with the actual works of art, then things change. Thousands of still life paintings by Morandi exist; while they are all similar, they are all irrefutably “Morandian” and Morandi’s genius plays a sophisticated hide-and-seek game through which he showed parts of himself in each of the paintings, but he never entirely revealed himself in any of them.

This indefinable quality heads us off in the right direction. In order to better understand Morandi’s works, we must analyze the process he followed to create them-which was of paramount importance in their creation. If we want to understand Morandi, we must visit his studio apartment at Via Fondazza, in Bologna. Only in this place, while looking at the tables he utilized and seeing the bottles which were the protagonists of his still life paintings, do we begin to understand the unbelievable project which kept him so active throughout his life. The surfaces of these tables, covered with tracing paper, are completely filled with pen and red or blue pencil marks. They are charts, roadmaps, paths, and labyrinths according to which the artist, in his daily experimentation, moved his bottles and other objects, varying from one composition to another, in an endless game of changing arrangements.

This observation can bring Morandi closer to our feelings. Morandi is, without doubt, the last of the great Italian painters who respected tradition, since he felt he belonged to it; however, and this is even more surprising, Morandi is also a completely contemporary artist, whose art cannot be separated from the process through which it was obtained.

To understand him, we must refer back to this “true” Morandi. This is exactly the core meaning of the project “Le Morandine,” which you now have in your hands- a conceptual design work by Sonia Pedrazzini. Game, hobby, pedagogical tool, artistic creation, décor, and design for your mind- you may call it as you wish, and it does not matter.

In the physical shape of wax candles, here Morandi’s bottles are embodied, and you will have the opportunity to become like the artist in his world, which is both commonplace and far reaching. You may set down these shapes casually, or you may want to move them around to find the perfect arrangement, which will remain unaltered as long as you wish. Or you may, every morning, or even every hour, change their positioning, either slightly or drastically, looking for a better set-up. You may even just move them around on a whim, as a game, or yielding to sudden inspiration. Let your gaze pause on these shapes, renditions inspired by those created by Morandi. Let their hues, faithfully taken from his paintings, penetrate you.

You may place them on the guiding diagram, which was obtained from Morandi’s very own. Now it is only up to you, and you may do as you please. You can be the artist who plays with the hidden meaning of ordinary shapes and objects. Whatever you will decide to do, while participating, you will have “understood” Morandi, and, most of all, he will have “understood” you.

Le Morandine are a collection of objects designed by Sonia Pedrazzini whose shapes bring to mind the famous still lifes of Giorgio Morandi.

The intention of this project, other than to pay tribute to the Great Master, is to enable people to “do as Morandi”, to experience the same deep interaction that he had with the everyday objects he painted; a relationship totally focused on concepts of slight movement, time dilation and interior luminosity.

The project Le Morandine began in 1998 when it was proposed to an Italian company but it was not followed, it was then presented to the direction of the Museo Morandi in Bologna and finally in 2009 was produced by the same Sonia Pedrazzini who realized first the graphic pattern and the candles collection, and in 2013 also the series of ceramic vases, officially presented at the Salone del Mobile 2014 in a special edition for Molteni & C.

The play on Morandi continues and other objects soon will enrich the collection.

The concept of the Le Morandine line has been developed from the observation of lines, circles and pencil sketches Morandi marked on his work table to determine the correct placement of objects, and thus, establish the perfect artistic composition.

To complete the project, a pattern was created that reproduces, in a stylized way and with contemporary graphics, a “map of Morandi”, with the circular signs being the positions of his bottles.

The set comprises four candles, in different shapes and hues, that reflect the Morandian objects and colour palette.

Handcrafted, the Le Morandine candles have an etched “weave” pattern that makes them unique and that give them that waxy light effect typical to Morandi’s works.

They are arranged in a beautiful packaging, in groups of four, in the cool and warm hues most often used in Morandian tones.

Each box is signed and numbered and comes in a limited edition of 300.

Four different shapes, eight colours, countless positions.

The “Morandi game” is like a zen exercise. Every day you can create your own ideal composition, your own perfect still life to infinity.

Le Morandine V. are a collection of hand-painted ceramic jars, jugs and vases, the shapes of which - like the preceding series of candles, from which they are a development - conjure up the still lifes of GiorgioMorandi.

Shapes released from the picture flow freely in space and move slowly on imaginary roads in order to create intimate still-lives similar to the ones conceived by the artist at the table in his atelier.

These vases in the typical Morandi color range, preserve the matt and chalky appearance of the daily objects that the artist encountered and repainted before transposing them into the waxy light of his paintings.

Le Morandine V. vases - made by hand by Italian craftspeople on a design by Sonia Pedrazzini - are available on order and are sold both singly and as a group.

The colours can be chosen from a broad palette of select hues.

Each vase bears a monogram that guarantees its originality.

“One of the foremost Italian Still Life masters has inspired a talented Italian designer not only to give life to his paintings, but also to let us be part of that process.

The “Le Morandine” candle series has successfully managed to transform the protagonists in Morandi's Still Life paintings into Real Life objects.

The famous Bolognese painter Giorgio Morandi who is known for his endlessly changing arrangements of bottles, bowls and jars before capturing them on a canvas, has now been given a new lease of life through the experience we are given through the medium of Pedrazzini's candles.



For those who won't have the opportunity to visit Giorgio Morandi’s house on Via Fondazza 36 in Bologna, Italy, where the famous painter lived and worked from 1910 to 1964, you should definitely give Sonia permission to bring some of his energy to your house and remind you of the waxy light of his paintings!”

Costas Voyatzis
http://www.yatzer.com