La Società delle Api presents its newest publication 4ROOMS retracing the realization of an interior design project created in the three-level house, Porta Rossa, located in the center of the village on the Greek island of Kastellorizo in 2022.

Inspired by 5Rooms, a project initiated by Silvia Fiorucci, La Società delle Api issued a call for the creation of four rooms in “Porta Rossa”. Owned by a family of sponge merchants for generations, the house was subsequently renovated by Silvia Fiorucci preserving its original structure and architectural features. The objective of the call was to find and award four projects, aimed at renovating the house’s bedrooms, from among those submitted by the twelve designers invited to take part by a commission.

The project, curated by Annalisa Rosso, intended to provide support to the work of the designers and to contemporary creativity while promoting dialogue and exchange in the context of Mediterranean culture and its unique historical and landscape heritage.

The edition’s winners were: Studio Brynjar & Veronika; Phanos Kyriacou; UND.studio; Julie Richoz.

The common spaces of Porta Rossa, were designed by Superpoly, one of the studios awarded on the occasion of 5Rooms.

“I wanted to continue the project which I had already begun at my house in Grasse in collaboration with Villa Noailles, and create a dialogue between my two favorite places, these houses where I live and around which we are creating a community of artists, designers, and thinkers. This community will be able to use these spaces as studios for producing new projects and reflections. I ask for nothing in return but only seek to share experiences through which something useful can be built. I believe in the power of curiosity and in giving creators absolute freedom. To put it simply, I live the dream of helping develop ideas through the places that I love and feel a deep connection to.”
– Silvia Fiorucci, Società delle Api President and Founder, Art Collector

“The designers involved in the creation of 4Rooms have been able to absorb the unique reality of the island – its historic, social, and geographic context – into their own diverse creative languages. They’ve put themselves to the test, experimenting with preexisting objects and materials to create original reinterpretations, engaging local realities, and inventing novel solutions. The result is a radical and courageous work and a new way of thinking about design: the sense of space itself, the idea of function. It has been an open and inclusive design practice, one formulated in the welcoming style typical of the Società delle Api.”
– Annalisa Rosso, 4Rooms Curator

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Designers

Studio Brynjar & Veronika Studio Brynjar & Veronika is a collaborative art and design venture helmed by Brynjar Sigurðarson and Veronika Sedlmair. Situated in Immenstadt, Germany, the studio combines various artistic mediums, often exploring the intersection of myth and reality.For more than ten years, Veronika and Brynjar have curated a diverse portfolio, drawing inspiration from theatrical and natural elements. Their work intertwines anthropology, geology, and narrative, resulting in a collection of imaginative pieces spanning drawings, photographs, video, sound, and objects.Their creations have been showcased in notable projects worldwide, such as the ‘Silent Village’ collection for Galerie kreo in Paris and the ‘Circle Flute’, featured in Björk’s Cornucopia concert tour. Additionally, they’ve collaborated with brands like Swarovski and crafted collections for Thomas Eyck.Their work has been exhibited in prestigious museums globally, including the Design Museum in Helsinki and the Röhsska Museum in Gothenburg. Notable collections include ‘Animated Geology’, featured in the ‘Tendenser’ exhibition series in Moss, Norway.Awards and recognition include the Swiss Design Awards and the Swarovski Designers of the Future Award. Brynjar has notably received the Torsten and Wanja Söderberg Prize and serves as a faculty member at ECAL-École cantonale d’art de Lausanne.Their ongoing projects encompass Glass Research with CIRVA in Marseille, site-specific wall reliefs, and a public installation for Ornamenta 24 in Pforzheim, Germany. Studio Brynjar & Veronika remains committed to pushing artistic boundaries with unwavering dedication.

Phanos Kyriacou Phanos Kyriacou was born in Nicosia in 1977. He graduated from the Middlesex School of Fine Arts in 2001 before taking a Master of Fine Arts at Goldsmiths University, London in 2007. He co-represented Cyprus at the 55th Venice Biennale and he is a co- founder and director of the Artist-run gallery PARTY Contemporary and founder of the project space Midget Factory (2002-2012). Through the use of the sculptural and the filmic, Phanos Kyriacou’s practice involves the setting up of encounters that restructure commonsensical ideations of the relations between objects, information and society. Embracing paradox, the histories of the ad-hoc and the exceptions on which the exemplary rests, he often collaborates with local Cypriot craftsmen in order to elaborate a materialism of alternatives. His interest lies in utilising both the urban and the gallery space as sites of antagonistic flows, where rapturous rearrangements of signs create surfaces of urgency. Using the fragment as a tactical ally, his sculptures often host found and made objects. Kyriacou exhaustingly carries over the (ar)rhythmic congeniality of fragments into taxonomies that energise a semiotics of (g)hosting, visually translating moments that elicit the potentiality of inbetweenness. He had a number of solo presentations including: 2023 “dreams”, public project, Nicosia | 2021 “at, this moment” curated by Luca Lo Pinto, Macro Museum Rome, Now Dear Eyes, “Dear Eyes, a Split” Eins gallery, Limassol | 2019 “ΝΝPK THR // NIC Intonations”, Party Contemporary, Nicosia, “ a kind of there, there” curated by Evagoras Vanezis, Thkio Ppalies, Nicosia, “Garden Sculptures” Eins Gallery. He has also participated in a number of group exhibitions in Cyprus and abroad including: 2023 “Key Change” curated by Evagoras Vanezis, Pylon Foundation, Minerva Platres | 2022 “4 rooms” Società delle Api, Kastellorizo | “2019 “JOMO” Macro Museum, Rome, 2019 Hypersurfacing, curated by Marina Christodoulidou, NiMAC, Nicosia Nicosia | 2018 “Adhocracy Vol 1: Books and Tools”, curated by Natalie Yiaxi and Phanos Kyriacou, Party Contemporary, Nicosia.

Julie Richoz Swiss-French designer Julie Richoz set up her eponymous design studio in Paris in 2015, through which she enjoys exploring with curiosity and sensibility the development of her own language through objects. From unique pieces to industrial scale, she sees a continuity rather than a difference between the two ways of production. In both cases, she is fascinated by the savoir-faire and the passion and precision in handling materials. Her practice ranges from objects, furniture, and lighting to textiles, for companies such as Alessi, Louis Poulsen, Hay, Mattiazzi, La Manufacture de Cogolin, Galerie kreo, among others. After graduating from ECAL University of Art and Design Lausanne (2012), she worked for Pierre Charpin as a project assistant (2013-2015). She was a designer-in-residence at CIRVA Research Center on Art and Glass, France (2013), at Sèvres – Cité de la Céramique, France (2013), and at Casa Wabi, Mexico (2017). She has been awarded the Grand Prix at Design Parade (2012), Swiss Design Awards (2015/2019), Bourse Leenaards (2016) and the Grand Prix de la Création de la ville de Paris (2023). Since 2017, Richoz has taught industrial design at ECAL University of Art and Design Lausanne, Switzerland.

UND studio UND.studio is a collective of designers, artists, cabinetmakers and architects collectively investigating objects and spaces. It is home to a group of individuals with a multitude of approaches and artistic expressions, collaborating with the aim of creating joyful objects and sharing ever-expanding knowledge, means of production and a publishing platform. While projects have so far been conceived in independent constellations within the collective, for Porta Rossa, UND.studio is for the first time involving the entire studio. UND.studio is Peter Behrbohm, Niklas Böll, Jonas Maria Droste, Michel Gutzeit, Till Ronacher, Sebastian Schwindt, Simon Stanislawski and Anton Steenbock.

Superpoly Thomas Defour (1992) graduated from the École nationale supérieure des arts visuels La Cambre in Brussels. He lives in Hyères and Brussels. Antoine Grulier (1990) graduated from the École supérieure d’art et de de- sign Marseille – Méditerranée and from the École Duperré in Paris. He lives in Hyères and Paris. After their schooling, they founded Superpo- ly together in 2015. Their aim is to create immersive surroundings through an all-inclusive plastic design approach that combines contemporary art, interi- or design, graphic design, ornamentation and design. In addition to aesthet- ics and functionality, they want to offer a special experience to the people who inhabit their spaces. Their practice sees them directly involved in every phase of the work, including artisanal craftsmanship, in order to integrate unusual and whimsical elements into the final result. In 2016, Superpoly received the Prix du Public and a special mention from the jury at the first edition of the Design Parade Toulon. In 2017, Superpoly designed Room 15 at Hôtel la Reine Jane in Hyères. In 2018, they were part of the project 5Rooms by designing the Superposé Room.

Members of the Commitee

Michael Anastassiades Cypriot-born, London-based designer whose practice encompasses product, spatial interventions and experimental works, often transcending the distinctions between different fields of creativity. Anastassiades founded his studio in London in 1994. He trained as a civil engineer at London’s Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine before taking a Master’s degree in Industrial Design at the Royal College of Art. His work is featured in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the MAK in Wien, the Crafts Council in London, the FRAC Centre in Orléans, France, and the Saint Louis Art Museum in Saint Louis. Recent solo exhibitions include: Reload the Current Page, at Point Centre for Contemporary Art, Nicosia; Doing on Time and Light at Rodeo Gallery, Istanbul; To Be Perfectly Frank at Svenskt Tenn, Stockholm; Kinetic Light 2 – Gold Pendulum at the Victoria & Albert Museum’s Norfolk House Music Room in London; Silver Tongued at Taka Ishii Shop, Hong Kong; 13 Mobiles at Atelier Jespers, Brussels; Things That Go Together at Ni-MAC, Nicosia. Anastassiades is a Royal Designer for Industry (RD) at the Royal Society of Arts. He is involved in educational programs at international institutions such as Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, and ECAL, Lausanne. The Michael Anastassiades Studio has collaborated with various manufacturers including FLOS, B&B Italia, Herman Miller, Cassina, Molteni, Bang & Olufsen, Puiforcat, Fratelli Fantini, Roda, Salvatori, along with many others.

Alexis Georgacopoulos Born in Athens in 1976, he is Director of ECAL–École cantonale d’art de Lausanne. Founded in 1821, ECAL regularly features among the world’s top 10 universities of art and design. In 2016, ECAL was ranked 5th in the world for best architecture and design schools by the influential website Dezeen. Mr. Georgacopoulos received his Bachelor’s degree in Product Design from ECAL in 1999. In 2000, he became the youngest Department Head in Switzerland when he took on the leadership of ECAL’s Industrial Design department. For Mr. Georgacopoulos, knowledge in art and design is achieved through close links between education and real-world practice. He was officially appointed Director of ECAL in July 2011. Since then, he has initiated numerous projects and collaborations, such as Delirious Home, awarded the Best Exhibition Prize at the 2014 Milan Furniture Fair, and reference books such as ECAL Photography or ECAL Graphic Design, presented in conjunction with exhibitions around the world. He also initiated institution-al collaborations between ECAL and IMD-Business School in Lausanne and the MIT in Cambridge. He participates in international juries such as Design of the Year at the London Design Museum, the Designer of the Future Award for Design Miami, and for the Design Prize Switzerland. Amongst others, he is member of the Cultural Council of the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie. Wallpaper* magazine named him among the “100 design world’s most powerful players.”

Cristiano Raimondi Born in Bologna in 1978, he lives and works in Monaco. As a curator and set designer, he collaborates actively on major projects with artists, curators, collectors and museums. His transdisciplinary approach combines contemporary art with history, design, fashion and social sciences. After completing his studies in art and architecture history, Raimondi began working with numerous galleries and founded Car Projects, a multidisciplinary space dedicated to contemporary art production. From 2009 to 2019, he was the head of development and international projects, as well as curator of the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco (NMNM). From 2016 to 2019, he curated the Back to the Future section of the Artissima fair in Turin. Over the last ten years he has curated a number of major international exhibitions, including solo shows by Thomas Demand, Thomas Schütte, Erik Bulatov, Richard Artschwager, Gilbert & George, Nathalie Du Pasquier, Ettore Spalletti, Luigi Ghirri, among many others. In the meantime, he has pursued his own multidisciplinary research, maintaining international relations and collaborating on publications with artists and curators. He is currently the artistic director of the International Prize of Contemporary Art of the Foundation Prince Pierre in Monaco.

Annalisa Rosso Contemporary Design specialist. Co-founder with Francesco Mainardi of Mr. Lawrence, Milan-based design consultancy that works with international public and private figures to create virtuous connections and bridge the gap between collectible and industrial design. Currently Editorial Director and Cultural Events advisor for Salone del Mobile.Milano, formerly editor-in-chief of Icon Design magazine (Mondadori) and in charge of Domus web. She has collaborated with collector Silvia Fiorucci since 2017. Together, they have developed the artists’ residency projects 5Rooms in Grasse, France, and 4Rooms in Kastellorizo, Greece, along with deep conversations about design and architecture. Annalisa Rosso is part of The Advisory Hive of Società delle Api, the independent non-profit organization founded by Silvia Fiorucci. With her studio Mr.Lawrence, Rosso has curated exhibitions and site-specific projects dedicated to contemporary design. Among the most recent: “Echoes of Alchemy” for Irthi – UAE Contemporary Crafts Council, “Chronos” by Objects of Common Interest at Design Miami/, “Design Made in Hong Kong” at the Hong Kong Arts Centre. TEDx Speaker and Design Ambassador for the Italian Design Day 2022 (Prague), 2021 (Hong Kong) and 2020 (Copenaghen). As a public speaker and commentator on design, she has participated in relevant global events including Madrid Design Festival, Design Miami/ Basel, New York Design Week, Design Canberra Festival, Faculty of Architecture in Genova, Politecnico and NABA in Milan, Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design, Triennale Milano. She has served on many cultural juries including Design Parade in Hyères, The Design Prize in Milan, Romanian Design Week, Designblok in Prague. She is part of the Honorary Committee at Collectible fair in Brussels, and Expert Committee at Madrid Design Festival.