Mauro Mori was born in Cremona in 1965 and since his youth he travels a lot and expresses the perceptions of his travels through his innate manual creativity; his opportunity to meet people and cultures, different languages ??and unusual places provide the ideas on which his research is based and express themselves in his personalized functional and figurative forms.
The shapes are simple and elementary like the mold of the hand that creates them; the materials create his unique works by amplifying the natural heritage and enhancing what Nature has created. Precisely for these reasons, Mauro Mori’s works are modeled directly by the hands and not by the machines, therefore they bring emotional and emotional values, which become the added value and the fulcrum of the work itself.
Solid blocks of natural material, often worked in their places of origin, such as the Albizia Rosa marine wood of the Seychelles, natural or ebonized, or the Italian marble, handpicked and worked directly in Carrara, are the origins of the unique handmade forms . The plasticity of the materials, the reliefs on them and the desired and evident craftsmanship constitute the common thread that runs through all the designer’s work and reveals the desired shape through a process of subtraction. His work develops through the reading of symbols and symbolisms, sometimes drawn from everyday life and sometimes sought after in specific historical periods and geographical contexts and then translated into a contemporary and personal language. Research changes, transforming and maturing continuously: it alternates between induction and deduction, belongs to today and adapts to the daily life that surrounds everything and is constantly updated.
Mauro Mori’s works identify a luxury not ostentatious, but hidden in the material, without the need to adopt decorative or complex forms; a luxury that is celebrated in the preciousness of the natural material and the potential that, through the craftsmanship, are expressed in the best way.
The constant research and development is also demonstrated by the work on metals, which are worked in the form of slabs and finished with oxidations and patinas: iron, steel and copper, often rough and never polished are among the preferred metals, with which they are made specimens unique, like all the designer’s works.
In 1994 Mauro Mori starts his own business and in 1998 officially opens his atelier, Mauro Mori Studio. In 2004 Ferrero1947 dedicated a retrospective to him in his gallery in Turin, with unique pieces in pink Albizia, ebonized pink Albizia, steel and copper.
Cassina
La Cassina was founded in 1927 in Meda, in the heart of Brianza, by the brothers Cesare and Umberto Cassina, initially for the construction of supplies for large cruise ships, including the famous Andrea Doria, the interiors of which were designed by architect Gio Ponti. Then begins a historic partnership between Cassina and Gio Ponti, consolidated in the 50s, which will lead to the creation of many masterpieces of Italian design, among them the chair called “Superleggera”, weighing 1.66 kg, an intelligent and cultured rereading of the famous Chiavarina chair, built on the Ligurian hills.
After and at the same time as Gio Ponti, promising young Italian designers, such as Mario Bellini, Achille Castiglioni, Vico Magistretti, will begin to collaborate with Cassina, belonging to what is now universally recognized as the Milanese school; thanks to the courage and flair of Cesare Cassina the company begins to identify itself as a laboratory of the best Italian design, with a careful search for ever new technologies, made available to designers, and with a constant analysis of lifestyle changes and ways of living.
At the same time as this research and collaboration with contemporary designers, thanks to the foresight and perseverance of Filippo Allison, Cassina continues a philological discourse of re-examination, rediscovery and reproduction of historical masters of Italian and international design. Thus an independent catalog was born, called “The Masters” to be added to the contemporary one, where the proposals of Le Corbusier, Charlotte Perriand, Gerrit Rietveld, Frank Lloyd Wright find space, up to the recent acquisitions of the archives and rights of the works of Franco Albini and Marco Zanuso. To carry out this project correctly and philologically, the company relies on the collaboration of the foundations in charge, where they were created as in the case of the Le Corbusier Foundation, or direct heirs.
In more recent years Cassina has experimented with the collaboration with contemporary designers of various origins, such as the French Philippe Starck, the Italian Piero Lissoni or the Spanish Patricia Urquiola, always maintaining that common thread of research, experimentation and innovation in the world of living. The most recent projects, after the Cassina family leaves the scene, are entrusted to artistic directors, such as the current Patricia Urquiola, who try to give an interpretation of the Cassina world, also re-reading some classics with the inclusion of colors and finishes. new.
The catalog dedicated to the Masters, each year enriched with new projects with the approval of the Foundations and heirs, remains the most brilliant and commercially successful example of how historical design can survive many experiments that are sometimes unnecessary. An example of this enrichment is the dialogue carried out by the company with Pernette Perriand, children of Charlotte Perriand, which allowed the rediscovery of the figure of this great designer, mistakenly overshadowed by the master Le Corbusier, and many of his little-known projects from the general public.