ETTORE SOTTSASS
October 19 to November 17-2012
ToolsGalerie, Ivan Mietton and Meshiwan no Sato present
QUALCHE COSA DI MAGICO
A selection of exceptional pieces made by the greatest Japanese lacquer masters in limited series by Marutomi.
« The first time I saw a Japanese lacquerware was a long time ago, about forty years ago, in a somewhat dilapidated and very snobbish shop in Kyoto.
As I entered, I was struck by the silence, the dusty light coming in through the window, a slightly chemical and very natural smell and finally by a curious chromatic palette: blacks, dark reds and deep browns.
In a dark corner of the shop was a square box with cut corners. Its colors were delicate, like the caramel my mother used to spread on her strudels.
I immediately wanted to own this box.
And I did.
It was exorbitantly priced, but I instantly decided it was worth much more than I could put in it.
Since then, I've always kept this box close to me, like a piece of jewellery or a piece of memory, or even as an irreplaceable friend.
I have always opened it with two (clean) hands, lifting its lid very slowly, as if the box could feel my delicacy, my respect, my total absence of brutality.
In this box, I always put precious, very precious things: some special brushes, some tubes of extraordinary colors, perhaps colors used in China by elementary school children, an improbable exercise book made of fine paper.
I heard, much later, that this box, in this color, with its shiny caramel surface through which I could guess the soft wood, was, in this far away shop, the cheapest. All the others cost at least ten times the price of the one I liked.
Perhaps it was because it was the cheapest that this pale box belongs to me today.
I think anyone who owns a Japanese lacquerware is lucky because he has something magical.
Ettore Sottsass
Spring 2001