To be radical means to reject all predestination, to choose unruliness and to mock norms and tradition.
For this revolutionist project, the non-coherence of processes is reflected in the non-coherence of forms, in the unexpected inspiration, in the independence of volumes unbound by any preconceptions.
The Shadow armchair-literally shadow-does exactly that – it emancipates itself from the need for predefined structures, grows in a radically unregulated way, and settles in relation only to the body that interacts with it.
Shadow armchair one of Pesce’s most significant works for Meritalia
The name, chosen by designer Gaetano Pesce for this creation for Meritalia, refers to the shadow cast by a body and imprinted on the armchair. The armchair is in fact constructed as an imprint: a single volume covered in materials that allow the upholstery to celebrate its irregularity, allowing the fluid and magmatic interior to thicken, and never in the same way.
The Shadow is an object made without a traditional mold. A becoming intrinsic to the manufacturing technology perfected by Meritalia: the chair is formed through the injection of a polyurethane foam into the upholstery, which expands and solidifies in an unpredictable manner. The process, mostly by hand, ensures that each Shadow is different from the others, and the details underscore its uniqueness.
To sit on the Shadow is to allow oneself to be enveloped by a form and at the same time imprint that of one’s own body – an armchair that has memory, able to keep track of the experience of using it. Imprinting a body that becomes a declaration of identity is furnishing a space with Shadow means appropriating it, casting one’s own shadow and fixing it on an everyday and extraordinary object.