London-based studio Raw Edges has transformed a traditional Israeli dance into a lighting installation at Milan’s Spazio Krizia for Salone del Mobile. Called Horah, the Milan Design Week installation consists a group of about 30 ‘dancing lights’ crafted and engineered by WonderGlass. Each light is assembled from multiply casted glass curved ‘leaves’ and has an inner side to side pivoting movement. As a result of this movement the strength of light is dimmed, the shape of each light is constantly transformed (contract and extract like breathing) and a clacking sound of the glass occurs at the end of each turn.
Light is a central aspect for Spazio Krizia, which after its collaborations with Ingo Maurer and Formafantasma, continues this journey of research, choosing Spazio as the perfect set design for the most visionary contemporary investigations into this theme under the creative direction of Zhu Chongyun.
Raw-Edges, a design studio founded by Yael Mer and Shay Alkalay, is the formal synthesis of two different approaches which converge in the creation of consistently unprecedented projects and the result of a strong environmental awareness: Yael loves to create curved volumes and functional shapes, Shay has a profound interest for the way things move, function and interact.
“Krizia has always been interested in the cutting edge and dialogue with contemporary cross-disciplinary content, and for that reason we wished to collaborate with Raw-Edges, designers capable of surprising us with their poetic creativity,” sats Zhu Chongyun, Krizia Creative Director.
“When pursuing our interest for the serial repetition of objects, we realised that their movement in synchrony reinforces the power of the repetition itself. The synchronisation of elements has an intriguing factor and provokes a certain emotion and fascination, these sensations we experience as we watch the traditional Israeli dancers of the Horah. The individual is attracted by the power of the group’s cohesion and by the fact that a coordinated rhythmic movement greatly strengthens our attention,” adss Raw-Edges’s team.
“Today, design has no need for new lampshades or chairs, but new design paradigms. Raw-Edges works on boundaries, investigating living and primary materials. Raw elements, not yet refined. They have an atypical speech, little incline to fashion and glitter. Often silent but of great substance and inspiration. Delicate and never aggressive. It follows the asymmetrical and experimental poetry of Krizia,” explains Cristiano Seganfreddo, Krizia Artistic Director. “Horah merges material, craft, engineering and poetry. Dedicated to the popular folk dance of the same name, the same community and egalitarian dimension is emulated with a strong symbolic value. A perfect synchrony which opens and closes, creating a dialogue between as many dancing circles as there are lampshades present in the large Spazio Krizia.”
“Innovation is synonymous with risk-taking and organisations that create revolutionary products. We make an environment unique through the sense of glass,” concludes Christian and Maurizio Mussati, WonderGlass founders.
At the moment the lights have only been made for the exhibition, but the designers hope to create a production version. Horah is on show at Spazio Krizia, on Via Daniele Manin 21, from 17 to 22 April as part of Milan Design Week.
