Aspiranti Aspiratori

When art meets industry it generates a new comparative methodology which might go by the name of organindustry. The artist spends time at the company, becoming familiar with the environment to the point that his or her body fills with contents. The company, or industry, becomes the artist’s organism and as such starts to function by osmosis, becoming a world of changes. The company in this case is Elica, world leader in the production of domestic range hoods for the kitchen, and the artist is Sissi. The eclectic and multi-talented artist was invited by the Fondazione Ermanno Casoli to take part in a highly experimental project, headed by the Foundation’s art director, Marcello Smarrelli, to create a new article for air purification.

Aspiranti Aspiratori follows the casting of the 10 ‘aspiring’ range hoods that Sissi designed. The artist then turned these into a hand-written and hand-bound book. The result is an artist’s record, the manifesto of a new industry which, like the human body, is made up of organs interacting with each other through alternative synapses, creative contractions and pulses of inspiration. The outline of a man suddenly becomes the index of the book, ready to guide us through a most unusual collection of range hoods – one with long eyelashes, another with woven clothes, yet others with wheels and balloons. Sissi’s creative thought process is charted on an anatomical map. Aspiranti Aspiratori is a richly detailed book, whose form and binding are carefully crafted to provide insight into a rare instance of industry working side by side with art. The result is a series of unique objects that combine beauty and functionality, and an important step towards the new frontiers of design.