On Wednesday November 17th Jimmie Durham, one of LABINAC’s founders and designers, peacefully passed away in his sleep after struggling with many medical ailments in the last months.
This portrait of Jimmie was taken about a month ago in Naples, Italy. In front of Jimmie, a table full of objects and materials.
“I enjoy them as they interrupt and intervene in my thought process and often make me smarter” he stated.
Jimmie is leaving a huge gap in our hearts, minds and spirits and is missed immensely. To honour him LABINAC will continue to carry on Jimmie’s visions for design through our objects and projects.
Photo by @fabriziocicconi_ph
We are pleased to announce the opening of the show
Collective design started by Maria Thereza Alves and Jimmie Durham, LABINAC
in show at Michel Rein’s Gallery in Paris from November 6th, 2021 until January 8th, 2022.
Alves and Durham are thrilled to present a selection of new works from the LABINAC collective for the first time in France: tables, chairs, benches, lights and interior design elements such as vases, and stone and glass lamps, which could capture natural light.
The deep research into materials and their possible use and approach is the key to their experimentation, the desire to play with the different solution and the lives of each single object is the core of their work.
Salvaged and new materials intertwine giving life to objects that seem to be destined to have no clear temporal definition.
Please find additional information here: Michel Rein
ALCOVA 2021 came to an end this week, and we are excited about the success.
55.000 people visited ALCOVA and saw our room. And we had the wonderful opportunity to engage with many visitors in conversations about our works and designs and to get feedback.
We are glad to share some images of our space and our objects below
photos: Agnese Bedini and Piercarlo Quecchia | DSL Studio
IG: @agnese_bedini @piercarloquecchia @dsl__studio
The press reported enthusiastically about ALCOVA, some press highlights here:
“The most talked-about show of the fuorisalone was Alcova, which this year took place in a
former military hospital and attracted a record 55,000 visitors” – DEZEEN
“Away from the formality of Salone del Mobile’s downtown showrooms, an experimental
platform is exploring the limits of modern design” – MONOCLE
“A new must-see destination and snapshot of the evolution of design, the third edition of Alcova
is set in a large city park with rural allure” – AD
“Alcova, the platform for independent design developed by Space Caviar and Studio Vedèt,
returns for 2021 with a new spectacular site” – DESIGNBOOM
“The raw spaces that serve as backdrops to the exhibitions allow visitors to discover design with a novel approach; the exhibitions feature an array of independent talent, not to be missed” – WALLPAPER
“Elsewhere in town, Alcova galvanized dozens of hip galleries and studios in a bucolic compound of abandoned buildings and overgrown foliage that felt like a magical movie set” – SIGHT UNSEEN
“Alcova is a journey among the best emerging contemporary designers” – DOMUS
“Alcova changes location without losing energy as contemporary international design, emerging and niche, hits the stage with an exuberance the city needs” – ELLE DECOR
We are thankful for being part of ALCOVA 2021 and want to thank Valentina Ciuffi and Joseph Grimma and the whole ALCOVA team team for their fantastic work – without which this tremendous success would not have been possible.
We are proud to announce that LABINAC will open the new exhibit
New Uses and Salvaged Participation
in the 2021 Milano Design Week at ALCOVA. New designs of vases, tables, lights and other objects by Maria Thereza Alves, Jimmie Durham and Jone Kvie will be presented.
Please visit us from 4 – 12 September
ALCOVA 2021
Via Simone Saint Bon 1
MILAN
METRO Inganni M1
4 Sept 2021 H 11 am – 5 pm (last entry at 4 pm)
5 – 12 Sept 2021 H 11 am – 7 pm (last entry at 6 pm)
9 – 11 Sept 2021 – late opening until 9 pm (last entry at 8 pm)
It is compulsory to show a Covid certification (green pass) to access. It is also mandatory to wear a medical mask.
Please find the press releases in English and Italian here:
LABINAC_PR_ALCOVA_ENG
LABINAC_PR_ALCOVA_IT
We are excited to announce that the exhibition ECHOES of the FOREST will be reopened from September 3rd to 17th 2021.
The exhibition is open Tuesday to Sunday, 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. by appointment.
Please book an appointment via
info@venicegardensfoundation.org
+ 39 041 3121 700
We hope to see you there.
Please find the press release for the reopening here:
PR_ECHOES OF THE FOREST – SETTEMBRE
After a successful opening and first week we are happy to share some impressions of the exhibitions.
Come una Foresta
2019
marble, brass, aluminium
individual table appr. 145 x 75 x 67,5 cm (set of 4 as on the image 280 x 160 x 67,5 cm)
designed by Maria Thereza Alves for LABINAC
on top 4 vases by Maria Thereza Alves
ARBOLETIER
2021
stainless steel, Murano glass, glass, LED lights
appr. 200 x 220 x 100 cm
designed by Jimmie Durham for LABINAC
PINO (series)
2019
resin, bronze, steel
6 different editions, each an edition of 15 + 5 AP
dimensions variable
designed by Jimmie Durham for LABINAC
MARIA THEREZA ALVES and JIMMIE DURHAM during the 17th VENICE ARCHITECTURE BIENNALE
The president of the Venice Gardens Foundation, Adele Re Rebaudengo and curator Chiara Bertola invited artists Maria Thereza Alves and Jimmie Durham to show selected works from their design collective LABINAC in the greenhouse of the Royal Gardens for the opening of the garden’s research center during the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale.
LABINAC has been commissioned to design research and work tables for the restored greenhouse of the Royal Gardens at Piazza San Marco in Venice, restored by Venice Gardens Foundation that takes care of its conservation and management. LABINAC designed for the greenhouse in accordance with the idea of the Venice Gardens Foundation, for which the gardens are a meeting place, where researchers and artists can develop the vast metaphorical concept of the garden, sowing signs, sounds and words, cultivating and nurturing new visions.
“Architecture must begin with a specific place, considering the nature of the surrounding, every building is made in a garden whether or not that is recognised.” -Maria Thereza Alves
The Royal Gardens commissioned by Napoleon adjacent to Piazza San Marco in Venice have been obscured in secrecy, left to decay and hidden from public eye for many years. Recently they have been restored by the Venice Gardens Foundation, with the support of Assicurazioni Generali, and open to the public on December 2019, reclaiming their botanical richness and nineteenth-century design grandeur. A historical and botanical gem comes back to life with a Mediterranean atmosphere. The gardens are surrounded by water facing the imperial rooms of the Royal Palace, the Archeological Museum and the historic Marciana Library.
For the Venice Architecture Biennale LABINAC will present a selection of works under the title:“Echoes of the Forest”. Exhibited will be twenty one tables specifically designed for the Gardens by the two artists, hand-blown glass vases, and a chandelier of broken Murano glass. The tables will remain as a site-specific permanent installation at the venue after the end of the Biennale.
Both Alves and Durham took as their inspiration the endemic Mediterranean Pine Tree. Alves designed research tables from Serpentine Green Marble to represent the trees as seen from above or below. Durham admits: ” We humans always need to know that the rest of nature is close.” LABINAC’s “Echoes of the Forest” scattered throughout the greenhouse opens the possibility of myriad lessons that Flora can teach us and remind us of the necessity and challenges to engage in an inclusive dialogue, which encourages relational practices.
The full press release can be found here:
LABINAC_Echoes of the Forest_Royal Gardens Venice_PRESS RELEASE_FIN
Due to the new COVID19-regulations, the showroom is not open regularly anymore, but only by appointment.
For an appointment please contact us at
info@labinac.com
A friend came by with a box of antique lace. He cleans out apartments for people who acquire them usually as an inheritance. The times change, customs change, fashion changes, and he was asked to take away the lace. While sorting it, I realized that the servant women responsible for the care of the clothes in these well-managed households had conscientiously retrieved lace, much of it handmade, from whatever article of textile that was withering away and would be disposed of. Collars from dresses, flounces from sleeves, borders from tablecloths and curtains were saved in this manner. Rescued by hard-working women who knew the labor involved in making lace: the strain on the eyes and the necessity of damp conditions to keep the linen thread pliable. I would imagine that they saved these pieces as a celebration of the fineness and skill of the lacemakers. It was saved, and saved and thought of and then after awhile it was no longer wanted in that household where perhaps ties of relationships and empathy had ceased.
While sifting through these intricacies of knotted wonders, I thought how to honor the labor and skill involved.
A Joy was There recuperates the lace.
LABINAC contacted Jiyoung Kim, the clothing designer based in Berlin, to collaborate with us in this honoring. If you send us an article of clothing, Jiyoung will send you two samples of lace applied to it that you can choose from.
To place orders and for more information please contact us at:
info@labinac.com
Highlights of meticulously crafted lace on linen shirt by Carla Fernández.
Alves’ mother gave her the Yves Saint Laurent 80s power jacket.
Some lace on the shoulders extends the discussion to include other fields of women’s work.
