April 16 – 21, Superstudio Più, Milan

From Lebanon, affordable design inspired by science, nature and politics

Wyssem and Cécile Nochi at the 2008 week of design

Affordable design inspired by science, nature and politics with strong social and environmental traits in its DNA: this is what Lebanese designers and artists Wyssem and Cécile Nochi will showcase at 2008 design week in Milan (April 16 – 21, Superstudio Più, via Tortona 27), displaying their new projects surfing between design and art and a selection of their collector pieces and best hits.

The exhibition, held at “Showroom” of Superstudio Più, aims at providing an overall impression of the driving forces behind the design philosophy of Wyssem and Cécile Nochi: scientific concepts, the preservation of nature, the desire to create affordable products, coming also from recycling, and the tough experience of daily life in Lebanon, their home-country.

“Most of the pieces we produce are one-offs, some are weighted with reference, others are more ephemeral, like the times we live”, says Wyssem Nochi when asked to summarize their work.

The exhibition of Wyssem and Cécile Nochi expands on an indoor area, displaying luxury and lifestyle objects, and on a courtyard area featuring a politically provocative outdoor furnishing collection, looking with ironic and satiric spirit at the conflicts and the violence in Lebanon.

Scientific concepts are a further key inspiration for Wyssem and Cécile Nochi. The shapes and concepts of their creations and products may come from the structures of atoms and DNA or from astrophysics. 

Daily life experience and the concern for the environmental impact of products and objects are fundamental motivation behind a do-it-yourself attitude towards manufacturing, openly considering the opportunities offered by recycling.

Making low-cost designs available to everybody and suggesting the possibility to imitate their design philosophy by recycling used objects in self-made furnishings - this delivers social and environmental traits to the design and the artwork of Wyssem and Cécile Nochi.

Biographies

Wyssem Nochi holds an MA from the Architectural Association in London and a BA from the New School of Social Research - Parsons School of Design in New York.  He has taught architecture and design at the American University of Beirut and the Lebanese American University, where he introduced product design to its curriculum. He has produced works in architecture and urban design and has developed numerous products in limited batch editions and on-offs.  He has earned a number of awards and has shown works in Lebanon and abroad. He recently founded ON/OFF a design stage in downtown Beirut.

Cécile Nochi studied at l’École des Beaux-Arts and l’École Supérieure d’Art Moderne de Paris.  She has developed products for MEKER industries, and earned the « Table Rase » Centre Culturel Français prize for her chairs « c/w » and the « Achkal Alwan » Ministère de la Culture prize for her « Hommage à Saint-Exupéry ».

Wyssem and Cecile Nochi

art and design at

Superstudio Più – Showroom

Via Tortona 27, Milan

Opening Hours:

April 16 – 20, 2008

H 10.00 am to 10.00 pm

April 21, 2008

H 10.00 am to 6.00 pm

Press-preview:

April 15, 2008

H 3.00 pm to 7.00 pm

How to arrive:

Subway MM 2, Porta Genova station

For editorial requests and information:

Sabine Schweigert, +39 347 0868023, press@sabineschweigert.com

1 - ”Anticipation no explosives” (Wyssem Nochi): folding side table, topped with a road sign interdicting bomb blasts and suicide bomb attacks. 

2 - ”Circus hors-d’oeuvres” (Wyssem Nochi): is inspired by circus performers’ balancing act of plates spun on long sticks. The long sticks can be easily positioned in the garden. Plates with finger-food and small snacks are safely attached to the sticks by small magnets. 

3 - ”Nabat” (c/wn_product made in Lebanon, design by Cécile and Wyssem Nochi): Nabat is one of a series of light-fixtures made of luffas, sewn in different shapes around lamps screening lights at their centre. At 2008 Milan Fuorisalone exhibition, the designers will present a stylish black edition of Luffa lamps.

4 -  ”Wormhole” (Wyssem Nochi): table inspired to the concept of space and time travelling from a place on earth (table-top) to another galaxy (base of the table), short-cutting through a wormhole (funnel-shaped column).

5 – “C/W” (c/wn_product made in Lebanon, design by Cécile and Wyssem Nochi): the rigorous steel frame of C/W chairs is interrupted and contrasted by the fluid shape and gentle wicker surface of the seat. The frontal silhouettes of the two chairs seem to be communicating as W chair widens towards the top, while C chair widens towards the bottom. Awarded by the Centre Culturel Français.