‘Barricades’ by Mario Trimarchi is an allegory of the impossible

Stones, pebbles, marble and millenary wood fragments, silhouettes of leaves and birds, semi-transparent crystals and brass scaffolding, are the elements, objects and drawings that constitute the work of Italian designer Mario Trimarchi. The designer combines all these elements into a cohesive collection titled Barricades, on display from February 14 to March 21, 2024, at Milan-based gallery Antonia Jannone Disegno di Architettura. To Trimarchi the drawings mean to ‘understand things better’, and the sculptures on display tell how the accumulation of materials and experiences can generate poetic structures, and amulets against the fatality of life.

“Barricades comprises pieces that are eclectic constructions, and antennas for the transmission of messages and knowledge. Their grammar aligns itself to exchange, pour over, and share experiences. They are devices for the commemoration of a world that Trimarchi retains, safeguards and transmits,” shares Marco Sammicheli, Design curator at Triennale Milano.

The collection includes eight product designs and 16 ink drawings on paper where the drawing and project compete with sculptural art and return founding themes of the product designer’s poetics, such as lightness or the delicate juxtaposition of raw materials with small allegorical figures that refer to an impossible whole to find. “I wanted to build small architectures of fragments in unstable equilibrium, non-existent houses with barely visible facades inhabited by leaves, swallows, a donkey, a flag, and small glass vases to place flowers above the cannons. To evoke the theme of the barricades, which I think symbolically represent today's need to choose, without hesitation, which side to be on,” shares Trimarchi.