‘Remasters’ project by Acerbis returns with iconic pieces from the 70s

With a century and a half of experience, Acerbis is among the most enduring Italian brands in the furniture sector. Continuing this legacy of excellence, the brand with the Remasters project at Milan Design Week 2023, brings three iconic pieces of Italian design from the 70s back into production—which constitutes a precious addition to the brand's archive. Since 1870, Acerbis has been a reference point for admirers of refined Made in Italy products, creating products whose modernity holds an avant-garde design even today, by collaborating with visionary designers including Massimo and Lella Vignelli , Vico Magistretti, Nanda Vigo, Gianfranco Frattini, Giotto Stoppino. Led by Creative Directors Francesco Meda and David Lopez Quincoces, in recent times, they continue the avant-garde tradition, expanding research beyond the confines of the company archive and rediscovering historical projects with revolutionary modernity.

The Salone del Mobile stand offers three different scenarios of contemporary living, in which the pieces of the Remasters collection dialogue with the iconic Due Più chair by Nanda Vigo and with two creations from the 70s by Claudio Salocchi: Free Sysfem, upholstered furniture derived from the concept of the ‘worked floor’ or tatami and Napoleone, a table characterised by a fascinating game of mirrors and reflections.

At the Fuorisalone in the Spotti shop in Viale Piave, the historic showroom in Milan , the creative directors of Acerbis revisit the atmosphere of a Milanese living room of the 70s with the installation Nanda Vigo & Claudio Salocchi—a Milanese Utopia, celebrating the extraordinary creative fervour of the time. The new reissues fit into the 70s allure, with elegant fabrics bouclé and nabuk in delicate nuances for Free System, and an exuberant fur lining of white Mongolia and rust for Due Più. All Remasters products dialogue with creations from the Nanda Vigo archive—Blok lamps and table produced by Acerbis in 1971 and unique pieces from the Salocchi archive, such as the original Napoleone table from the 70s, creating space travel—to discover the avant-garde aesthetics of Acerbis.

The Due Più armchair by Nanda Vigo

The Due Più armchair by Nanda Vigo is a surprising and enigmatic chair design , with a unique physiognomy, conferred by the use of two rollers that seem to float. Born in 1971, the seat was used in various interior design projects by the architect but was never mass-produced and therefore represents a novelty in the world of design. Although the appearance suggests the opposite, it amazes with its ergonomics and comfort in all three of its modes of use (regular sitting, lateral sitting with an arm resting on the upper roller and sitting in a reverse direction, in which the roller backrest becomes the perfect support for the forearms). Characterized by an aesthetic that speaks of the future, it can be considered a project manifesto of Vigo, a synthesis of its two souls: the espr/f de gèomètrie— evident in the minimal metal structure, which reflects the light—and the eccentric spirit and pioneering, interpreted by Mongolian fur—which he favoured as voluminous and sumptuous—and synthetic fur. Now it is being presented by Acerbis with a steel structure and fur recovered from food industry waste, in a circular economy logic that makes it compatible with the contemporary ethos.

Free System by Claudio Salocchi

Radical innovator of the ways of living, Claudio Salocchi was not historically part of the Acerbis team, but his research is recognised in the company's DNA by elective affinity. “All the products in the Remasters collection have been carefully chosen as icons of experimentation from their era, all with a highly innovative identity and a recognisable mark. Claudio Salocchi's design explores the design research of the decade from the 70s to the 80s, including for the first time in the Remasters collection: those seventies in which new ways of living and experimentation were at the centre of the designers' work Italians. Claudio Salocchi is one of the protagonists of the creative ferment of the Sixties and Seventies, an all-around artist with incredible production. The revolutionary potential of the Free System project is today more contemporary than ever, capable of spacing between the different living areas and domestic landscapes,” shares Meda. In 1973, Salocchi designed Free System—an upholstered system derived from the concept of the ‘worked floor’ or tatami where the upholstered modules could be freely combined.

Napoleon by Claudio Salocchi

Interpreting the transformations of that period in an anticipatory design vision of forms, functions, technologies, and new typologies that would become trends, Salocchi launched the family of tables on the occasion of the XV Triennale di Milano, in 1973. Napoleone tables and display units are outlined in the extreme synthesis of geometries, combined with materials that are anything but usual in the furnishing of traditional houses, of the time. At the origin of the series is the table, deprived of the two headboards to favour an equal confrontation. Consisting of a brushed stainless steel bridge structure that links the two shoulders, cut to accommodate opposing mirrors, it is completed by a tempered glass top. The fascinating interplay of reflections and transparencies allows those sitting to see their own image, with interesting introspective implications Acerbis offers two coffee tables of the Napoleone system revisited and embellished with the distinctive polyester lacquering.

STIR’s coverage of Milan Design Week 2023 showcases the best exhibitions, studios, designers, installations, brands, and special projects to look out for. Explore Euroluce 2023 and all the design districts—5Vie Art and Design, Brera Design District, Fuorisalone, Isola Design District, Tortona District, and Milano Design District—with us.

Text by Ria Jha