'vieni a vedere' by gaetano pesce at bottega veneta's milan store

‘vieni a vedere’ opens at bottega veneta’s montenapoleone store

Milan Design Week 2023: Following the commission given to Gaetano Pesce to create a temporary, site-specific artwork for the Summer 2023 Bottega Veneta fashion show, the dialogue continues, and a further stage is explored. Once again, given creative carte blanche, this time in the brand’s Montenapoleone store, Pesce creates a unique installation called ‘Vieni a Vedere’ (Come and See). Spanning the store, the immersive and cavernous installation utilizes resin and fabric to create a unique experience that the visitor travels through. It frames an edition of handbags realized by Bottega Veneta for the artist according to his designs.

‘The space in which we present the bags is ‘a grotto’. It is narrow and is walked through one by one; whether it is underground or above, you find a way through. What you are actually walking through is the outline of a figure shooting for a basket. He represents almost a victory – it is not clear whether it goes in. In this case, the victory is discovery, the discovery of the language of representation. It is about opening new ways for design,’ shares Gaetano Pesce. The installation can be visited for a week – 15th-22nd April, where visitors can also purchase the artist’s edition of handcrafted handbags.

‘Vieni a Vedere’ in via Montenapoleone | image courtesy Bottega Veneta

‘MY DEAR MOUNTAINS’ AND ‘MY DEAR PRAIRIES’ HANDBAGS

Reflecting on his handbag creations for Bottega Veneta (see more here), the artist says: ‘This is my first design of a bag, and it is figurative – two mountains with a sunrise or a sunset behind. I wanted a bag with an optimistic view. There is a capacity to realize anything at Bottega Veneta, and this bag opens up a way to express future design. The design of the future has to be figurative, and it has to communicate – such an object has to tell a story.’

Embracing figuration and stories of the personal rather than the purely functional, Pesce’s bags utilize the distinctive both in terms of handcraft and creativity. Based on mountains and prairies, the handbags echo his early life in Italy, growing up near the mountains in Este, and the prairies of America, a reflection of where he lives today. Realized by Bottega Veneta’s leather workers and artisans, the signature Intrecciato appears again, yet in a completely new way, according to Pesce’s sketches. The smooth mountains and the grassy prairies are reflected in the unique, intensely handcrafted techniques to startling and joyful effect.

image © designboom

Each glossy ‘Intrecciato’ bag is individually painted with an airbrush technique to resemble Pesce’s watercolor rendering with respect to the mountains in Nappa leather. In addition, a meticulous crochet technique is utilized for the prairies in seven shades of green calf and lamb leathers, evoking the whorling grasses. ‘These artists’ editions are extremely limited and are individually numbered and documented: ‘My Dear Mountains’ 15 with 1AP and ‘My Dear Prairies’ 3 with 1AP,’ notes Bottega Veneta.

image courtesy Bottega Veneta

EXHIBITION SOUVENIRS AND EPHEMERA

As a celebration of this unique Gaetano Pesce project, each visitor to the ‘Vieni a Vedere’ installation will receive a gift: a poster drawn by Pesce, commemorating the installation and hand-painted chocolates by Peyrano, the storied Turin-based chocolatier. Both echo Pesce’s personally meaningful, exalted mountains. ‘Having a figurative design is very important. I want people to express something in what they do, to express the self and their identity. We need to not only follow function and utility through design but to explore the personal and unique rather than the purely practical,’ concludes Gaetano Pesce.

image courtesy Bottega Veneta