adrien missika crafts an 8-metre long leather hammock for natuzzi

adrien missika crafts an 8-metre long leather hammock for natuzzi
[ham-uh k], 2015
leather, acrylic paint, stainless steel, polypropylene, 800 x 265 x 200 cm
all photos by monica schipper

to celebrate the opening of its miami flagship store, italian furniture brand natuzzi commissioned artist adrien missika to use its high quality leather to create a site-specific installation. on the occasion of miami art week, missika’s ‘[ham-uh k]’ made its debut within the new retail space; realized in the form of a huge 8 x 3 metre hammock.

in his acclaimed opus ‘species of spaces’, goerges perec described the hammock as ‘the individual space par excellence, the elementary area of the body‘. drawing from both this reflection and from natuzzi’s core activities of producing sofas, armchairs and living room accessories, plays on the lines and paradoxes of an anthropometric space to render a site of collective experience, of a harmonious and oneiric notion of ‘living together’.

detail of the natuzzi leather used to make the large format hammock

the french artist’s generous work has the capacity to host several persons, a family, friends or even lovers, seeing the image of a hammock slowly merging with the very function of a couch. ‘[ham-uh k]’ is made using leather from natuzzi’s italian tannery in udine, in north italy, that was selected together with the company’s style centre in puglia, in the south of italy. missika has carefully deconstructed the material bringing to it an elementary, unsophisticated state. through the use of six full cow hides, he points to the origin of things, and underlines the primitive essence of the hammock.

the lines of the leather hides join up to make a painted pattern

from below, the uncut hides of ‘[ham-uh k]’ recall the imprint of a cave, a dark underbelly to the exotic seat, in which missika merges the high quality and noble material with the roughness of the artistic gesture to create an intense contrast inherent to the object-sculpture; the lines of the leather hides joining up into a painted pattern.

‘after a thorough research, we have chosen adrien missika‘, pasquale junior natuzzi, marketing & communication strategic program manager of the brand says. ‘a young and brilliant artist who has been entrusted the arduous task to interpret harmony, the archetype on which the brand has been founded: natuzzi blends design and function to create harmonious living. adrien’s work is always inspired by the places he visits, just like our design is inspired by the place we come from, puglia. we invited him to our headquarters so that he could be in touch with our territory and our work and this is where ‘[ham-uh k]’ come from‘.

a painted line camouflages the point in which the leather hides meet

missika, whose work often translates the experience of shifting, moving, traveling both physically and mentally, has conceived a new form of transportation through mind and dreams — some sort of fantasy magic carpet with a one way inner journey towards a place where time is suspended.

detail of the leather hides organic seams