Mutina, color and identity for furnishing ceramics
Tradition, innovation and vision. Three words that are part of the heritage of Mutina Ceramiche, an Italian company specializing in the production of double-fired tiles and special pieces for floors and walls. A reality that in the course of its history, which began in 1973 and expanded in 2005, reinventing itself each time by adopting a thought aesthetic that finds space in architecture and contemporary art.
In that year, in its visionary founder and CEO, Massimo Orsini, something clicks, the need to dialogue with the great designers, bringing their thoughts into the world of ceramics, an area where this had never before been. type of reflection and collaboration: challenging the rules of the sector, not only in terms of scale, texture and composition, but also of creativity and experimentation.
Hence, in the headquarters, an architecture built with a prefabricated system designed by Angelo Mangiarotti, the journey began with those architects, designers and planners who had not yet ventured into the ceramic project, but whose sensitivity for the material, the texture, color or non-color and the aim of the enterprise was high.
Each of these talented professionals, Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Nathalie Du PAsquier, Konstantin Grcic, Hella Jongerius, Laboratorio Avallone, OEO Studio, Raw Edges, Inga Sempé, Patricia Urquiola and Tokujin Yoshioka, transferred their own stylistic code to ceramics and left marks on them.
The challenge for everyone was the same: experimenting with an infinite range of textures and colors, from neutral and delicate tones to the more daring and vibrant ones, continually enhancing the ceramic which in the meantime began to evolve and develop a strong and recognizable identity.
Sensitivity to form, the desire to innovate and the desire to incorporate the most heterogeneous visual stimuli of the current world, in 2016, materialize with Mutina For Art, an ambitious and varied program in which contemporary art is a great protagonist. The program includes MUT, a dedicated exhibition space within the main office, This Is Not a Prize, an important prize awarded annually, and Dialogue, a program of collaborations with artists, galleries, partners belonging to various areas of interest and artistic and international institutions. .
The continuous research that characterizes the creative and production process in Mutina, originates, in 2017, in Accents: a universe of complementary high quality products, designed by OEO Studio, which frames and enhances the spirit of Mutina ceramic coverings. The combination of technology with the artisan flavor of "handmade" that offers designer projects no longer than simple coatings but a refined ceramic interior design studied in detail.
Tierra and Azulej by Patricia Urquiola, a concentrate of Mediterranean tradition
From the collaboration with the architect and designer Patricia Urquiola, ceramic projects are born tracing the Mediterranean tradition and enhancing ancient materials. With Tierras, a project proposed that develops around the concept of sedimentation and Mediterranean craftsmanship tradition. The collection is made of unglazed homogeneous porcelain stoneware, a highly material product, characterized by a palette of intense, deep, earthy and natural colors made saturated by the black base. Azulej, on the other hand, aims to revalue the memory of hydraulic cement, experimenting with an innovative printing technique oriented towards a widely used product. The patterns of the collection thus combine deliberately different languages: memory, geometries, pixels, developed both longitudinally and diagonally.
Pico by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, an industrial product synonymous with innovation and color
For the first time, with the collaboration of the Bouroullec brothers, Mutina begins the theme of color by proposing, with the Pico collection, chromatic variations to the basic textures, through interventions of red and blue dots with regular and non-regular shapes, both positive and negative. The collection, designed for the installation of floors and walls both indoors and outdoors, was made with continuous technology in large unglazed porcelain stoneware slabs with a thickness of 12 mm, in total respect for the environment, so much so that make it suitable for eco-sustainable construction and represent a radical innovation of the production process.
Phenomenon by Tokujin Yoshioka, the ceramic that recalls the textures of the natural world
The idea behind Phenomenon, the collection created by Tokujin Yoshioka for Mutina, is to create ceramics that recall the textures of materials derived from the natural world, without manipulating their appearance, but creating a design that moves the heart and remains imprinted. in memory. Hence, hives, ice formations and plant cells are born, evoking natural scenarios. A unique collection that combines the most advanced technologies with the dexterity necessary for a "custom-made" artisan production.
Hives by Konstantin Grcic, the new terracotta bricks in the shape of a 3D beehive
Hives has the shape of a beehive, the new 3D element designed by Konstantin Grcic for Mutina. It is a brick with a hexagonal structure, inspired precisely by the shape of bee nests, the most efficient constructions present in nature and potentially infinitely expandable and designed for the construction of walls, architectural structures and furnishing accessories. Being particularly decorative and, thanks to its conformation, it allows the development of new graphic patterns.
Made of terracotta, an ancient building material of which it retains the acoustic and thermal properties, the warm nuance and the material texture, this type of brick can be installed both vertically, to create partitions, and horizontally. Positioned in this way, aligned or staggered, they make it possible to obtain curved walls for the construction of architectural elements and furnishing accessories such as columns, counters, and table feet.