Interview with Piergiorgio Robino (Studio Nucleo)

Nucleo is a joint project developed by three artists under the direction of Piergiorgio Robino. Founded in Turin in 1997, Nucleo works collaboratively on interdisciplinary projects that bring together contemporary art, design and architecture. "Today," says Robino, "Nucleo's goal is to create projects that may be entirely devised and managed in our studio. We are art designers who ask themselves questions, in other words: we are 'problematic artisans'."


Primitive collection

How was Nucleo formed back in 1997?
Nucleo was formed by a group of enthousiasts in Turin. At the beginning, it was a cooperative the goal of which was to reinvent the designer's job: a job that was undergoing changes in those years. Our idea was to approach design in a collaborative and open way, focusing not only on delivering the product, but also on planning the service. When devising a concept, we would start with a research, then define and create the brand, and lastly design the products and work on the corresponding image. We were probably ten years ahead of time. Indeed, some of the projects we created following this procedure were approved as much as 9 years later, as in the case of "Dream," which was resumed in 2005. As a cooperative, Nucleo shut down in 2004 because the ideas of sharing and being open reduced our brand recognisability. Design wins because of style - the distinguishing mark - although the universities teach that functionality triumphs.


Primitive collection

Who belongs to Nucleo today and what has changed?
Today Nucleo is my office (Studio Nucleo). Here, I pursue the original idea of completely sharing the processes with Stefania Fersini and Alice Occleppo. The main difference is in the final decision, which is made by me. But, there has been another change. In 2000, on the occasion of the Salone del Mobile, we decided not to present projects for the companies but rather to create a collection. The idea was a success, in particular with regard to the grass armchair. Our goal was to prove our designing skills and this, we thought, was going to attract customers. We were wrong in that customers were more interested in buying the individual objects than our designing potentiality. Therefore, today Nucleo is both a designer and a manufacturer.


Primitive collection

Is this the reason why today you define yourselves artists and not designers? 
That is correct. The word designer is overused. Today, we no longer do what a company thinks. This is not out of egocentrism, but because we are the interpreters of what the industry wants. We offer unique objects to our customers.


Is there a tendency, nowadays, to disguise a certain type of design as art only to catch the art market attention? In your opinion, why does that happen?
Personally, I look at things from a very different angle. The problem stems from the designers' objective difficulty to sell and to materialise their ideas, which, today, have little value. Companies reject a great number of projects on the basis of turnover and seriality. This market originated in Holland because of the lack of manufacturing companies in that country. In Germany and in Great Britain as well, where there is no productive network, designers started to produce their own work. Italy, on the other hand, has a well-developed productive system that acts as a barrier. The opportunities to manufacture one's own work are minimal in this country. In the early years of the 21st century, when the Dutch designers brought the 1st Eindhoven Design Academy Exhibition to the Salone del Mobile, they presented the beautiful objects they had manufactured by themselves and de facto created a new market. Maarten Baas, back then a newly graduated designer, was selling his own objects, not his ideas.


Primitive collection

Is the background of an Italian designer adequate for the new market?
No, it is not because our university is not based on "doing", but on planning, on thought. In the North of Europe, on the other hand, the focus of design is on arts and crafts, on manual creation: the heart of a class is the lab. Here in Italy, we are incapable of assessing and boosting our skills. The Dutch government strongly supports creativity and this also happens in Piedmont and, more generally, all over Italy, but we do not promote excellence. In Holland, good designers receive structural incentives and may live off their work.
Primitive collection

At present, who manufactures his/her own objects in Italy?
Not very many people: Massimiliano Adami, Lorenzo Damiani, Resign and Duilio Forte with his sculpted works that, however, depart slightly from the idea of product design. Then, there are a few other Italian designers who live abroad. Since 2008, we also belong to this group. 



How can we define this domain?
Defining it is not easy. Some people speak of art or of market, other people call it arts and crafts or art-design. I prefer to look back at the time when some outstanding designers were able to create special objects, as opposed to the industry, and to offer a unique tailor-made product to their customer. 


Is arts and crafts, then, a new way to find customers?
Yes, because by doing, you create. By thinking, on the other hand, you don't (this does not mean that I am against planning, I am against rendering as an end in itself). As Munari used to say: "One thing leads to another." He was right. Every time you do something, you automatically create a dialogue.


Primitive collection

How do companies respond to this new market?
Alessi, Kartell, Cassina, Artemide and other important companies have started to produce limited edition collections signed by the great names of the design industry. They use this idea to attract the customers' attention and sell their products. They realise there is a potential market, but there is a substantial difference between an industrial structure that turns into the producer of a unique object and a single artisan who manually creates the object without the support of sophisticated structures. It is the difference between heart and technique.

How was the idea of "Primitive" born?
The idea was born in the month of September 2008 and was presented very soon, in May 2009. We chose this name because, just like the primitive man, this project must fulfill a need as quickly as possible. We worked at the first "Primitive" piece in our lab using scissors, a cutter, a palette knife, and a brush.
Primitive collection

What about the materials?
Recycled alveolar cardboard (the core of Ikea Lack tables), a layer of glass fiber and a white resin finish. 


What is the invitation contained in the shapes of Primitive objects? 

To create important, sculpted bespoke objects capable of conveying the spirit of "hand-made" products. All this, without overworking nature. We are able to achieve this result with simplicity because we use a light paper that can be combined with a very resistant structural material, such as a resin. How did you obtain this effect on the surface? 
 We used a shipbuilding resin created for use on ship hulls, but we invented a completely new application technique. We wanted to create a primitive, irregular handmade appearance.


Primitive collection

What was the idea that brought a Primitive object inside the Bagatti Valsecchi house museum in Milan? 

The idea behind the "Unexpected Guests" exhibition was to juxtapose classical 'loci' and contemporaneity. More often than not, institutional places become entrenched in a given context. When a house loses its owner, it also loses its warmth and it stops in time. Now, this idea is fascinating because it creates a cultural bridge whereby people coming from different worlds are drawn to see the same thing.

How did you start collaborating with Marsèll Goccia?
At the Fuori Salone 2010 event, we presented "By the Wind," a research project on the unique objects created by the randomness of matter, which is typical of natural phenomena. With a gun we sprayed the polyurethane and with a fan we recreated the wind, thus simulating a storm. When Marsèll's director saw the project, he asked us to work together on a project. This is an example of company that contacts an artist and designer asking him/her to develop an idea and to apply it to a product.



Primitive collection

Could you tell us something about your workshop entitled "Self-Production: the Language of Paper?"
The workshop focused on working with paper without any constraints. For this initiative too, we adopted the formula of an open and collaborative platform where we played the role of moderators. First of all, we showed the participants the work of artists who explore and use paper. After sharing our knowledge, ideas and background, we started to work with the paper we collected at Porta Portese, the biggest European daily street market. Starting from here, we experimented the construction of objects in the most varied ways: using cuts, glues and resins.

What would be your piece of advice to the young Italian designers?
The first advice is: "If you want something done, do it yourself." If you wait for something to happen, you might wait forever. The second is: "Be a contemporary." In a world that already has everything, think twice before you add something else. The third is: "Do something you like" because if you do something you do not like, you are doing it for someone else and not for you. Oftentimes we create useless objects just because they are in demand, but I do not think these are the right premises any more.
The collective Nucleo (from left: Stefania Fersini, Piergiorgio Robino, Alice Occleppo)

Foto via nucleo.to