There is, according to Gaetano Pesce, no more beautiful form than the feminine mind.
And he’s not just saying that because he’s italiano.
One of the most experimental designers of our time, the 65-year-old Pesce has built his life’s work on beliefs as radical as “femininity is a driving force in design.” And: imperfections and flaws are assets to be cherished.
Known for his wildly creative use of materials, his embrace of new technologies and for making social and political statements via his work, Pesce has created everything from chairs (in self-inflating foam, shaped like an ancient fertility goddess with her bosom as the headrest, lap as the seat and ball-and-chain otto-man signifying women’s struggle to be free and equal) to silicone buildings with translucent walls that sway gently in the wind, paintings, sculpture, film and even counterculture theater.
We caught up with Pesce (who lives mostly in New York, but still has a place in Venice and is building a rather unconventional vacation home for himself in Brazil) on a recent trip to Chicago during which he spoke at The Art Institute of Chicago. We asked him to elaborate on the connection he sees between femininity and design.
Q. What exactly do you mean by this: Femininity is a driving force of design?
A. What I believe is that our education — not only ours, but in history — was done to young people to teach them that they can express [themselves] in what we call ‘masculine’ ways. You have to be coherent. You have to be serious, dogmatic, pragmatic, whatever. And generation and generation of people were educated in this way. But there is another side of us.
Q. Meaning everybody? Men and women?
A. It’s not a story between men and women. It’s a story about the brain. One part of the brain is considered the male brain. The other, the feminine brain. And the feminine brain was always kept inside as a private thing.
But my impression is that we have come to a point where there is a kind of crisis — especially in this hour, from a historical moment — where the characteristic [trend] is the mixing of populations, the mixing of values. I think the traditional male thinking is not able to represent and deal with that kind of values.
I believe the other side of the brain is more capable. The feminine way is multidisciplinary, more sensual, more joyful, more full of color. And I believe if we start to use the other side of the brain, we can regulate what is now in crisis.
We have a lot of things that are in crisis. Political administration is a little bit like that. Economics — we are going through a difficult moment. Culture, too, is repeating itself. There is not a lot of innovation.
I call this the moment of `The Cloud.’ But it will go [away] and it will go faster if we start to change our ways of thinking. If we use the quality of the feminine thinking, I think we can make it a great [period of] new innovation.
Q. Can you give me some examples? Tell me about that building you did out of silicone. Does it represent this feminine kind of thinking?
A. Yes. It was a little construction in Avignon, in the south of France. The Minister of Culture asked me to do for the Year 2000 a project for the park of the Palace of the Popes, which is a very historical place. He asked me to conceive a little building — like a kiosk [one big room, 350 square feet]. It is a space for promoting the products of Provence.
It was conceived in silicone — meaning that the thickness of the walls was done in silicone so the walls were translucent.
Q. The whole building was silicone? No skeletal structure?
A. The walls were the structure. The idea was, with a little breeze, this [building] can move a little bit, which is like being in a boat — not during a tornado, but when the boat moves slowly. And so, that is a kind of feminine expression where I was not expressing the idea of building. I was not expressing elegance.
I was just expressing a material of our time, which is fantastic because it’s elastic. It’s translucent. It’s done almost [entirely] with the hand because it [the building] was done [by applying] coat after coat after coat [of silicone] until you have the thickness [of the walls].
Q. How could that translate to homes today?
A. This is the beginning of a new way to think. Then you get the experience [of trying it out] — which I do myself. Then after that, we need a construction company who is important enough, who has money to invest in research. . . . I cannot say what will be the future, but I’m sure that in the future we will build with the kind of resolve that is much more friendly for us — not something so rigid, so dogmatic.
I give you an example. The fantastic opportunity that New York tragically had with the two towers [rebuilding of the World Trade Center]. That was the moment to show the world a very innovative architecture. And in reality, they did more or less the same.
Q. What would you have liked to see go up there? Did you design something?
A. Immediately after, I did a project just for myself. I did a project suggesting two towers again — plus one more floor [on each] just to say we want to keep it [the towers] and [have them be] more strong.
And then on top, connecting the two towers and making them very strong, is a huge building in the shape of a heart.
Q. The connection is a heart?
A. Yes, a [22-story] heart where you could put a museum, where you could put a memorial, where you could put offices. Not only that, you have a symbol of positive visible from the city. . . . The heart is something everybody understands.
Q. Tell me about the vacation home you’re building in Brazil? Why Brazil?
A. If I build my house in France or in Italy or also in the United States, there are so many rules to respect. . . . So I chose a place where there is a certain disorganization. It’s Third World. But the positive side is there are not anything [rules] they impose that you don’t like. So I was free to do an experimental house.
The house was conceived as one public space where people stay together. Like a huge living room, kitchen, bathroom and services. And then on the land — it is quite big — there are seven different small buildings — each one having inside a living and dining room, bedroom and bathroom. So the guests can stay there if they want to have a private, separated moment. Each building is done with a different material.
Q. Like?
A. The public part [building] is tiled with resin, which is translucent, colorful. . . . One of the guesthouses is done in natural rubber. . . . Another is done in recycled glass. So when there is sun, there are incredible reflections of little pieces of glass, like a diamond, all different colors. . . . And one is done in rigid polyurethane foam, mixing in [plant] seeds. That material allows the plants’ roots to be warm, so they grow inside the material. So [you have] the walls and you have plants coming out of them.
Q. Tell me more about the rubber house — rubber?
A. The story of the rubber is a test I started five years ago, taking a little piece and then another piece bigger and bigger until I did one wall to see how it reacts in time. . . . I saw that rubber in time has a bad smell. So I spoke with people who work in the [rubber] plantation. They told me: `You know, we wash our hands with juniper juice.’ That is the stuff that we use when we have a cold [like eucalyptus]. So I mixed the juniper [juice into the rubber]. . . . One day, when someone [who visits] has a cold, they can sleep in that house.
Q. Is it under construction now?
A. Yes.
Q. And it smells like eucalyptus?
A. Yes . . . I’m trying to say [express] that the material and the technique can be very important to regulate architecture. Not only is it a visual art.
Architecture is not only a house that you live inside, but it is an outlet to touch. The walls in rubber, for instance, are elastic. And not only that, you smell architecture. . . . And this, in my mind, is a kind of feminine architecture. Architecture that you touch, that is warm, that is translucent, like the skin of a person.
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For those visiting Milan, in the next few months, a large retrospective of Pesce’s work is on display at the Triennale di Milano. Through April 18. For more information, visit www.triennale.it.
