About a hundred kilometres away from Magis's headquarters lies a small, quiet village named Nove, internationally renowned for its artisanal tradition of ceramics. This is where the story of Coves begins.
From a trip to the city of ceramics
Despite having fewer than five thousand inhabitants, the village of Nove has gained international popularity thanks to a three-hundred-year-long artisanal tradition that earned it the title of City of Ceramics.
As you drive into the village, you instantly realize it's a place steeped in history, immersed in art and crafts, with retro signs reading 'Ceramics Manufacturing' on many building façades.
Once you step into the artisans' laboratories, you discover an even more captivating world: time seems to have stopped here, yet continued, bringing technological innovations that keep this craft up to date while staying true to its roots.
By observing the various techniques used to process this material, Magis challenged Guglielmo Poletti to design a collection of mirrors and a shelf in extruded ceramic.
A collection of elegant mirrors
The designer drew inspiration from the world of architecture, reinterpreting the cove profile – an element used to form elegant junctions between ceilings and walls – and creating a collection characterized by a rigorous yet sinuous aesthetic.
By sequentially reversing the profiles of the frame, Poletti developed Coves, a project that cleverly incorporates both the mirrors and the shelf in a single object.
The pieces are manufactured in Nove, combining the industrial technique of extrusion with the tradition-rich craft of ceramic artisans, staying faithful to Magis's vision of producing objects that offer 'something more'.
'I think the quality of the object relies on the combination between a very industrial approach to manufacturing and the hand-made finish of the pieces,' says designer Guglielmo Poletti.
More information:
Magis
www.magis.com