Over the past fifty years, Italian architect, artist, and designer Gaetano Pesce has led a career of contradictions, changing his mind as it suits him - as some have said "to the point of complete incoherence".
Pesce speaks of design both as an intimate affair and as "a bomb in the brain". The one constant in his career however, is radicalism itself: the willingness to question everything and, by questioning, to always find something new.
"The dream you have is developing something you are interested in," he says. "I learned that when I am sleeping, I can think about my work. Also before sleeping, you have an image of something that you didn’t do yet, but it is there. And so you see what you want to do. I understood in this way to focus on an idea."
Gaetano Pesce in his studio. Image courtesy the artist and Salon 94 Design. © Gaetano Pesce, Photo Josh Itiola.
His latest focus is a new Artspace, Monacelli, and Phaidon edition, Gaetano Pesce Self Portrait (The Complete Incoherence) , 2023 . It comprises 50 unique sculptures plus 3 APs, each numbered and accompanied by a signed Certificate of Authenticity. Made from resin, Pesce's signature material of choice, each measures 12 x 8 1/2 x 1 inches (30.5 x 21.6 x 2.5 cm).
The edition was produced to mark the publication of Pesce’s new Monacelli Press monograph, Gaetano Pesce: The Complete Incoherence .
In a category all his own, Gaetano Pesce is widely considered one of the most important, and elusive, creative figures of the last half century. Bridging numerous key art and design movements, while never belonging to any of them, Pesce’s singular practice has remained steadfastly provocative, defying convention, utility, and good taste.
Gaetano Pesce Self Portrait (The Complete Incoherence) , 2023 exemplifies the artist’s experimental practice with a series of 50 unique tabletop sculptures that reference the artist’s aquiline profile in translucent, jagged, candy-colored resin anchored by an exaggerated foot-shaped base.
Each signed and numbered limited edition comes accompanied by the Monacelli monograph and Certificate of Authenticity in a custom-designed display box inset with Pesce's "fish-and-ocean" emblem.
Pesce has been awarded diverse prizes including the prestigious Chrysler award for innovation and design in 1993; Architektur and Wohnen Designer of the Year in 2006; and the Lawrence J. Israel Prize from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York in 2009.
His works have been celebrated in exhibitions of outstanding importance, such as Italy: The New Domestic Landscape held at the MoMA; the retrospective Gaetano Pesce: Le temps des questions , at the Centre Pompidou; Pushing the limits , at the Philadelphia Museum of Art; Gaetano Pesce: Il Rumore Del Tempo , at the Milan Triennale; among others.
On the eve of the launch of the new edition we caught up with Gaetano Pesce to ask him about his life, his work and his constant ability to reinvent himself. Accompanying our interview is a selection from the 50 editions available which you can see in their entirety here.
GAETANO PESCE - Self-Portrait (The Complete Incoherence), 2023
Gaetano Pesce Self Portrait (The Complete Incoherence) , 2023 Resin 12 x 8 1/2 x 1 inches (30.5 x 21.6 x 2.5 cm) Edition of 50 unique sculptures plus 3 APs Each numbered and accompanied by a signed Certificate of Authenticity $3,000 Image courtesy of the artist and Salon 94 Design. © Gaetano Pesce. Photo: Matthew Praley
Your work has always been super modern and reflective of the moment it’s created in, does that inspiration change as you age?
My brain doesn't age, what ages is my body, but my brain does not, so more or less my reaction to reality is the same, not in result but the same in attitude, and as the reality changes, I change.
Following on, how does what you learned as a young man still feed into your creativity?
When I was young, I had the chance to meet a woman who was very intelligent. This gave me the opportunity to tell politicians that they have to use the brains of women because their own brain is old and is not capable of reflecting what our time needs from institutions and public figures.
So women have the same qualities of our time, which is a multidisciplinary brain, elastic in a certain way, and is able to serve or have a sense of civic duty, much better than with the rigidity of the traditional brain. The woman I mentioned was called Milena and she died too soon, unfortunately, but she opened my mind to this kind of problem.
GAETANO PESCE - Self-Portrait (The Complete Incoherence), 2023
Gaetano Pesce
Self Portrait (The Complete Incoherence)
, 2023 Resin 12 x 8 1/2 x 1 inches (30.5 x 21.6 x 2.5 cm) Edition of 50 unique sculptures plus 3 APs Each numbered and accompanied by a signed Certificate of Authenticity $3,000
Image courtesy of the artist and Salon 94 Design. © Gaetano Pesce. Photo: Matthew Praley
What meanings should we look for in the edition Self Portrait (The Complete Incoherence)?
From the beginning, when I was 18 or 19, I thought that my way of thinking was supposed to be free, but before you are free on the outside you must free yourself inside, and that means ‘incoherence’.
Incoherence allows you to be yourself, and that is very helpful because that way you don’t repeat. Most people enjoy repeating because people are lazy. I am not lazy. I like to use my energy all the time and this is the way creative people are supposed to be; and also politicians, and also philosophers and also musicians. This is the reality of the world, if it’s governed by people who have elastic minds, we’d be much better off and not lazy.
The edition is very striking, how much do aesthetics–or the philosophy of aesthetics–play into what you do?
I believe materials have the capacity to dictate the aesthetic, and sometimes I leave the material in the way the material wants, following its rules without imposing a shape or form. In that way I have results that are much richer and more unique.
GAETANO PESCE - Self-Portrait (The Complete Incoherence), 2023
Gaetano Pesce
Self Portrait (The Complete Incoherence)
, 2023 Resin 12 x 8 1/2 x 1 inches (30.5 x 21.6 x 2.5 cm) Edition of 50 unique sculptures plus 3 APs Each numbered and accompanied by a signed Certificate of Authenticity $3,000
Image courtesy of the artist and Salon 94 Design. © Gaetano Pesce. Photo: Matthew Praley
Your work straddles the line between fine art and design. What does one do that the other cannot?
In my opinion, design is the next art, because it looks like the old art in classical times, or before the Renaissance. At that time art was absolutely practical because a portrait was practical, it had a function. A religious image was done to convince people to follow the rules of the church, a landscape was done for somebody that had never travelled; with the representation of a city they could see a different place. So it was practical.
Piranesi was somebody who was able to represent a landscape in the same way we can use a picture today to show somebody a place that they have never been. I think that design has this kind of function today, because it's practical. A lamp has to be able to give light; or a chair has to be comfortable. But the chair can express our time, a lamp can express our time, in a positive or in a negative way.
The Michelangelo fortress was representing the war, so today we can have a chair or a cabinet that can represent the drama of a war for instance, this is the capacity of design in comparison to art which has become more and more decorative and more and more superficial. We lost the capacity of Duchamp to say reality today is the industrial object, and he showed that in some Parisian galleries.
The art of Futurism was celebrating production and objects as well. We need to make people think again, because slowly with advertisements, and the banality around us, people will start to sleep and that is dramatic.
GAETANO PESCE - Self-Portrait (The Complete Incoherence), 2023
Gaetano Pesce
Self Portrait (The Complete Incoherence)
, 2023 Resin 12 x 8 1/2 x 1 inches (30.5 x 21.6 x 2.5 cm) Edition of 50 unique sculptures plus 3 APs Each numbered and accompanied by a signed Certificate of Authenticity $3,000
Image courtesy of the artist and Salon 94 Design. © Gaetano Pesce. Photo: Matthew Praley
What, for you, is the most important thing about creativity?
The principal thing is to observe. Time constantly tells us what we need to do; the question is to be able to capture the message of our time and that is constantly changing. Yesterday we had a certain message, today it is different; tomorrow it will be different again. We are meant to follow that, because if we don’t, we will become old in our mind.
You’ve gone through a number of turns in your practice, some subtle, some less so. What will be the next one do you think?
That I don't know because it depends on something that is happening in the future, unfortunately I do not know the future.
GAETANO PESCE - Self-Portrait (The Complete Incoherence), 2023
Gaetano Pesce
Self Portrait (The Complete Incoherence)
, 2023 Resin 12 x 8 1/2 x 1 inches (30.5 x 21.6 x 2.5 cm) Edition of 50 unique sculptures plus 3 APs Each numbered and accompanied by a signed Certificate of Authenticity $3,000
Image courtesy of the artist and Salon 94 Design. © Gaetano Pesce. Photo: Matthew Praley
Do art and design still have a role to play in society? If so, what is it and how is it different from when you began your journey? Today’s design has a very important role to make people think; not only have people sitting comfortably, or reading comfortably if there is a nice light, sleeping well if the bed is well designed.
But design has another mission which is to make people think, such as the chair I made protesting violence against women, which is still an issue today, and that tells people to treat women well because the future is feminine, and they are going to govern the world in a better way than the way current politicians have.
GAETANO PESCE - Self-Portrait (The Complete Incoherence), 2023
Gaetano Pesce
Self Portrait (The Complete Incoherence)
, 2023 Resin 12 x 8 1/2 x 1 inches (30.5 x 21.6 x 2.5 cm) Edition of 50 unique sculptures plus 3 APs Each numbered and accompanied by a signed Certificate of Authenticity $3,000
Image courtesy of the artist and Salon 94 Design. © Gaetano Pesce. Photo: Matthew Praley
