Marco Piva designs new window dressing concept for BVLGARI
Italian designer Marco Piva has designed a new window dressing concept for BVLGARI that emphasises the quality and style of the jewellery brand.
The inspiration for the window dressing concept stems from the desire to make a great theatrical exhibition, which is different and innovative. Marco Piva has also drawn inspiration from the design’s ability to showcase the aesthetics and manufacturing techniques of BVLGARI creations in a fascinating setting of shapes, lights and colours, with rich references to the history of goldsmithing and Italian design.
In Marco Piva’s project for BVLGARI, the soft, realistic shapes of the exhibition elements display a clear artistic reference to the portraits by Modigliani. It features the beautiful women’s necks and faces, suspended in an eternal moment of elegance and expressed through ceramics. The design also expresses the sheen of metal that defines the thin shelf supports and light sources to make it look like molten gold.
The window dressing design glorifies the jewels in all its forms, materials and colours. The materials chosen for the window dressing include metals, woods and ceramics embellished through the use of refined techniques. The tubular elements supporting the lamps and the shelves are made from a special aluminium alloy whose surface was treated with a finish of sparkling gold. Lacquered wood has been used to create the shelving to reflect and diffuse the light in the exhibition space while ceramics were used for the lamps and props.
In the window dressing created for the Biennale des antiquaires at the Grand Palais in Paris, Marco Piva has created one of the largest shapes ever moulded, simulating a small crowd of elegant figures in the round. These shapes are reminiscent of Fausto Melotti sculptures, with the unusual life size elements showcasing the most exclusive jewels of the BVLGARI collection.
Light also play an important part in the window dressing design. The large ceramic lamps featuring organic and encompassing shapes are both exhibition elements and light generators, while the theatrical use of fabric in the windows interacts with the light to create the unique and exclusive atmosphere of BVLGARI.
