2007 – PALERMO – GIOVANNI LEVANTI. PALERMO DESIGN WEEK ’07

Place: Palermo, Caffè letterario, Teatro Massimo
Date: 16 ottobre – 21 ottobre 2007
Curator: Giovanni Levanti
Supervisor: Gaia Girgenti
Art director: Luca Dal Bo’
Exibition design: Marzia Aricò, Miriam Corrao

“Giovanni Levanti can be considered one of the most original Italian designers. Born in Palermo, where he graduated in Architecture in 1993, in the mid-80s he moved to Milan where he obtained a Master Degree at Domus Academy and worked for several years with Andrea Branzi. He has been projecting for important companies and won awards such as the “Design Plus” in Frankfurt. His objects are in the Design Collections of Milan Triennale, Fukui Design Center in Japan, Museum of Fine Arts of Montreal in Canada and Centre Pompidou in Paris. He is definitely a Sicilian architect internationally known, though. But the reasons why he was awarded the prize “PDW 07” are more complex. Levanti is educated, intellectually smart, a designer who belongs to the tradition of Italian design in which the project arises from a thought, an idea of housing and living. His design is research coming from the study of the behaviour, the change of the ways of life with the formal elegance proper to him. For this reason the prize “PDW 07” to Giovanni Levanti wishes to stress a concept of the project, plunged into the contemporary world, able to respond to a real request and, at the same time, take on an intellectual responsibility”. (Vanni Pasca)
– Palermo Design Week 16/21 ottobre 2007, Seristampa, Palermo, 2008

“The exhibition “Giovanni Levanti. Premio Palermo Design Week” in the hall of the Literary Cafè at Teatro Massimo in Palermo – installation by Marzia Aricò and Miriam Corrao supervised by Luca Dal Bo – clearly showed the evolution of Giovanni Levanti’s poetics. Starting from Xito and going past Conetti to Sneaker, past Rilassata to Gobbalunga, in a riot of colour and playful emotions, you could but read the intentions repeatedly stated by the designer himself: looking into new opportunities to live close to new behaviours. If Xito can be defined by negation, not a bed, not a sofa, not a chaise longue, not a carpet, but all these things together, Sneaker is instead an attempt to blend together different typologies: the softness and colour of sofas with the very different imaginary of the fitness which is by its nature very hard, achieving an unusual and at the same time functional result. Sneaker is also an attempt to blend emotions… the memory of a beach ball with the joy of jumping… a man and a woman much freer, living informally, loving their bodies and physical exercise.” (Marinella Ferrara)
– Palermo Design Week 16/21 ottobre 2007, Seristampa, Palermo, 2008