The Atelier Biagetti Pet Therapy installation at this year’s Milan Design Week is like an oversized playground for feline lovers and those who’ve lost their child-like sense of wonder and need to revive it. An installation that consists of products like giant cat-shaped benches and South Beach Palm Trees that shed light, they also introduced their first NFT collaboration.
Atelier Biagetti Pet Therapy
Designer Alberto Biagetti with wife and partner Opera singer and artist Laura Baldassari are behind Italy’s Atelier Biagetti. They’re obviously cat owners and cat lovers as well; their family cat, Birba Biagetti, even has its own Instagram.
Known for the executing installations and performances around each new project, they create immersive works inspired by universally-relatable memories and experiences. The installations often feel as though you’ve stumbled into a film set or are trapped in a dream. Pet Therapy is no exception.
They describe the experience of Pet Therapy as something that “plays on the mood-boosting benefits of the unconditional and reciprocal love of a furry four-legged friend, who turns the act of coming home into a joyous celebration of life – every single day.”
The installation is home to giant, docile, lunar cats lounging around as inviting tactile sculptures. By the way, the giant cats are made to order and only take a few weeks. The space has beach ball seats shaded by soft palm trees with crazy coconuts that double as lights.
A green wood shuttered cabinet mounted on the wall opens to reveal digital art of a cuckoo clock, their collaborative NFT, made with Vitruvio Virtual Reality (more on that later in the post).
“every object is an enigma, a game, a daydream, a hologram, designed to be the protagonist of a story that entwines wonder with desire” – Albert Biagetti
Each object is a functional sculpture designed to activate the idea of a home without boundaries, where interior blurs into exterior and playfulness is a serious business that we just can’t do without.
CAT BENCH in HD expanded polystyrene with second life certified material and coated with a solvent-free polyurethane paint. High resistant and suitable for indoor and outdoor environments. Available in smooth or natural finish, L 200 x H 63 x P 133 cm, Signed and numbered open edition.
SOUTH BEACH LIGHTS indoor / outdoor tropical dream 💭 H 180 / 220 x Ø 50 cm (70,8″ / 86,6” x Ø 19,6″)
Padded standing light with painted steel structure. Dimmable led light 12W, 2700 K
SITTING WELLNESS BEACH BALL / Inflatable wellness sitting ball in eco-skin. Suitable for indoor and outdoor environments and fireproofed. Ø 55 cm.
The NFT
The installation also features a very special cuckoo clock in the form of a Digital Token (NFT) which hovers between the physicality of a typical Swiss-alpine window and the digital world.
The NFT was made in collaboration with Vitruvio Virtual Reality.
The project will be presented with a site-specific installation inside Atelier Biagetti featuring a collection of new pieces produced in collaboration with the “futuristic” Labseventy.
Atelier Biagetti
photos Alessandro Saletta, courtesy of Atelier Biagetti and Marco Guastalla for Living Corriere della Serra