"In our product-oriented civilization, the ungovernable flow of industrial objects, so transferable, so exportable, so transient, has transformed our cities into virtually boundless areas of exchanges, information, and trade," writes Italian architect and designer Andrea Branzi in his essay, Interiors. This virtually boundless area of exchange, filled with transient and industrial objects, does in fact include our homes, the spaces we design and decorate as the most personal manifestations of ourselves.

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Through his work, Branzi strives to reconcile art and design, blurring boundaries between the disciplines. To overcome restrictions imposed by traditional design culture, Branzi examines dichotomies: nature vs. technology, natural landscape vs. built landscape, and wilderness vs. civilization. Fascinated by how new technological developments are changing the role of the home into both professional, social, and personal space, Branzi writes:

"Our space is crisscrossed by a stream of relationships produced by the seven billion people inhabiting the planet, each one representing an exception, a variant, a personality that affirms its exclusivity through the objects it chooses to be surrounded with." 

This sentiment begs the question, what exactly is in an object? In his essay, Branzi examines our objects—our belongings—as the byproducts of industrialization and mass production. The items that populate our spaces are often generic and trendy, with materials chosen based on convenience for mass production. Too often, these objects occupying the most intimate moments of our lives are seemingly impersonal.

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Yet, art is often too personal for the masses. The problem with art is the notion that it can never be touched, that unique pieces and one-offs are impractical. Ideas about art and design are painfully juxtapositional: unique vs. generic, personal vs. impersonal, to view vs. to use. Through his creations Andrea Branzi takes hold of this dichotomy, resulting in pieces that are neither art nor design, but both.

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"Animali Domestici" Bench, 1985

His most recent and second solo exhibition in the U.S., held at Friedman Benda in New York, Interiors—a combination of Branzi's Plank series and Lamp series—works to revive the human habitat. 

Branzi applies artistic techniques to designed objects, combining unique material choices and applications in a way that overcomes restrictions imposed by tradition. Similar to his series Animali Domestici of 1985, the Plank series incorporates raw tree segments into practical painted plywood structures. The polished aluminum and painted wooden cabinets of Branzi's Plank series are vessels, holding personal objects, like books and ceramics.

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Shown alongside his cabinets in the gallery installation, Branzi's Lamp series provides a nice visual contrast to the Plank series. Each lamp, fragile and ethereal in appearance, has a shade made of Japanese rice paper. The bases vary in material, some bamboo and marble, others aluminum. 

Branzi concludes: "Objects have become a presence that is sacred because it is linked to the sacredness of man: they continue to live beyond the scope and time of their daily use. They have no knowledge of the night because in the night they survive, unmoving, unchanging, alive even after their own death." Branzi's work addresses the personal, utilitarian and conceptual functions of objects in a way that honors the sacredness of humans and representation through possession.