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Simon took part for the first time in Milan Design Week, from 18-23 April. The firm made its début with Inspired in Barcelona: SPA, an artistic interpretation of the potential of the lighting sector in Catalonia and Barcelona, created by the artist Guillermo Santomà in the heart of the city at the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine, Brera District - Fuorisalone.
The intervention "Inspired in Barcelona: SPA" designed by Guillermo Santomà
The installation was the star project of the action Inspired in Barcelona, organised by the BcD-Barcelona centre de Disseny and promoted by Barcelona City Council and the Generalitat de Catalunya, which this year is entirely dedicated to light. In this edition, Simon acted as concept partner.
Milan is a benchmark city in the furniture and lighting design sectors, but it is during Milan Design Week that it becomes the unbeatable world capital of design and a major international pole of attraction. Milan accommodates everyone: established and promising young designers, creators of every stripe and of different generations, arriving from a greater number of countries every year to show their work and creativity. It is, without a doubt, an unmissable event for all those involved in the world of design, architecture and interior design.
The presence of Simon in Fuorisalone, with this notorious project, connects with the cultural dimension of the events taking place in Milan old town. It also reflects its vocation for both technological research and artistic expression, which explores the culture of light intrinsically linked to the spaces in which we live.
INSPIRED IN BARCELONA: SPA
Inspired in Barcelona, the initiative promoted by Barcelona centre de Disseny, visits Milan's Fuorisalone for the fourth time with the aim of positioning the Catalan design sector and the Barcelona brand with values such as creativity, design, architecture and trends.
The work is by Guillermo Santomà, a renowned creator who in his work combines design, architecture, sculpture and performance, a piece capable of reflecting the feelings of our time from innovative and unprecedented artistic expression.
Thus, it is an architectural space in which Santomà works with light as matter, deploying it on multiple levels, explores visual and thermal frequencies, and puts them in contact with bodies, both architectural and human, and with different skins. He wants to investigate how light acts and its transforming capacity, sculpting new forms, modifying their morphology, in an ever fluid and changing relationship.
It is a construction of 70 m2 of surface with a hip roof, crowned by a skylight. The interior, lined with porcelain tiles, recreates stone to evoke the rocks of the primordial cave. In turn, the repetition of the industrialised piece, which simulates a natural material, aims to create a digital effect when it receives light.
The exterior is an exposed structure, a skeleton that houses the technological cabling as a technical membrane. Framed by four pillars, the skylight emphasises Santomà's collaboration with ProtoPixel, Simon's technology partner. ProtoPixel is also present in the lighting signage that frames the entrance to the facility and provides it with dynamic digital light.
Inspired in Barcelona: SPA is a fully experiential facility with several areas: a clay mud spa; a mountain of volcanic gravel heated by infra-red lights, which, when in contact with the body, modify it; a chromotherapy table on which light is diffracted and, depending on the colour and frequency, acts differently in contact with the skin; also a cold spot that freezes the ambient humidity, after which the body perceives the temperature contrast, activating blood flow. An ultraviolet light grid on the ceiling, with electromagnetic frequency outside the visible spectrum, tints the space blue while disinfecting it, highlighting a new functionality of light.
During the week, the 15,500 visitors were able to experience and enjoy different light and temperature environments and how these are activated and transformed in contact with bodies.
The installation is accompanied by research also carried out by the artist, and materialised in a publication that involves the following companies: Bover, Estiluz, Faro Barcelona, Lamp, Parachilna, Vibia. It is an eminently visual essay around the industry, and a vision of the future that places expectations on technology and modes of production to determine positive changes and advances. As Santomà said, “If there is no look to the future and the way in which it is produced, there is no point in the industry."
The "organic light" concept
The project Inspired in Barcelona: SPA is concomitant with the conceptual contribution of organic light, developed by the Simon Design and Sustainability Department, in its dynamic dimension and transforming potential. For Guillermo Santomà, organic light is that which is part of the ecosystem and occupies the maximum possible values, being as complete as possible in its spectrum. In this respect, it can be said that there is organicity.
In conclusion, the artist explores light in its broad electromagnetic spectrum, beyond what is visible to humans, and explores how each frequency has its impact on bodies, architectural and human, and on all organisms in the ecosystem we live in. As an experiential installation, it offers visitors a sort of immersion or light bath which will not leave them unmoved. It is also an artistic claim of the power and international projection that the specialised lighting sector in Barcelona and Catalonia is experiencing today.
Simon has long recognised that light is much more than the solutions it designs, manufactures and markets. Its contribution to the culture of light is based on the creation or collaboration in projects that help to see, feel and understand it, combining art and technology to humanise and bring it closer to people. Guillermo Santomà's intervention adds to the various artistic initiatives and cultural events, such as the Llum BCN Festival, the Tulou Festival in China or the Alameda Art Lab in Mexico in which Simon participates, and which allow the company to learn and investigate with creators who inspire with new looks and concepts.
