Alessi Casserole dish Black Metal. Dimensions: 21.5cm x 17cm x H 19.5cm –
240 cl. Notice to collectors, design fans and everyone who’d like to
rediscover the essential figures of Italian design! The iconic Italian brand
Alessi is celebrating its 100th anniversary with the “Alessi 100 Values
Collection”: this collection celebrates the values that define the identity
and practice of the Dream Factory (Fabbrica dei Sogni). A collection of
surprising objects, from the Alessi Museum's Archive Fund, which includes
projects that have never been produced before, brand-new versions of cult
objects as well as icons in the making. Twelve projects, each referring to a
different value, will be presented over twelve months, from May 2021 to April
2022. Alessi 100 Values Collection celebrates 100 years of applied arts
research and the start of a new century of experimentation. The eleventh value
put forward by Alessi is Transgression… The history of art is indeed
punctuated with transgression as expressed so masterfully by La cubica, the
square-shaped casserole dish designed by Aldo Rossi in 1991 which
revolutionised the aesthetic canons of a traditional utensil. Alberto Alessi
explains: Transgression: we need rules, of course! But by wisely subscribing to
a set of rules, we also risk giving a fixed image of the world, and this can
represent a real obstacle to development for the industrialist. Accepting the
risk linked to the transgression of established rules is a constant in Italian
design. I believe that measured recourse to transgression of the rules of
technique, marketing and aesthetics is desirable to allow true product
innovation, as all the finest examples of Italian design demonstrate. A typical
example of transgression is Aldo Rossi's La cubica casserole dish. Over the
years, we’ve happened upon projects of considerable interest, precisely
because they free themselves from the conventional characteristics of their
typology to explore new horizons, thus giving the impression of going against
the evidence. A cubic casserole dish, as wonderful as it is, seems contrary to
common sense, and yet you can prepare many recipes in it without the slightest
problem. “Aldo Rossi’s fascination with the expressive force of geometric
solids is well known and runs through his work as a common thread. La Cubica is
a remarkable example of this: an elementary volume in a foreign world, that of
kitchen utensils. A transgression probably inspired by the square-based pots
and pans used in Japanese gastronomic culture, which the designer had
experienced during the Il Palazzo hotel complex project, built in the late 1980s
in Fukuoka. Launched in 1991, La Cubica only remained in the Alessi catalogue
for a few years due to the extreme complexity of its production. Reissued in
2021, it continues, despite the years, to surprise us with its transgressive
form. This object is dedicated to all fans of Aldo Rossi and his incomparable
talent for translating his architectural language into small design works, as
well as lovers of good food looking for high-precision utensils to measure their
talents in sought-after culinary preparations. An object with a sleek, evocative
design which will surprise your guests with its unique and fascinating shape. La
Cubica is ideal for preparing risotto, meat and many other dishes, perfect for
healthy cooking, with little fat. Thanks to its high-quality PFOA-free non-stick
coating, La Cubica meets all safety standards for products in contact with food.
The high conductivity of aluminium allows even cooking and offers significant
energy savings. Aldo Rossi (1931 – 1997): “Observing things was arguably my
most important formal education. Then, observation turned into memory of these
things. Now, I seem to see them all laid out like tools in a row, aligned as in
a herbarium, in a list or in a dictionary. But this list halfway between
imagination and memory isn’t neutral, it always concerns certain objects and
also constitutes their deformation or in some way their evolution.
