MARIA CRISTINA DIDERO’S FESTIVE SEASON WISHLIST

I have always been fascinated by small objects. Speaking about objects, my three life love affairs, which condemned me to an obsessive cumulative slant wherever I was founding myself in the world, are: plastic bottles, blankets, and stools. I have plenty of them and I love to use them all. As much as I can. Yes, I‘m not the kind of person which keeps objects as relics, I want to experience the product, dealing with it and experience its response. And most of all, I love when they become old, and bear the signs of time. Just like us.

So this is actually what I collect: plastic bottles (soon they will be regarded – fortunately! – as dinosaurs as pollution imposes precise rules), blankets from any country I have visited (and I was so lucky to have flown a good amount of miles) and from any kind of materials, wool, cotton, acrylic. I guess that Freud is very much involved in all this… I guess that bottles of water hide some sort of fear of running out of something, I bring my bottle all over the places as I feel protected because water is the essence of life – of course. This is banal. But some sort of the same feeling must come from the idea of the blanket itself, something that covers us, hide us completely in case we want, which I consider some shield against the outer space. And I love stools as they are modest but ultimately functional. They can be realised by just one simple stick, just one piece of wood or they can come in super elaborated and decorated versions as the ones I bought in Russia years and years ago. Sometimes stools are also easy to carry around. But no, I do not go around with stools, I just appreciate their nomadic approach and the possible thousand shapes which anyway results in an easy combination between static and moving.

And of course, I love presents. So when SELECTIONS’S Founder, Rima Nasser asked me for a selections of possible gifts that I’d love to receive in the end of this unprecedented 2020, I thought about my friends and those who I would like to keep closer to me – as I cannot because of the pandemic. The list of pieces here below belongs very much to my heart beside representing the work of some of the most appreciated and talented designers around. And I’m pretty sure that their objects will be able to cheer your houses too.

Philippe Malouin

Bowl by Iittala

Michael Young

Dynasty Vase Collection by All Gallery

Dzek

Marble bookends by Marmoreal Collection, Max Lamb

Zaven

Toilet Paper Holder (2020)
Made in limited edition for www.marta.la

mischer’traxler studio

Reversed Volume

Coexist Table Object For Secondome Gallery

Gala Fernandez Montero

Glass Vases – Cages

Yellow House Cage By Gala Fernandez, Mexico City, 2014

Richard Hutten

Gispen Dumbo Cup

Matteo Cibic

Chest of Wonders For Secondome Gallery
Limited edition of 9 pieces

Astrid Luglio

Disordine, Object in glass by The Box

Sabine Marcelis

Donuts

Carlo Massoud

Capri – Carrara Marble
Can be found on SELECTIONS Viewing Rooms Design Show

Paolo Gonzato

Baracche light by Camp Design Gallery

Vito Nesta

Plates Costantinopoli in porcellane – Collection Les Ottomans

Lanzavecchia & Wai

Borosilicate tableware collection inspired by water system pipes

Sung Jang (Korea)

Calibre set of bottles and glasses.
A fully weighted pen on a stone base. The pen is milled from solid brass and weighs .3 pound. The surprising weight of the pen briefly reminds the user of the importance of his writing every time he picks up the pen. Through the Calibre Project, Sung is sending the Calibre pen to an on-going list of top world leaders in various fields. Perhaps the pen will remind them of the weight of their influence through the signatures.