Italian design maestro Fabio Novembre recently launched his latest project, Lapsus a carpeted chaise longue produced by Barolo-based furniture-maker Gufram in a fun performance at artistic space Le Dictateur at the Salone Internationale del Mobile (International Furniture Fair) 2013 in Milan.
The idea for the chaise longue is based on the bed of Freud, which Novembre feels, is the most representative piece of furniture of the last century, and it is no coincidence that Le Corbusier in 1929 created a design version of it. With the Persian silk-wool rug covering the original bed, the symbols get layered. The carpet is thus an interpretation of the universe: separates an inside from an outside, one on top of the other. The red, blue, and beige silk-wool carpet on the chaise longue features what Novembre calls magical patterns made out of Rorschach inkblot designs (a psychological test used by doctors to determine mental and emotional functioning.)
Guests were invited to enter a clinical, white room through a tiny door, a la Alice in Wonderland. The idea of a small door to enter the space, as in Alice in Wonderland, is because you need to see things through a different perspective in order to open new doors of perception, says Novembre. And just for this occasion Fabio Novembre was dressed like his wife Candela, and vice versa; the couple talked with the guests about the idea of a lapsus. To make it even more challenging for the audience, Novembre arranged for the street entrance to the space to be closed. Only extra curiosity would have pushed you to find a way to get to the small door at the back, and extra courage to enter the room with the odd people inside, he says. My father looked at me dressed as a woman, and thought, what is wrong with him? laughs Novembre.
The limited-edition chaise longue is available at Gufram, another quirky creation from this highly versatile designer-architect.
Text by Priya Kumari Rana