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Barrique, the third life of wood

Sustainability, recycling and recovery.

These are the three key words that have inspired more than forty internationally renowned creators – Michele De Lucchi, Patricia Urquiola, Daniel Libeskind, Antonio Citterio, Mario Botta, Claudio Bellini, Gualtiero Marchesi and Arnaldo Pomodoro, to name a few – to express these terms into the metamorphosis of wood barrels, traditionally 230 liter barrels used for the maturation of wine, both red and white.
Maurizio Riva, the creator of this project, that by visiting the Community of San Patrignano with his brother Davide, has discovered the elegant oak barrels stored in the cellars: a valuable material in which the Community’s residents work on. This is also a good way to avoid barrels going to dumpsites, placing them at the center of recycling, an idea that fits perfectly in the philosophy of environmental sustainability embraced by the community. The project has been able to inspire designers, creators, international artists and architects, who are placed in service of the projects, conceiving and designing artwork and furniture.

It has provided a valuable additional stimulus for the community, whose residents are committed with great passion and with the traditional skills they intertwine craftsmenship in every piece. A project that has enabled the residents of San Patrignano to receive training, learning a trade that today is not as common as it once was. Youths use the recovered barrels in order to create future designs and projects, giving new life to them.

The exhibition

This unique collection arrives in Valtellina in the days of the harvest, the culmination of the heroic viticulture of Valtellina, one of the many Italian excellences recognized internationally. The viticulture landscape of Valtellina is unique in Europe, with its alluvial cones of manure and the ancient system of dry stonewalls and terraces, ensuring the livelihood of nearly 1,000 hectares of cultivated vineyards, mainly Nebbiolo and Chiavennasca. The exhibition – not surprisingly – is usually hosted at the Credito Valtellinese Gallery in the premises of the eighteenth century rustic court Palazzo Sertoli, it was anciently used for the grape pressing with the original structure of vaults, occupying an area of ​​about 120 square meters within three different rooms.

It will be found in this charming setting, an exhibition characterized by the removal of traditional supports (bases, display cases, pedestals) to maximize the stylistic, the technical and manufacturing expression, reserved to the designers of the objects made from wooden slats with the unmistakable tannic aroma and the characteristic color of marcs. The exhibition will be introduced by an installation of intact barrels, which will have a plastic breakdown by individual elements – circles, floors and caps – with an exploded isometric composition fixed in space and suspended in the air, this will prepare the vision of objects re- invented such as seats, benches, tables, stools and libraries. In the halls of MVSA, the light personality of self-illuminating lamps, porch swings, modular diaphragms and booths, made with the same material, also imprinted with the initials of the winemaker and the coopers that have contributed.

The opening evening will start with Marco Stefanini’s speech, head of the San Patrignano Design Lab and an authentic “historical memory” of the community founded by Vincenzo Muccioli. There will also be Franco Origoni, Milanese designer, whom we owe the art direction of the BARRIQUE project. Supported by Letizia and Gianmarco Moratti with the international association of charity Friends of San Patrignano.


19 October 2016
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