Andrea Bonini
1. Where were you born and where are you from ?
I was born in a small village near Verona(Italy) in the countryside. Actually, I live and work in Milan, in the Montenapoleone area, surrounded by the excellence of Made in Italy.
2. What is your first memory connected to the art world ?
My father is a craftsman who works with metals, and since I was little, I grew up in contact with this reality. I remember that as a child, I spent a lot of time in the workshop. During my childhood, I also experimented a lot, from painting to sculpture and getting in touch with materials.
3. Have you always worked in the art/design field ?
After studying design in Milan, I have worked in various design firms in Italy, also delving into other areas such as graphic design, set design, and industrial design. But when I was young, I also did other jobs.
4. What led you to the design creation ?
I immediately understood that I had a knack for shapes, dimensions, and interiors. I have always been very critical of things, in a good sense, and curious when it came to interiors. As I grew up, I had no doubts about what I would do and I started step by step.
5. How would you describe your creative process and it influences ?
I believe I don’t have the talent of great artists, making it easy for me to create, but I do possess a strong work ethic that allows me to obsessively ponder over my work and sketch at every moment. I often rediscover ideas in my sketchbooks and revisit them.
My inspirations are never direct or controllable, but I am curious and delve into everything. When I encounter something interesting, I pin it to the mood boards in the studio to keep it in view.
However, I always rediscover inspiration in my work. I strongly believe that being in nature helps a lot. Nature is perfection; think, for example, how color combinations in nature are never ugly.
6. Could you describe a typical day of your work ?
I wake up very early, around 4:30 AM, and tend to my spirituality. I meditate, write, read, think, and draw when the world is still calm, all within my studio. This studio, originally designated as the horse-stable of the ‘Melzi di Cusano’ family palace in the 1800s, underwent an architectural intervention in the 1970s by the master Luigi Caccia Dominioni, who created a splendid mezzanine in metal and glass where my desk is situated.
My days unfold with my team, developing various interior design and design projects. I visit my craftsmen in Brianza, exchanging ideas frequently for upcoming projects. I often meet my clients, even if it’s just to spend time with them and gain the intimacy necessary to design their interiors better.
I don’t lead a socialite life, as Milan might suggest. Instead, I dedicate myself to family and sports on most evenings. It may seem quite boring, but it’s not.
7. Why did you choose the specific materials you work with ?
I grew up in contact with two materials: metal, due to my family’s background, and marble because the area where I was born has a very important district for the processing of this material. So, these have always been the reference materials for me. Then, wood became a part of it when I started being in touch with the artisanal carpentry workshops in Brianza, and I fell in love with it. The scent of wood in the carpentry workshops is inebriating.
8. What are the technical particularities of your creations ?
The techniques are many, but they all share the need for the intervention of a skilled artisan. They involve not only the construction aspect but also the design, where there is always a lot of exchange of opinions that help improve the project. I love natural finishes and detest anything synthetic or imitating natural materials. I want my work to stand the test of time, which is why I am meticulous about quality.
9. What advices could you give to beginning artists who would like to create sculptural design works ?
Do not embrace this belief of our times that design, to be contemporary and innovative, must at all costs be visionary, outside the rules, and bizarre… There exists a sober elegance that is correct in all eras and endures over time. Study and always have respect for design history.
10. If your works had to belong to a design movement, in which one would you define it ?
Unfortunately, I don’t have such a broad knowledge to answer accurately, but the Spatialism movement founded by Lucio Fontana is certainly among those I’m familiar with and where I would place my work.
11. What designers have influenced you ?
Carlo Scarpa, Franco Albini, Louis Kahn, Arthur Erickson, Luigi Caccia Dominioni, Luigi Moretti,Angelo Mangiarotti, Tom Ford and Ralph Lauren.
12. What contemporary designers do you appreciate ?
Christian Liaigre, Michele Bonan, Bruno Moinard.
13. What contemporary artists (in any kind of art) have you been inspired by ?
Agostino Bonalumi, Pietro Cascella, Arnaldo Pomodoro, Helmut Newton , Francis Giacobetti.
14. If you had to summarize your creations in one word or sentence, what would it be ?
Sophisticated
15. Is there anything you would like to add ?
Details make the difference.
Proust Questionnaire with very short answers (one or a few words) :
(The Proust Questionnaire is a set of questions answered by the French writer Marcel Proust. Other historical figures who have answered confession albums are Oscar Wilde, Karl Marx, Arthur Conan Doyle, Stéphane Mallarmé, Paul Cézanne…)
1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Family and nature
2. What is your greatest fear?
Feel fear
3. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Too much thoughtful
4. What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Presumption
5. Which living person do you most admire?
Brunello Cucinelli
6. What is your greatest extravagance?
I always carry a crystal with me in my pocket; I believe in the energy of crystals.
7. What is your current state of mind?
Motivate
8. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Creativity
9. What is the quality you most like in a man ?
Steadfastness
10. What is the quality you most like in a woman ?
Independence
11. Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
‘’Interessante’’
12. Which talent would you most like to have?
Accepting the timing of things.
13. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Let go
14. What do you consider your greatest achievement?
The next project
15. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
A King
16. Where would you most like to live?
Tuscany countryside
17. What is your most treasured possession?
Leila, my wife.
18. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Self-neglecting
19. What is your favorite occupation?
Designer
20. What is your most marked characteristic?
Sense of aesthetics
21. What do you most value in your friends?
Their time
22. Who are your favorite writers?
Paulo Coelho, Og Mandino, Timothy Ferriss, Confucio.
23. Who is your hero of fiction?
James Bond
24. Which historical figure do you most identify with?
I truly wouldn’t know who.
25. Who are your heroes in real life?
My parents
26. What are your favorite names?
Noor and Vittoria
27. What is it that you most dislike?
Conforming to the masses
28. What is your greatest regret?
I have no regrets
29. How would you like to die?
I don’t think about death.
30. What is your motto?
’La nostra vita è ciò che i pensieri ne hanno fatto’’ Marco Aurelio / “Our life is what our thoughts make it.” Marco Aurelio
