I was born in Taranto, and then I moved to Rome to study architecture.
MAGAZINE · INTERVIEW
Secondome Edizioni – Claudia Pignatale
Claudia Pignatale is an Italian designer, curator, and founder of Secondome, a Rome-based gallery and design brand dedicated to contemporary collectible design. Founded in 2006, Secondome has become a platform for emerging and established international designers, fostering a dialogue between art, design, craftsmanship, and experimentation. Through both curatorial and design practices, Pignatale explores the expressive potential of objects that balance conceptual research with material innovation.
Working across collectible furniture, lighting, and objects, Pignatale collaborates with designers and artisans to develop limited-edition pieces distinguished by their sculptural presence, meticulous craftsmanship, and contemporary vision. Rooted in a commitment to research, storytelling, and Italian making, her practice celebrates the intersection of cultural heritage, artistic experimentation, and collectible design.
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Interview
Where were you born and where are you from?
What is your first memory connected to the art world?
When I was 11, my father gave me a Castiglioni stool; it signed my life.
Have you always worked in the art/design field?
I almost opened my first space and my company in 2006.
What led you to design creation?
Passion.
How would you describe your creative process and its influences?
I produce design objects. It’s different; I like to produce design stories, so I give a theme to different designers, and every year I make a different production, with different materials and artisans.
Could you describe a typical day of your work?
With or without the dog?
Why did you choose the specific materials you work with?
I work with the materials from Italian tradition.
What are the technical particularities of your creations?
I entrust the Italian manufacturing savoir-faire with a pinch of craziness and experimentation.
What advice could you give to beginning artists who would like to create sculptural design works?
To find their own way and follow their dreams.
If your works had to belong to a design movement, how would you define it?
Maybe I would not define myself. Today they would call it « collectible », but actually the most appropriate thing is « art and craft », not even industrial design anymore. It is a mix of various techniques that pass through Radical design and history.
What designers and artists have influenced you?
From Gio Ponti to Ron Arad, all of them.
What contemporary designers do you appreciate?
India Madhavi, Ron Arad, Ross Lovegrove, I appreciate many, actually…all the designers that work with me.
What contemporary artists, in any kind of art, have you been inspired by?
Andy Warhol.
If you had to summarize your creations in one word or sentence, what would it be?
More than furniture.
“Passion moves mountains.”
The Questionnaire
The Questions
(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…)
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Little moments with people I love and like and a bottle of good Red wine.
What is your greatest fear?
I don’t know.
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
That I bite my nails.
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Indifference.
Which living person do you most admire?
Gandhi.
What is your greatest extravagance?
I don’t know, but you can ask it to my friends.
What is your current state of mind?
Serene.
What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Sincerity.
What is the quality you most like in a man?
Sense of humor.
What is the quality you most like in a woman?
Sense of humor.
Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
It’s an apulian phrase « se eri tu così ? ».
Which talent would you most like to have?
Knowing how to sew.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Myopia.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
I still didn’t reach it.
If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
Olivetti’s « Lettera 32 », otherwise I’d like to be my dog which sleeps all the time.
Where would you most like to live?
To the seaside.
What is your most treasured possession?
My mother’s ring, or my grandma’s lamp.
What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
I have never thought of it.
What is your favorite occupation?
Cooking.
What is your most marked characteristic?
To never give up.
What do you most value in your friends?
Loyalty.
Who are your favorite writers?
Italo Calvino, Isabelle Allende, Gabriel Garcia Marquez…
Who is your hero of fiction?
Elastigirl, absolutely!
Which historical figure do you most identify with?
Peggy Guggenheim.
Who are your heroes in real life?
My Mother.
What are your favorite names?
Alice.
What is it that you most dislike?
My Mother.
What is your greatest regret?
Je ne regrette rien.
How would you like to die?
Nobody, you shall not wish for anybody’s death!
What is your motto?
Passion moves mountains.
“I entrust the Italian manufacturing savoir-faire with a pinch of craziness and experimentation.”
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