PENSIERI / LUCA DE BONA X LANIFICIO LEO

Reaching the headquarters of Lanificio Leo is a physical and mental, professional and human. A journey back to the lesser and more authentic Italy, where the abused concepts of made in Italy, craftsmanship, know-how lose their slogan connotations to return to being everyday and spontaneous actions. Here, tradition is the truth of handing down knowledge not so much through words as through hands. Here the terms art and craftsmanship rediscover their common root in a new vocation for design, the sincere one, thought before it is produced. Thinking hands: in addition to the juxtaposition of warp and weft, every fabric derives from the interweaving of gestures that intersperse and give rhythm to the thoughts of both the designer suspended between reality and imagination as much as of the operator bent over the loom. The tapestry-plaid collection designed for Lanificio Leo is called THOUGHTS. A play on words that
emphasises the value of the raw material by evoking the Latin etymology of the term pensum which indicated the quantity of wool entrusted to the spinners. An invitation to think by freely following the lines of the design which, seen from close up, appear as graphic strokes made by hand on a neutral background. As in the preparatory sinopias preparatory sinopites of ancient frescoes, the choice was made to renounce colour in order to emphasise the sign, intense as a human gesture. And, as in a contemporary triptych, the collection consists of three independent but modular elements. The narrative iconographic, vaguely surrealist, describes Calabria according to a reading both horizontal and vertical, linking its paradigms: lived orography, cultivated nature and intrinsic archaeology.

After graduating in Architecture from the IUAV in Venice, he specialised in the fields of design and museography by attending masters and advanced courses training at the Milan Polytechnic, the IED in Florence, the Lighting Academy at the Cà Foscari University in Venice. After collaborating with important architecture studios in Venice, Madrid and Milan, specialising in the entertainment, hospitality, museum and retail sectors, in 2010 he opened his own studio with offices in Padua and Milan.
He is part of the duo DEBONADEMEO founded in 2013 with product designer Dario De Meo. In addition to developing architectural projects for private and public clients, he designs objects and furniture for Italian and foreign companies, and taking care of the artistic direction of organisations and companies, he works as a freelancer with prestigious institutions, including the Biennale di Venice, the Canova Museum in Possagno, the François Pinault Foundation, Venice Design Week and the Academy of Fine Arts in Verona.

Micro- and macro-scale research that reinterprets and merges various fields: from architecture to interior design, from museography to hotellerie, from graphics to decoration
from furniture to lighting, to create innovative environments and objects capable of tell stories and induce emotions. Parallel to his design work, he also lectures at
as a lecturer at institutes and universities in the sector.
He is the creator and curator of the Belvedere brand, which aims to re-propose contemporary vedutismo in the form of furnishings exhibited in important Italian art galleries.
Italian art galleries, as well as author and creator of the site-specific installation HYPERURANITY, to be realised in 2021 at the Contemporary Cluster gallery in Rome.