Platinum A' Design Award Winner 2025
Giuseppe Tortato's Embrasse Moi Lamp Sculpture Lamp exemplifies a contemporary approach to sculptural illumination that engages thoughtfully with the rich tradition of decorative lighting while proposing distinctly modern formal vocabularies. The work appears to emerge from sustained meditation on the relationship between line, light, and architectural space, employing advanced metalworking techniques and integrated LED technology to achieve a form that seems to defy material constraints, the rigid brass ribbon rendered visually weightless through its graceful helical configuration. The installation context proves integral to understanding the design's achievement, as Tortato has conceived the piece specifically to inhabit the vertical void of a grand classical stairwell, creating dialogue between the organic fluidity of the sculptural element and the measured geometries of its neoclassical surroundings. One observes how the continuous twisted form echoes without imitating the curvilinear flourishes of the traditional ironwork, establishing visual kinship while asserting unmistakably contemporary identity. The technical accomplishment extends beyond mere formal elegance to encompass sophisticated consideration of illumination quality, the embedded light source distributing warm radiance along the sculpture's length to create both functional downlighting and atmospheric ambient glow. The title itself suggests embrace, and indeed the form seems to reach outward and enfold the surrounding space, transforming utilitarian vertical circulation into an experience of aesthetic encounter. Viewers might contemplate how this work negotiates the perennial tension between tradition and innovation, achieving synthesis rather than opposition between classical grandeur and contemporary design sensibility.
Halfway between art and design, Embrasse Moi is the majestic light sculpture whose name recalls the play on words between the English brass and the lamp's curved, enveloping shape. The suspension lamp has been handcrafted: a large sculpture in burnished brass that recalls the DNA strand, the weave of which unfolds like a fil rouge throughout the space, giving every project an artistic accent that makes it unique.