(toskanews) – The first to be captured is the gaze: a sequence of dozens and dozens of cans, reminiscent of Pop Art. Then come the scents, which awaken memories and prepare the taste buds for the contents of those cans. There House of pulp by Mutti at the Fuorisalone in Milan welcomes visitors with a story where the material, the tomato, becomes an experience, even to be tasted.
The tomato-shaped pop installation at the Fuorisalone
Set up in the Portico Richini, in the cloisters of the State University, the installation thus transforms a product present in all Italian pantries into a work of design: «Pulp is an emblem, a unique product. The original was born in Mutti in 1971 and one of the many peculiarities of this pavilion is the circularity – he said Francesco MuttiMutti CEO – There are approximately twenty thousand cans which represent the twenty thousand days since this product was created in 1971. Circularity is also linked to the fact that at the end of these days the pavilion will be dismantled and the cans will resume their normal life, therefore they will be distributed so that in individual homes they find that uniqueness and use for which they were created”.
An experience for the senses
Over 25 meters in length, red dominates the scene and circularity is the underlying theme of a story that starts from cultivation and ends with the transformation of the tomato. So we discover, for example, that even the floor, developed with Mapei, is made of tomato peels and waste from the supply chain. But not only that. As the CEO explained, to close the circle, at the end of the Fuorisalone, on April 30, the installation will be dismantled by visitors can by can, completing the journey that 55 years ago brought them into people’s homes for the first time.
«We retraced three of the senses that characterize the experience – he explained Mutti – therefore the tactile part, a part more specifically of smell and a visual part. It is the attempt to truly make this material a living material and rediscover that in the search for new materials we should not forget what may instead be at the basis, in some way, the essence of the material itself”.
The symbol of a culture
Made within Materiaethe exhibition-event organized by the magazine Interior, House of pulp it is an ode to the tomato, in the words of the poet Pablo Neruda, which celebrates a symbolic product of our culture, culinary and beyond. «The tomato is a symbol of Italian cuisine. Italy is the world’s largest exporter of tomato products for the final consumer – he stated – It is a question of combining two great elements. On the one hand, precisely this democratizationan economical product, accessible to all, but which also represents that excellence of a single ingredient which, when put together with other ingredients in their individual uniqueness, represents the way of making Italian cuisine which has just become a UNESCO heritage site.”
iO Donna © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED