Mattia Bonetti
Deawing in three dimensions

Mattia Bonetti designs fantastic furniture, in the most classical sense of the term: fantastic,
that implies fantasy, imagination, the unusual, what is out of reality, what belongs to
another dimension. He uses the computer only to finalize his projects; his pieces are the
result of an exceptional work that begins with a drawing pencil on paper, a direct and quick
technique that has always offered free expression to generations of creative artists. The
combination of amazement and maniacal precision that characterize his way of working on
paper is magically reproduced - with a work of months – in his pieces’ details. The ability
to realize in 3D what exists on paper is extraordinary in the details, in the materials, in the
finishing and in the colours: from the hands of Bonetti sprouts a new wonderland. This
unbelievable talent to go from the drawing to the laboratory is peculiar and remarkable as
extraordinary is his ability to give shape to objects of fantasy, the same objects that will be
created and live physically in the space. Mattia Bonetti’s work is realized with the same
care of a carved jewel and looks like suspended between dream and reality. You are almost
afraid to touch them for the fear that they could disappear in a cloud of smoke. Voracious
of different materials, the designer works with all of them, from the various qualities of
metals to the several essences of wood, from plastics to resins in a constant and bizarre
commixture between antique craftsmanship and contemporary technology.

Swiss, Parisian by choice, born in 1952, son of antique dealers, two big eyes that fall
from above. He was born as illustrator, he experimented with photography, he has always
loved research and creativity in its many shapes, he found himself a designer, or better artist-
craftsman. Subversive poet, sculptour of pieces defined “barbaric” for their irrepressible
visual impetus and for their expressive power, his works are so eclectic that transport
the viewer through and beyond different styles. No definition suits Bonetti’s production:
New Baroque is reductive for sure. Magic Realism is definitely out of time, Post-Modern far
from his colossal evocative capacity. “Bonetti produces Bonetti” is maybe the only possible
code for the variety of his production and for the vastness of characters that his fantasy
without rein is able to transcribe in every new project. Bonetti goes beyond the borders
of design and creates imaginary worlds that influence and surpass in every occasion our
expectations: his works are far from everything we have seen and known before.

One of the main gift for a designer is being able to challange himself with the needs
of his patrons' different dimensions and functions. Bonetti has realized projects of very
different nature like tramline n.2 realized in Montpellier, the liturgical furniture for the
Cathedral of Metz, the dining room of an “Arabian Night” villa in Miami and the recent
Hotel Cristal Champs ElysŽes in Paris. Bonetti’s design is so versatile because it is able
to receive and satisfy every new use value: “There isn’t a single thread of thoughts in
my creations, I continuously have different inspirations. Being able to reinvent yourself
every time can be dangerous but it offers the possibility for a constant new birth, a vital
need for me”. The pieces made by Mattia Bonetti are acquired to fulfil a desire and not
to respond to a what so ever functional necessity although the functionality of the object
is always included in the final object. Most of his projects are custom made, not in the
technical sense but because the artist knows the identity of his patrons having analyzed
their life, habits and dreams. Bonetti thinks that “we need symbolic objects that are able
to mirror ourself”. For each of his notable and diverse supporters – that for the elective
sharing become often friends – the designer tries to create groups of thought or collections
of moods. This is the daily creative gymnastics to which Bonetti submits himself, his
spontaneous and indispensable effort.

Not kin to sacrifice his fertile fantasy on the altar of the God Market, he does not follow
schools, he does not homage anybody, he walks his path, he defends his right to be
eclectic. Mattia Bonetti is a designer, an artist, but above all a free

text by Maria Cristina Didero