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ABOUT

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AKOMENA

/STORY

Founded in 1988 by Francesca Fabbri during a period in which the flourishing of applied arts seemed to inspire designers who found fertile ground in Akomena itself to develop their works: Luigi Serafini, Ugo La Pietra,Riccardo Dalisi, Ugo Marano, Adolfo Natalizi, Gianni Veneziano, Bonetti & Garouste, Ravage, Ettore Sottsass, Ron Arad,Gaetano Pesce ... These designers collaborated with Akomena and thus contributed to make it a point of reference for mosaic work. The reason why Akomena is present at  "Fatto ad Arte" convention held at the Milan Triennale in 1995 as well as at countless exhibitions.

 

In 1996 Akomena won the contract to realize the tomb destined to the Russian dancer Rudolf Nureyev. The tomb was designed by architect Ezio Frigerio and the project coordinated by L'Operà in Paris. The work - inspired to the artist’s favorite kilim, which he always carried with him - required a very fine work of craftsmanship both in the adaptation to the draping of the structural element, both in rendering harmonious the remarkable color scheme of the Caucasian rug that inspires, composed from about twenty shades of red and about twelve types of gold. To this day, the tomb is an unsurpassed example of mosaic sculpture.

 

The collections created more recently by Akomena are the result and common theme of a prolific activity that combines design creativity with different materials into a definitely original design without limits of application. Some examples are the series Pipe-Pipe, Stone Carpet, I Tavolini di Mabel, Sassoft (which in 2001 won in the exhibition "Carrefour de la Création” - curated by Gregoire Simon - at the Center G. Pompidou Paris), Animal Skin and Stories of shiny cards. This last one was presented at Dilmos-Milan on the occasion of the launch of the book Akomena, published by Mondadori Electa in 2005.

 

In 2008 Akomena was awarded the Rajiv Gandhi Memorial commission by the Indian Government: it is a great portrait of Rajiv Gandhi placed in the exact point where he was murdered. The monument is made of minute tiles of glass paste and required the use of 180 mosaic colors.

Since 2009 Francesca Fabbri has been focused on the creation of true works of art that often combine mosaic with sculpture. Among other works, Il Prigione is the result of this artistic choice. The work was selected by Vittorio Sgarbi and exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 2011: today it’s possible to visit it at the Mar Museum of Art in Ravenna.

 

In 2017 Akomena took over Teti, which deals only with design and production of small mosaic objects aimed at the tourist market. Today Teti is present in Venice and Ravenna.

Even this choice of taking over Teti was dictated by the desire to approach mosaic from a broad perspective, developing each dimension in a path where technology and planning are always updated but also revisited, giving quality a central role for every detail. Akomena wishes to continue to share its journey in producing works that show its skills and the infinite versatility of mosaic as an artistic expression.

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