08/09/2021 - On the occasion of Milan Design Week 2021, Gufram has chosen one of the most characteristic squares in the city to celebrate the 50th anniversary of PRATONE®: until 10 September Piazza San Fedele is the background of SUPER PRATONE. A huge inflatable PRATONE®, in an intense green color, will rise in the middle of the mannerist architectures, creating an actual radical short-circuit.
SUPER PRATONE: a large public installation in the “living room” of Milan
SUPER PRATONE is a sort of visionary blow-up of the classic PRATONE® - conceived in 1971 by Ceretti, Derossi & Rosso -as it maintains its color, proportions and traditional 'softness'. The 8-meter square base supports 34 stems that are 5.30 meters high,forming a gigantic portion of a medow in the middle of the city.
“A large PRATONE®️ is enough for a large living room. But if the living room is as big as a square, you need a SUPER PRATONE!”, comments Charley Vezza, Gufram's Global Creative Orchestrator. “PRATONE®️ was created in 1971 to subvert the 'bourgeois' idea of sitting in the living room. For its 50th anniversary, we have thought even bigger, insinuating ourselves into one of the most beautiful 'living rooms' in Milan and magnifying the surreal experience of immersing oneself in a meadow in an unexpected place'.
PRATONE® still represents an irreverent design idea that is light years away from the usual types of bourgeois furniture, an enlarged portion of meadow designed as aresting place for one or more persons. Its amusing precariousness still has the power to amaze. A unique and unconventional chaise longue, PRATONE ®has become a benchmark in the history of design ever since it was chosen for the cover of the catalog of the 'Italy: The New Domestic Landscape ' exhibition staged by MoMA in New York.
After Milan, SUPER PRATONE will travel to some of the most prominent museums and cultural institutions in the world to underline the contemporaneity of the message of Radical Design, a message about unlimited and timeless freedom and creativity.
'PRATONE® FOREVER': the new open edition in fabric
Also on the occasion of Milan Design Week 2021, Gufram is presenting PRATONE® FOREVER, a spin-off of its illustrious predecessor. This is an open edition of the famousmodular chaise longue that subverts the idea of 'sitting down'. This new version retains its surreal aesthetic, but it is upholstered in fabric. It is available in three different shades of green, while its smaller dimensions allow it to fit into in all domestic spaces.
Created for the 50th anniversary of this timeless icon, PRATONE® FOREVER celebrates a myth that is constantly reinventing itself and becomes eternal by coming closer to the dimensions of furniture. While maintaining the soft polyurethane core - a material that has always characterized Gufram products - PRATONE® FOREVER ischanging its 'skin'. It was originally coated in Guflac®, the special paint invented and patented by the company to give a film cover to its polyurethane creations, while maintaining their softness and elasticity. This special edition is covered in an elastic wool bouclé fabricthat adheres perfectly to the eccentric shapes of this unusual seat, guaranteeing excellent wearing qualities in use.
Perfect for home and commercial use, as it complies with the legislation that regulates the furnishings of public places, the fabric is available in three different shades: green, greener and greenest. On the one hand, these recall the classic color of PRATONE® and on the other hand, they play on the fact that, over the years, that green has never been identical.
Each PRATONE®, in fact, can be considered a unique piece, being entirely finished by hand.
While it is more modest in size - reduced by 30% compared to the original, and with 25 stems instead of the classic 42,in order to adapt to the space available in contemporary homes - PRATONE® FOREVER remains faithful to the Radical spirit that characterizes its aesthetic. The base still bears its name in quotation marks. In the original version, the word “PRATONE” was engraved directly on the polyurethane. In this new version, it is screen-printed in black on the fabric, keeping the original font unchanged.
