BIO
GENTUCCA BINI
Born in 1973, she grew up amidst the atmosphere of art and fashion around her couturier grandmother, Bruna Bini. She studied architecture in Milan and in Paris, where she worked in Pierre Cardin’s fashion house and as the assistant to fashion editor Andrée Leon Talley. She also met Karl Lagerfeld in Paris and worked with him on creating hats for his Chanel Haute Couture runway shows.
Former creative director of the Romeo Gigli label, she now runs her own brand and her haute couture collections are shown on the Paris and Rome runways.
Gentucca Bini has created architectural elements on Alcantara, thanks to very high resolution prints of elements from the world of architecture, faithfully reproduced on the material, they become light and soft to the touch. A challenging interpretation that suggests the extreme versatility of Alcantara, a versatile material at the service of the most innovative creativity.
"LOCAL ICONS - GREETINGS FROM ROME"
“Local Icons. Greetings from Rome”, born from the partnership between Alcantara and MAXXI Museum, has been exhibited from 27 March to 7 June 2015 and it represented a metaphorical journey around the Eternal City through creative reinterpretations of a number of emblematic objects. Among them, “Saluti da Roma” by Gentucca Bini standed out, a project where Rome represents memory, MAXXI modernity and Alcantara is the expressive means to the avant-garde: a glove reproduces Italian speaker’s characteristic hand gestures, which are particularly noticeable in Rome (Aò, Tié, Vaf, Ave); the theme is the marble of the statues in Rome, whose unmistakeable texture is printed on Alcantara.
Aurora Museum / “Unordinary Space”
Alcantara has unveiled the exclusive new artworks commissioned for the art exhibition “Unordinary Space”, which took place in Shanghai at the Aurora Museum from November to February 2016, to conceive site-specific artworks. “Unordinary Space” analysed the architectural and metaphorical environments that connect the Aurora Building, a landmark of the Shanghai skyline, to the annexed museum infrastructure designed by Tadao Ando.
Bini’s artwork “Arora Mueum” is a continuation of the concept she designed for “Alcantara Technology of Dreams”, an exhibition hosted by Palazzo Reale in Milan during EXPO.
For Unordinary Space, Gentucca Bini transforms the Chandelier Hall with its baroque characteristic to provide the experience of a contemporary kaleidoscopic room. The hardness of the architectural elements is counterbalanced by the softness of Alcantara materials that, through a complex photographic printing process, appear as if made of the same marble, glass and shiny elements present in the real architecture of the Chandelier Hall.
ALCANTARA, TECHNOLOGY OF DREAMS
The exceptional setting of the rooms of the Prince’s Apartment in the Royal Palace of Milan host in 2015, during Expo, the exhibition “Alcantara, Technology of Dreams” which invited visitors to cross the threshold between reality and dreams, concreteness and imagination.
The period upholstery’s sumptuous ornamentation inspired Gentucca Bini. Far “Sul-reale (Su-real)” the renowned stylist and designer splits the space into a play of optical illusions to highlight Alcantara’s photo-printing qualities.
Alcantara Magic HOTEL
More than 200 m2 of soft Alcantara will be dressing the scaffolding of one of the buildings under renovation of the famous pedestrian street, reproducing the facade of a real hotel and, during nighttime, hosting also some interactive video-mapping projections. As result of the creative, polyhedral twist of Gentucca Bini, this is how comes to life a maxi artistic installation that is unprecedented in outdoor communications. Thanks to the technique of ultra HD photographic printing, the artwork highlights the versatility and uniqueness of the renowned trademarked material.
“I am very flattered that Alcantara entrusted me with such a prestigious task”, comments Gentucca Bini. “Since the very first project together, I wanted to experiment and play with the feature I personally discovered, that really hit my mind and that I am continuing exploring in new projects: the photographic performance of the printing which, thanks to the physical properties of Alcantara material, transforms it from twodimensional element to three-dimensional, magic world! This is why I decided to title this incredible installation “Alcantara Magic HOTEL”, because Alcantara really expresses a magic world, as magic is the collaboration we are developing, precious also for the future evolution of design”.
The King and I
The exhibition opens with Skinned by Gentucca Bini. A work about disturbance, about the mistake that provokes distortions and undesired revelations as it exposes what should not be seen. In this case, the layer below the decorations is a fake reinforced-concrete wall.
Gentucca Bini undertakes the challenging project of restyling the Alcantara Headquarters
It’s all about texture for the brand-new project assumed by Gentucca Bini, who has been tasked with restyling the Alcantara headquarters, located in via Mecenate in Milan. As soon as visitors walk into the Company’s reception area, they are swept away by an imposing floor-to-ceiling look that traces the elegant grain of white Carrara marble, a material that has been used throughout history by renowned sculptures and architects.
The same marble effect adorns the walls, the reception desk and two stylish armchairs, blending in with the genuine Carrara marble floor. Standing out against the immaculate white backdrop is a scultpure, originally designed by Gentucca Bini for the “Local Icons. Greetings from Rome” project as an interpretation of one of the defining gestures of Rome’s rich cultural heritage and exhibited at the MAXXI Museum in Rome in 2015, boasting a decorative Marquina black marble effect and vibrant red details. All in Alcantara.
In contrast, the Company’s entrance hall is characterized by a unique grey cement interior, exuding an unexpected industrial allure. The grey cement-effect upholstered walls and ceiling welcome employees and visitors with a sombre, austere charm, introducing them to the cultured, tactile and contemporary universe of Alcantara.
