Although Corallo alludes to the form of a classic upholstered lounge chair, it is made of an intricate mesh of stainless-steel wire; lacquered light red, it recalls the sprawling coral reefs off the coast of Brazil. Fernando and Humberto Campana describe this sculptural object as ‘scribbling’ translated into a three-dimensional structure. The design in fact rests on a sketch by Humberto, hastily done in preparation for a metal sculpture in 1989. Fourteen years later the brothers built a series of models based on the sketch, proceeding in a typically experimental, artisanal fashion by welding small pieces of wire together. The initial concept and early mock-ups were realized by Humberto, while it was Fernando who reworked them and removed all superfluous elements. Edra, which commenced serial production of the chair in 2004, still bends, welds, and lacquers all the wire by hand. In 2013 the company launched a bed designed in the same way. With Corallo’s graphic tangle of lines, the Campanas have succeeded in reinterpreting the classic lounge chair in a spectacular way.
Text: Wiebke Lang
