Fornasetti Magic Mirrors

The Ate­lier For­nasetti has pro­duced a col­lec­tion of mir­rors, now on dis­play at L’Eclaireur Boissy D’Anglas and also avail­able on-line at shop.leclaireur.com.

It is the result of a selec­tive reis­sue of cer­tain projects con­ceived by Piero For­nasetti, an eclec­tic cre­ative fig­ure whose pro­duc­tion grav­i­tated between art, design, fash­ion and dec­o­ra­tion, together with a mas­terly rein­ter­pre­ta­tion by his son, Barn­aba. Indeed, this col­lec­tion of mir­rors is not sim­ply a series of sophis­ti­cated fur­nish­ing solu­tions, but rather the point of depar­ture for some inter­est­ing and enig­matic reflections.

We are pre­sented with curved reflec­tive sur­faces, either con­cave or con­vex, which there­fore have a deform­ing, enlarg­ing or trans­for­ma­tive effect. The mir­rors are embell­ished or etched to var­i­ous degrees, and enclosed in beau­ti­fully dec­o­rated frames. This is a col­lec­tion which is not merely intended to carry out a sim­ple prac­ti­cal func­tion, but which aims to explore fur­ther hori­zons by evok­ing rem­i­nis­cences of Snow White, Alice in Won­der­land, and paint­ings in the Flem­ish tra­di­tion such as “The Arnolfini Wed­ding” by Jan Van Eyck.

These are mag­i­cal objects because in their very com­plex­ity they induce a vivid sen­sa­tion of ancient leg­ends and fan­tas­tic sto­ries, recall­ing aspects of a long-forgotten col­lec­tive imag­i­na­tion. There was a well-known belief in north­ern Euro­pean folk­lore that a con­vex mir­ror was “the witch’s eye” because, just like a huge eye, it could both observe and attract the atten­tion of oth­ers. The strat­egy was to place at least one of these next to a door or win­dow to pre­vent the entry of the evil eye and misfortune.

Whether or not you believe it wards off bad luck, it may well be a good idea to have one in your home: even if it does not keep mis­for­tune at bay, it will cer­tainly attract you by its beauty…