Gucci's Bamboo Encounters exhibition at Milan Design Week has drawn steady crowds eager to see how artists from around the world reimagine bamboo in bold and unexpected ways. Amongst them, the Stockholm-based Swedish-Chilean artist Anton Alvarez. Here, Vogue Scandinavia chats to Alvarez about his special Gucci commission
In post-war Italy of the 1940s, designer Guccio Gucci and his team of Florentine artisans were fronted with a challenge: a leather shortage. The innovative solution was to equip their bags with a handle crafted, instead, from bamboo – a lightweight and durable material that was readily available from Japan.
In the decades since, bamboo has become one of the House's most well-known codes and has traced a pathway intersecting art, culture and design. Strolling past Gucci's Milanese flagship today, the enduring Bamboo line populates the boutique, each with its curved handle forged by a flame. Elsewhere, behind the wall of the city's 16th-century monastery Chiostri di San Simpliciano, a celebration is taking place as part of Milan Design Week.
Photo: Francois Halard
Titled Bamboo Encounters, the exhibition, curated and designed by 2050+ and its founder Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli, explores the pioneering use of bamboo in Gucci’s design history and identity. It features a series of seven unique contributions by contemporary designers and artists from around the world, each invited to reimagine bamboo in bold and unexpected ways – including Stockholm-based Swedish-Chilean artist Anton Alvarez, known for his innovative approach to furniture and object-making.
Photo: Francois Halard
Photo: Francois Halard
Photo: Francois Halard
Invited to reimagine and recontextualise this emblematic material in bold and unexpected ways, Alvarez opted to sculpt a towering ceramic fountain that lies within a forest of dense bamboo in which exhibition guests can wander. Guided by organic forms, the sculpture ‘1802251226’ merges with the fluidity of water, showcasing how natural elements provide stability and life – but also defy constraints.
"For me, the rapid grown of bamboo has been a core inspiration for this work created for Gucci," says Alvarez. "It serves as a tribute to the essence of bamboo. I'm presenting an extruded bronze fountain that rises from the ground, reaching toward the sky, with water trickling along the sculpture's winding form."
Photo: Francois Halard
"A central driving force in my practice is curiosity and the desire to steer myself toward uncharted territories," Alvarez goes on. "I choose to trust in the beauty of chance and embrace the unexpected."
Gucci | Bamboo Encounters runs from April 8-13 at Chiostri di San Simpliciano.