Never change a classic. Just refine it. Un classico non si cambia, si perfeziona. Los clasicos no se cambian. Se perfeccionan.

11 Tara. Black Edition 17 Transforming a classic Part I - Classic as a concept 29 Tara. White Edition 37 Transforming a classic Part II - Classic as a projection 40 Tara. 46 Transforming a classic Part III - Self-similarity as a concept 64 Product Information Informazioni sui prodotti Informacion de producto

A tribute THE REINVENTION OF AN ARCHETYPE There are problems, and then there are solutions. Some solutions are so good in fact, that they become role models and then some of these role models are so good, that they in turn become classics, archetypes, style-defining objects, which are in total harmony when it comes to both their function and their aesthetic. Such a classic as this requires no discussion. It is selfexplanatory, self-evident. As a defining cultural moment, the classic is not merely an object, but the fundamental basis for reflection, it is the heart of the matter. Precisely this...

Tara. Black Edition

Transforming a classic What a classic may or may not be is something that makes for a splendid debate. The term which we are now accustomed to using in the cultural context is originally descended from the Roman tax rights of the time of the Roman Empire. The classis was a member of the highest tax class. The adjective classicus is later used by the Roman author Aulus Gellius (circa 175 A.D.) in the discourse between literature and aesthetic. From this point it appears in all areas of creative activity. It has become the term used to describe an art movement recognised as having created a standard,...

(fino al 431 a.C.). In quest’epoca si gettarono le basi della filosofia occidentale, della medicina, dell’architettura, della letteratura, del teatro e dell’ordinamento politico. A questo periodo risale anche la distinzione di Aristotele tra forma e materia, una cognizione che potrebbe rivestire ancora importanza anche per il design odierno. Se si parla di epoca classica in Germania, allora il discorso verte sul classicismo letterario del XVIII secolo, su Wieland, Goethe, Schiller ed Herder, sul conflitto dialogico con la politica e l’estetica del periodo successivo alla Rivoluzione francese....

Tara. White Edition

Transforming a classic Part II CLASSIC AS A PROJECTION Classics also play a prominent role in other areas of today’s aesthetic mode of living. Karsten Hintz, responsible for the shop at the Bauhaus archive in Berlin, wrote about the commercial links between this historical institution to everyday life, in an essay for the book “Bauhaus” (ed. Jeannine Fiedler und Peter Feierabend, Cologne 1999) there is no doubt that “our image of Bauhaus is characterised by reproductions.” And that furthermore: “the range of objects manufactured is equally as pertinent for today’s aesthetics as the changes which...

le nuove convenzioni dell’avanguardia artistica degli anni Sessanta che definiva gli elementi per un linguaggio delle forme autonomo”. Descrive quindi lo spirito di un’epoca che ha influenzato in modo determinante la nostra immagine dell’avanguardia degli anni Venti, riferendosi ad essa. Alla fine degli anni Settanta entrò in scena il design d’autore che inizialmente viaggiava mano nella mano con l’arte. Sia Rolf Fehlbaum che Alberto Alessi iniziarono con la produzione di multipli, quindi di oggetti a tiratura illimitata, prima di entrare nell’azienda paterna e sperimentarvi la collaborazione...

Transforming a classic Part III SELF-SIMILARITY AS A CONCEPT Even the car industry has discovered its classics’ potential to serve as a reservoir for new ideas and new products. With the VW GOLF there came in 1974 a new classless type of car, whose successive models – always with all the latest technical innovations – always remind us of their predecessor’s original design. The journalist Florian Illies (born in 1971) created the advertising slogan “Generation Golf ”, the bestseller title and a synonym for his own age group, which evokes hedonism and brand awareness. Several German car manufacturers...

con “Figaro”, un modello realizzato solo per il mercato giapponese che citava tipici elementi stilistici degli anni Cinquanta. A metà degli anni Novanta ha fatto seguito la New Beetle VW, creata originariamente solo per il mercato americano, la quale doveva ricordare il Maggiolino VW degli anni Sessanta decisamente poco convenzionale per i parametri americani. Nel 2001 ha esordito sul mercato la New Mini, poco prima la BMW aveva acquistato il marchio Mini, ricostruito con un nuovo motore l’auto, che dal 1959 aveva subito pochissime variazioni costruttive e strutturali, e deciso di iniziare la...

WHITE everything and nothing by Sophie Lovell "White ... is not a mere absence of colour; it is a shining and affirmative thing, as fierce as red, as definite as black ... God paints in many colours; but He never paints so gorgeously, I had almost said so gaudily, as when He paints in white.” G. K. Chesterton, 1874-1936. How do you talk about white when it is not even a proper colour? If you mix all the rainbow wavelengths of coloured light, you get white light, but to get white as a surface colour, you have to take everything else away. It is what’s left when all other colours are gone: an empty, achromatic,...

of nature and reached a level of intellectual asceticism that we may not entirely seek to practise in everyday life, but at least we are thinking about it. We also have begun to choose white just because we can: Decorating our homes with white carpets, white furniture and white accessories would have been unthinkable before central heating replaced dirty fireplaces and vacuum-cleaners replaced brooms; before we had washing machines and indoor bathrooms with hot running water, wipe-clean surfaces and enclosed means of transport. White is the colour of our technological world. Funnily enough it...