180 - After Giacomo Balla

After Giacomo Balla Fiori Futuristi Aloe Sculpture Steel Limited edition of 250 pieces, engraved with the identification number and the Centro Duchamp stamp. Simongavina Paradisoterrestre, 2004 H 164 cm, W 95 cm, D 99 cm Slight signs of wear consistent with its age and use. It all began in 1968 with a letter addressed to Dino Gavina by Luce and Elica, Giacomo Balla’s daughters, in which they asked the Bolognese entrepreneur to reproduce the *Fiori Futuristi* (Futurist Flowers) designed by their father. The first wooden models from the Centro Duchamp were reproduced with absolute precision thanks to the passion of Cesare Bellici and Elio Marchegiani; they brought Giacomo Balla’s original drawings to Bologna and supervised their conversion into technical drawings with the utmost care—an essential step in their production. Subsequently, thanks to the development of new technologies based on computer numerical control (CNC) machines, it became possible to easily cut sheet metal and thus mass-produce these pieces at a speed that would have been unimaginable just a few years earlier. This innovation prompted Dino Gavina to consider using steel to create Giacomo Balla’s work, giving these flowers—which had previously been handcrafted from colored wood—an even more futuristic character. This approach is supported by a note by Balla, discovered at the bottom of a cardboard model of a *Fiore Futurista*: “to be reconstructed with the materials of your time.”