Paris, France
To mark the fortieth anniversary of the opening of the Musée d’Orsay, Martinelli Luce and the renowned Parisian institution are launching a special edition of the Pipistrello lamp, designed by Gae Aulenti in 1965 ph. Francis Amiand pour Martinelli Luce.
The Musée d’Orsay represents one of the most significant examples of architectural reconversion of the twentieth century: born as a railway station – the Gare d’Orsay – the building was progressively decommissioned due to its inadequacy to the standards of new trains and, only after several temporary uses, was chosen as the seat of the museum dedicated to the art of the second half of the nineteenth century.
In the 1980s, the transformation project was entrusted to the group of architects ACT – Renaud Bardon, Pierre Colboc and Jean-Paul Philippon – who were soon joined by Gae Aulenti, entrusted with the design of the interiors, who knew how to enhance the original structure by transforming it into an exhibition path that guides the visitor among the masterpieces of the collections.
Twenty years before this commission, in 1965, the designer had created for the Olivetti showroom in Paris and produced by Martinelli Luce the Pipistrello lamp, destined to become one of the icons of Italian design.
Innovative in concept and materials, it required a complex phase of technical development, especially for the telescopic mechanism and for the pioneering use of methacrylate. Initially considered too avant-garde, it won over the public only after a few years, becoming one of the brand’s best-known products.
The celebratory collaboration between the Musée d’Orsay and Martinelli Luce takes shape in a new version of the Pipistrello lamp, characterized by a chromatic finish inspired by an architectural detail of the museum’s interiors.
This choice interprets, in a contemporary key, a fragment of the atmosphere of the building, transforming the lamp into a tribute to its history and to the design vision of Gae Aulenti, capable of designing both the public space of a great museum and a domestic object that has entered the everyday life of people.
To seal this special edition and as testimony to the bond between the two entities, the logos of the Musée d’Orsay and Martinelli Luce are engraved on the lampshade.
With this new guise of the Pipistrello, produced in three different sizes, the worlds of design and architecture meet once again.
And light, once again, serves as the thread that binds them.
Project: Pipistrello lamp
Designer: Gae Aulenti
Manufacturer: Martinelli Luce
