Letizia Calori (Bologna, 1986) and Violette Maillard (Bourg la Reine, 1984), have been working as artist duo Calori & Maillard since 2009.

Their collaboration combines backgrounds in architecture (Calori) and film studies (Maillard) into a practice that merges the real and the surreal, often bringing the absurd into a real situation.

Their research is focused on observing and interpolating the relations between architecture and the human body. They intervene on hierarchies and conventions, overturning them with sudden and unexpected elements, then searching for and finding an exit route with neutralizing irony.

Read the full bio

Ph. Alba Deangelis

Seven years after the first collaboration between the historic Italian design brand and the artist duo, Paradisoterrestre presents WE ARE FOU, Calori & Maillard’s solo exhibition, as part of ART CITY Bologna 2024, on the occasion of ARTEFIERA.

This project is an ideal continuation of Calori & Maillard’s exhibition Causerie - conversation, supported by Istituzione Bologna Musei | MAMbo - Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna in 2017, held at the former Gavina shop, designed by Carlo Scarpa in Bologna, where the artists presented the limited edition of Murano glass vase Altabella 23 - Portare acqua al mare, created exclusively for Paradisoterrestre.

In WE ARE FOU Calori & Maillard interact with Paradisoterrestre Gallery and its heritage, proposing a set-up where art and design merge to create new languages and hybridisations between sculpture and evocative objects. Calori & Maillard present unseen pieces and have designed a series of limited edition artworks for Paradisoterrestre catalogue.

With Moi, toi et Le Témoin (2024), the duo intervenes on Kazuhide Takahama's iconic sofa Mantilla. Two embroidered eyes, inspired by Man Ray, look out from the elegant mantle that covers the structure and search for the observer.

In Sleeping beauty (2024), tribute to Meret Oppenheim, Calori & Maillard reinterpret the famous Surrealist coffee table with bird’s feet and shape bronze into a bright pink flamingo.

Two presences that - alongside other works by the artists - accompany the visitor through an original journey. With an eye on the history of design, the artists re-interpret a series of icons through their unique point of view, generating a flow between the past and the future to create a timeless exhibition.

The exhibition is accompanied by a critical essay by Angela Vettese.

Ph. Carlo Favero