For Milan Design Week 2018, Sunbrella has once again collaborated with designer and artist Marc Ange to present Le Roi, a monumental installation featuring exclusive designs located in the garden space of Wallpaper* Handmade at the Santa Teresa Library.
The event saw Marc Ange unveil his latest work Le Roi along with the never before seen Refuge lamps. Similar to the eccentric design of his Les Araignées armchairs, these two new designs are covered beautifully with Sunbrella fabric.
In the center of the garden, gold leaf lamps guide you to an elevated room, like an altar, whose walls, floors and ceilings are covered with the same deep blue Sunbrella fabric. At the back of the room, opposite you, sits, as if on a throne, like a king, a giant teddy bear with blue fabric skin, his head cramped by the ceiling which is too low for him.
The bear is illuminated by two Refuge Lamps, presented here for the first time, which are also covered with the same blue fabric, and protected by a small army of Les Araignées chairs, still in the same material. You are standing at his feet and, four meters high, this Bear King, who has let his crown and scepter fall to the ground, looks at you with a sad, marble gaze, a golden tear oozing from his right eye. Like an allegory of a lost childhood. He invites us, with his tender body, to come and lie against his belly, between his legs, or to sit on his plump thighs, behind his marble feet.
This beautiful encounter between Sunbrella and Marc Ange has resulted in a most unique collection of pieces, colored with fantasy and imagination. Sunbrella’s expert savoir-faire in textiles partnered with Marc Ange’s extraordinary creativity and inimitable designs results in this striking installation Le Roi, the product of a deeply thoughtful creative process.
About Marc Ange
Marc Ange was born in the Holy City of Rome, under the terror of the Red Brigades, in a rootless family with a surreal story, torn between art, religion and madness. His childhood marks his universe and his creations, eternally balanced between the real and the unreal, perfection and mistake, harmony and chance. It is in Paris, the city where he grew up, that Marc Ange develops his work as a Designer.