Vintage Safari Sofa by Archizoom for Poltronova, 1968

Artist Archizoom Associati Italy, 1968 H 64cm W 260cm D 215cm An icon, vintage Safari sofa by Archizoom Associati for Poltronova. A base made of white-coated fibreglass reinforced plastic, integrated seats arranged in the form of a flower, upholstered and covered with fake leopard. Italy, 1968. In very good condition with only few small damages on the fiberglass (swipe for images). The sofa consists of four pieces of two different types (two armchair modules and two sofa modules). In 1966, a group of young architects from Florence joined forces under the name Archizoom. The members, who were politically involved in the 1968 student and workers’ protests, strove to overcome tradition and bourgeois values in their design work by introducing new and provocative solutions for the organization of living spaces. Aesthetically informed by the contemporaneous Pop Art movement, they designed a repertoire of kitschy, ‘outlandish’ objects that refuted Functionalism using irony and an abundance of decoration. This included the Safari, a modular sofa with two basic units: a lounge chair and a two-seater corner sofa with a seat carved out of a cubic volume and upholstered in fake fur that could be assembled into a domestic setting. The Safari was produced by Poltronova after the company’s founder, Sergio Cammilli, had discovered Archizoom at the 1966 Superarchitettura exhibition in Pistoia and boldly asked the group to design for his company.1 Even though Safari did not conform to market expectations, Poltronova managed to market it in such a way that it became a great media success and an icon of the Italian Radical Design movement. It is part of the permanent collection of prestigious museums including the Centre Pompidou and the Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal. It has taken part in numerous exhibitions.