HENRY TIMI
SILENT HOMAGE
TO THE ITALIAN
HISTORY OF ART
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Entrevista a Henry Timi.
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Openhouse magazine
Issue 19 -
Fotografiado por Gabriele Bortoluzzi @gabri_bortoluzzi
HenryTimi
henrytimi.com -
Henry Timi Openhouse Nº19
Henry Timi describes the stone, the wood and the metal as “a light symphony in its first expression”. The sort of music that “shakes the soul of those who let themselves be amazed at every glance”. He recognizes himself as one of those who are able to hear that special rhythm. Henry is committed to reach the most undressed, frugal and natural elegance of matter and elevate it to a category of artwork. The vernacular techniques, purest forms, light volumes and eternal elegance are the melody notes of his professional practice. Italy is an endless source of admiration for this designer, artist and curator who grew up in La Marche, a region in the center of the country that, in his own words “manages to sculpt the souls and be fascinated by it”. The force of his hometown was so strong that it became a revelation in Henry’s life: “I have always sought to preserve the purest essence of material such a wise place can give.”
Please, let us know a bit about Marche the place where you were born and raised.
Corridonia is a small village surrounded by nature, where the history of art and literature weaves the secular tale of Italian poetry; where landscape and sensitivity meet each other. It is the native land of Leopardi with its hills made famous in verse and in the ethereal brushstrokes of Raffaello.
When did you realize you wanted to be an artist?
My family built an artistic life of work and study. Through carpentry—with its humble daily work, both tenacious and passionate—I educated myself, finding, through the hands of the workers, wrinkled by time, their deep affection and respect towards shaping the work in progress. University provided me with an official degree but it is the city of Milan that made me look towards a possible future. A cosmopolitan place where you can assert your beliefs and make you trust in a profession that brings passion and life together.
What was your very first job about?
I immediately collaborated with different creatives, but if I had to remember my first job, PRIMITIVI comes to mind, a series of austere and totemic geometric seats. It was the first job where I was allowed to be myself and express my wish of returning to the origins.
What is the HENRYTIMI project about?
To narrate and reflect not a purpose but values that I express in every project space I create. HENRYTIMI aims to be harmonious in space, furnishing not only elements but also the voids in which to breathe. Each HENRYTIMI creation is the expression of a single sensibility, personal and intimate, perfectly traced through light and shadows. Throughout choices, values and memory, from the natural material to its final expression: unique shapes and details that lead to artistic compositions. Artefatto in its most ancient meaning as handmade practice.
“I have always sought a connection with the origins where the culture and heritage of knowledge and beauty resides.”
What is the commitment of your work?
We respect every wood grain and every fracture in the stone. Reflection and touch is handed down in HENRYTIMI’s daily work. We work according to a real culture of the precious craft techniques. And, in this sense, we keep with subdued sensitivity and education towards history. The contact with material has always been fundamental to me. It is the main protagonist in creation, from nature to work of art. We carefully sculpt each object with a silent gesture, letting it be true to its essence. That commitment led me to establish my own production hub: a cathedral of making in the middle of the green landscape, with austere volumes where nature and finished work come together seamlessly.
Why is materia so important for HENRYTIMI?
Matter is what the whole HENRYTIMI universe starts from. Where everything finds its solution. An equation of balance and reverence in deference listening to the natural essence, the origin of which is connection and highest expression. A value that we try to preserve to the maximum through austere shapes that can let materials breathe and sculpt its valuable characteristics.
What is that manufacture like?
Corridonia manufacture is the emblem of HENRYTIMI thought, based on respect for matter. The heart of the workshop is the mastery tied to technological excellence in realizing each project. I wanted to believe in and support craft knowledge that has traced the history of Italian know-how and return it to the international eye by the HENRYTIMI contemporary manufacture. The 3500-sqm-factory extends itself as a futuristic museum. A place nurturing the culture of authentic and absolute beauty. Each room is a wing of knowledge and talent on making. It is the place where the ideas take shape immersed in the ancient lands of the Marche region.
How would you define your style?
MATERIAL MINIMALISM, HENRYTIMI is a universe of truth that is based on our relationship between forms and nature. The artworks are tied to the history of the raw material to which they pay homage evoking mild timeless art and history.
Is there any source of inspiration to which you usually turn?
I have always sought a connection with the origins where the culture and heritage of knowledge and beauty resides. Art, architecture and archaeology trace a thread in the history of creations, telling us the depth of research and human passion. Also the unknown and the magnificent details of the story enclosed in the groove of a column in the factual genius of the Roman thermopylae, leaves me breathless.
What are your newest collections about?
I wanted to dedicate the collections presented this year in the gallery to the origins of the culture I’ve mentioned in the previous answer. A journey through the Italian spirit which culminates in the work of reinterpretation of one of the symbols par excellence of national knowhow: the cathedral of Milan.
What is the phase you enjoy the most at your own projects?
Definitely, the link with the material. From study to choice, through the manufacturing process, is an instinctive relationship in continuous creation that brings me the ability of being fascinated. That is where I find peace of mind and, at the same time, dawn evolution.
“ We carry out an acute observation of every form in every raw material and the mastery of a secular Italian cultural background.”
What is the enriching part of the interior projects you undertake for other brands?
HENRYTIMI and every interior project is a new approach to understand the art and its functions in their most primordial constitution. We carry out an acute observation of every form in every raw material and the mastery of a secular Italian cultural background. Then, together with the customer, we create unique projects based on accurate research, produced entirely in-house, controlling both shapes and workmanship of the utmost finesse.
Are there any of these unique projects that stand out more than others for you?
My first DOMUS project in Milan, where I went to live after a year of work entirely transforming the spaces in line with my soul. The term 'domus' refers to the Latin vocabulary indicating a type of dwelling—a private townhouse for us. The place of personal living is the temple of the person who lives inside. HENRYTIMI DOMUS is an example of experimental research artifact of my thought, of my being and essence, where natural materials and pure forms create a unique bond with the origins of a place of silent and hidden functions. The arches, a typical architectural element of the past centuries, were rediscovered during the renovation of the house; volumes that exalt the soul, colors austere and crude coming from nature. The plot from the walls to the ceiling to the doors of the clay cabinets, the finish flush with the stone floor smoothed and brushed, make DOMUS a neutral box like the floor drawn in a grid whose lines run along the walls to design the volumes of the furniture.
When did the Gallery project start?
HENRYTIMI Milano is our forge of ideas, the place where research and creativity merge and where every year we present a new exhibition in the heart of Milan, Brera in a late 19th century building in Foro Buonaparte, an area that has always been a meeting place for art and culture in continuous evolution and renewal. A new concept and dimension of living in communion with the deepest essence where each work is unique in its most original strength and constellation in harmony. It has always been the evolution and revelation of space. The character accomplished by the gallery is the true HENRYTIMI expression: the essence of intimate thought, quietness of the soul, the temple of planning and research. It is also our residence in the center of Milan, where the noble neoclassical profiles retrace themselves in the purest forms and the light volumes of eternal elegance define the bodies.
What does Milan mean to you?
Since I was a child, Milan was the main point of reference for my ambition and passion. Without it my designs were not going to have the same shape and the same importance. Milan gave me the possibility to meet the world: where every day is a possibility, a fantasy and a dream.
“Humility, coherence and respect. They guide my work. They are related with the curious accurate gaze to every detail and to every sensitivity.”
Please let us know about the other locations of the gallery. Which role do they play?
HENRYTIMImilano is the primordial experience that can give more than just observation of works. It offers a different point of view. A new philosophy of being and a space which we also wanted to present in a city as fundamental as Rome. There we opened the second gallery exhibition, a space where we recreated a completely different experience, yet always of great emotion. Whereas in the Milan space, there is a dialogue among large volumes and heights, and natural light illuminates each work, in Rome, as a counterpart, are the shadows and nuances of the material which enhance the space created underground. It is a journey into the depths thanks to the restoration of ancient arches. The Rome gallery is actually located in the Unesco heritage area. Among the major arteries of Rome, the gallery in Via Margutta in the Campo Marzio district, pays homage to the contemplation of the most solid and solemn knowledge.
What is the most significant lesson regarding your practice you’ve learned so far?
Humility, coherence and respect. They guide my work. They are related with the curious accurate gaze to every detail and to every sensitivity. All that takes me on a journey of the soul with the natural materials that I work with asking me to recreate forms and leaving the simplest and most noble beauty untouched. Faithful to my choices because more than a brand and beyond design, HENRYTIMI is the way I see the world… That is why, over time, my work is what I preserve and defend.
Last but not least, what are your aspirations, desires and hopes for the next edition of Salome Milano?
Like every year, April will be a month of creation and new evolution. This year, we will be busy defining a new domus: the first project in the city of Rome entirely curated according to the essential HENRYTIMI philosophy. And then Milan, the epicenter and focus of attention towards the new, that runs cosmopolitan like a Boccioni sculpture. We will open the doors to an unedited project, an intimate alcove done of silence and contemplation where the materials of the artworks marry the hand carved rock. A refuge to reconnect to the origins while everything goes by.