Poltronova Biography
In the 1960s, Poltronova was located in a region, Tuscany, that did not produce design. However, the company could boast among its collaborators the best professionals in the sector: not only Ettore Sottsass, artistic director, but also Gae Aulenti, Paolo Portoghesi, Giovanni Michelucci, Angelo Mangiarotti, Archizoom, Superstudio, De Pas-D'Urbino -Lomazzi; not only masters, but also protagonists of the "New Design", who at the time were called "radicals".
Compared to Dino Gavina or the Danish aristocracy, who at the beginning of the Sixties created the first niche of very high quality brands, Sergio Cammilli immediately adopted a different and experimental method. He united the polycentric soul of Italian design, with all its contradictions and opposing tendencies, convinced that it was precisely in this complexity that the reason for the unity and vitality of this extraordinary phenomenon was found, a belief that today proves correct.
Right from the start, Cammilli brought together in the same catalog the anarchic objects of Archizoom and the first Italian equipped wall (the Cub8) by Angelo Mangiarotti, the post-modernist works of Paolo Portoghesi together with the archetypal provocations of Ettore Sottsass. The first pieces of furniture produced demonstrate how it is possible to move away from the rationalist lesson by rediscovering colour, material and decoration. The furniture was made of solid walnut or chestnut wood, but also laminate, fiberglass, and objects in ceramic, glass and metal were produced. However, one could also go to Poltronova for reasons other than those of simple observation, purchase or production of furniture. Cammilli hosted and was sensitive to the creative, critical and visionary effervescence of the Sixties.
