Milan, March 2023, BenettiHOME presents the Konny Velvet collection, born in collaboration with architect Fabio Rotella of Studio Rotella.
It is a long-standing collaboration that dates back to the early 2000s, when architect Fabio Rotella and Stivens Benetti, owner of BenettiHOME, both with a common innate curiosity for research and the creation of new concepts, experimented in the field of design and the infinite and creative applications of MOSS. From the experimentation on stone processing projects, the Stone Philosophy collection was born, created by Fabio Rotella by milling, coloring and engraving the stone material to insert the Moss lichen from BenettiHOME.
Continuous experimentation and research into innovation led Studio Rotella to work on new technologies that refer to Crypto Art in the field of design and contemporary art, and Benetti HOME to present on the market increasingly versatile, aesthetically impactful, and technically performing design products.
In 2022, during Milan Design Week, KONNY was launched by Studio Rotella, a sculpture project featuring an iconic bunny that transforms from a material point of view, made in various colors and materials, and is present in numbered series in Virtual Art Galleries of the metaverse as NFT (Non-Fungible Tokens).
The collaboration with Benetti HOME has generated a new creation that can be considered an installation, a single painting, or a composable and modular surface, a work made in 99 numbered and certified pieces that make it original and very special.
KONNY VELVET consists of a compact, lightweight, and sound-absorbing polyurethane panel that is 2.5 cm thick and measures 60x60 cm. The panel is treated with the MR. FLOCK technique of flocking (or velveting), which makes the surface soft and pleasant to the touch. The shape of a bunny is carved into the panel, creating a sort of flat and mobile sculpture that is available in fuchsia on a blue background or vice versa in blue on a fuchsia background. The piece is enriched by the presence of MOSS, a 100% natural and stabilized lichen called cladonia stellaris, which is collected from the forests of Northern Europe and is increasingly popular in interior design due to its natural appeal, stability, durability, and maintenance-free nature.
Today, KONNY VELVET is a numbered and certified collector’s item that can be purchased through the Blockchain network, a technology that manages the transaction register securely, uniquely, openly, and sharedly, whose validation is guaranteed by the nodes present on the computer network.
The two protagonists of this narrative, Fabio Rotella and Stivens Benetti, agree that KONNY VELVET is just the beginning of a renewed collaboration and signals the start of a shared path that already hints at the outlines of a new project that is currently under development, called ‘Very Nature Oriented,’ and whose launch is planned after the summer of 2023.
