MACHAS

Follow the line: Jonathan Calugi x ARTELINEA

Immediately after a brief email exchange with the owner of luxury bathroom furniture Artelinea and its communication agency, Jonathan Calugi and Machas were invited to a meeting at the company’s offices. We were heading to the luscious Tuscan countryside to discuss a possible collaboration project and, excitingly enough, the scope of this collaboration was completely open to the artist’s interpretation.

Upon our arrival and a quick tour of the factory, we both realised that Artelinea was a perfect example of the Made in Italy brand: a fully owned family business that combines craftsmanships and excellent designs with innovative products.

Jonathan’s attention was instantly caught by a glass base material that doubles as furniture and tiles surface. We all agreed it was the perfect ready-made canvass for the first step of the collaboration: a live painting performance at Cersaie 2015, the International Exhibition of Ceramic Tile and Luxury Furnishings.

The tiles, designed to have incredibility sleek look as well as the highest standard of durability and resistance to wear, required Jonathan to perform multiple testing on the material to guarantee the perfect result —  and Artelinea’s 100% Italian production provided a vital technical support.

The project, aptly named Arte&Linea as a clear reference both to the company’s name and to Jonathan’s style, saw the Machas Artist developing a fascinating series of One Line Dancers, in black, intuitive stokes were balanced out by colourful geometrical shapes. A total of 32 ballerinas, the tiles were gifted to Artelinea’s premium customers at the conclusion of the tradeshow.

Rarely we have seen a collaboration growing as organically as the one between Jonathan Calugi and Artelinea and we are all looking forward to the future developments.

See more of Jonathan’s work here.