Carlo Massoud

The Fish and the Crowd is the first solo exhibition by the young Lebanese designer in Italy, and brings together a number of objects realized since the designer started his studio in Beirut in 2013 until today, combined with a new production realized for the occasion.Carlo Massoud is interested in translating the world surrounding him into every day and lively objects. For example, social issues such as the situation of veiled women or the wild construction of the current flourishing capital of Lebanon where he lives and works (his city has been destroyed and reconstructed 7 times), had been the initial drives to originate the series of black lacquered wooden small dolls of Arab Dolls: Jara, Maya, Zeina and Racha (a statement about the controversial ban Switzerland has performed for the use of veils in public institutions some years ago), or the collection titled Capture, which witnesses and interprets the recent great boom of many Middle Eastern towns. It is a sort of evolution of the toy-size series of excavators of Beirut 8 collection, where the designer gives an answer to the recent gentrification of his hometown where reckless estate developers substitute high-rise buildings to old traditional housing. This is at the same time a quest about the relevance of the past towards the future and a deeper consideration and open judgment on deformed contemporary values, usually dictated by economics. “My work stems from insistent questioning and investigation of social, political, cultural subjects with an eye for the environmental one. My intention is to keep on inquiring the reality out there in my very personal way, trying to stimulate people towards different layers of interpretation through my work”. But his very answers to our realm is always depicted by a light childish attitude. In the occasion of the Milan Design Week 2019, and to celebrate his first solo exhibition in Italy, Carlo Massoud has reimagined the space of the Oratorio della Passione through a new collaboration with his sister Mary-Lynn with whom he has realized a collaborative brand new project. In the space of this jewel church a number of objects play the role of an imaginary crowd, seated on benches. The crowd looks forward to the apse, where the designer has placed a new contemporary altarpiece. For The Fish and the Crowd Carlo and Mary-Lynn Massoud quote the classical icons of Christianity and its liturgies (the religion they also belong to) to involve the viewers in an intense and ironical reflection suspended between the physicality of the objects and the spiritual tension of the context.