Desenzano, Italy
Mission Title: From Disco to Disco - Beppe Riboli, Disco Designer
Mission By: Deborah Cecotti, Carlotta Elia
Mission Finished on Date: 22-07-2008
SCRIPT
- Drive to Crema and interview Beppe Riboli. Ask him about his idea of space, shape and color in his work with discos. How does he match sobriety and energy in his architectures? What's the connection between disco space and the use made of it, and the relationship between a tasteful environment and the disco
- lifestyle status symbol? Are discos popular leisure centers or celebrations of status quo?
- Drive to Desenzano to visit two Riboli
- designed places, with different targets. First, in the afternoon or early evening, check out the Teatro Alberti, a sort of bar/restaurant/theater. Then, at night, move on to the award
- winning Fura disco.
- Highlight different atmospheres in the two places. Tape the spaces both before the place fills up and after. Show architectural and design details, but focus on people, excess and sociality. Interview boys and girls about this lifestyle.
TRAVEL BAG
What is night architecture and who lives it?
Thighs tense by high heels and perfumed necklines, fresh withdrawn money and condoms packed in tight pockets, the boys and girls hop in their cars for a night out. Little do they know that the pleasure dome they're going to have fun and dance in has been designed by a famous-ass “night architect" inspired by the very Stanley Kubrick's 2001. Beppe Riboli's discos and clubs are award-winning, lighting-savvy weekend temples, servicing the Italian audiences looking for a nighttime escape from their boring workplaces and quiet, desperate days. Spare time relief tastes even better when surrounded by clean, colorful shapes and caressed by soft lighting, giving the floppiest bags a more dignified look and spraying the most underpaid secretary with a Kate Moss-y glam.
Riboli is passionate about shape and color, but he's not a fan of the uncontrolled drinking and drug abuse taking place in night leisure spaces. An interview with popular journalist Beppe Severgnini revealed his most serious and responsible side, critiquing disco habits and media coverage of celebrity excesses. The very interiors of discos, he says, wink to the type of drugs being consumed. Being a disco designer himself doesn't make him sound like the most coherent person ever, but maybe his bitter, straightforward tone is due to his past working experiences with Oliviero Toscani at Fabrica.
Mission Report
During our trip from Turin to Milan we prepared the questions for Beppe Riboli: we read a few articles about him and we gather that he’s such a surprising and eclectic character.
Finally we reached his studio in Crema, in a wing of an ancient palace, perfectly reflecting the artist’s fantasy and style.
We had the great chance to meet the person who revolutionized nightclubs. He wanted to give us all the information we needed for our visit to the Alberti Theatre and the Fura disco, both located in Desenzano sul Garda. He stated, sometimes with irreverence and taunt, he doesn’t tolerate the standardization, preferring the will to surprise to it. He explained us that, because of the continuous and sudden changes in the ways young people have fun - he mentioned drug abuse and talked about different kinds of music and fads - he has chosen to match consequent architectural logics.
The day after we met Mr. Ottavio, a partner of Riboli's, to visit and shoot the Alberti Theatre. We were both floored by the way ancient and modern had been put together, by the fact that a club could host entertainment and catering at the same time, and by how every detail had been carefully polished.
After this stop we moved to the Fura disco. We immediately noticed that the club has been dedicated to the famous picture of the monkey with the bone from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Over the years some changes happened, but Riboli’s intervention is still well recognizable, thanks to the simple shapes and furnitures, highlighted by the careful use of lights and colors. We are surprised by the way a disco can involve its public to the point of making it the very protagonist of the party, using special scenographic effects like ceiling-rails allowing people to float and making the events unique and unforgettable having artists perform in them.
Deborah Cecotti, Carlotta Elia
