Art Basel Awards Summit

Rethinking art through design: Formafantasma

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Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin, Formafantasma, Milan and Rotterdam Moderator: Philip Tinari, Director and Chief Executive, UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing
What happens when disciplines no longer define the limits of creative practice? In this conversation, the Milan- and Rotterdam-based duo Formafantasma – renowned for their research-driven practice – reflect on cross-pollination as both method and ethos. Founded in 2009 by Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin, Formafantasma’s work spans exhibition-making, product and spatial design, as well as ecological and pedagogical inquiries, challenging conventional boundaries between disciplines.
Moderated by Philip Tinari, Director and CEO of Beijing’s UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, this panel unpacks how hybrid practices are reshaping the cultural landscape: How do multidisciplinary creators connect with broader audiences? What emerges when design blurs into visual art, environmental science, or fashion? How might such collaborations shift how we consume, create, and define art?
Nominated in the Art Basel Awards’ Cross disciplinary Creator category, Formafantasma is a research-based design studio investigating the ecological, historical, political, and social forces shaping the discipline of design today. The studio was founded in 2009 by Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin. The aim of the studio is to facilitate a deeper understanding of both our natural and built environments and to propose transformative interventions through design and its material, technical, social, and discursive possibilities. Working from their studios in Milan (Italy) and Rotterdam (The Netherlands), the practice embraces a broad spectrum of typologies and methods, from product design through spatial design, strategic planning, and design consultancy. Whether designing to a client’s brief or developing self-initiated projects, the studio applies the same rigorous attention to context, process, and detail.
Philip Tinari is the director and chief executive of UCCA Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) and serves on the Art Basel Awards Jury. Since joining UCCA in 2011, he has led its growth and transformation from a founder-owned private establishment into China’s premier institution of Modern and contemporary art, operating across a constellation of four locations in Beijing, Shanghai, Beidaihe, and Yixing. His program has featured major Chinese and international artists including Cao Fei, William Kentridge, Luc Tuymans, and Xu Bing; historical figures such as Marcel Duchamp, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Andy Warhol; alongside emerging talents. Tinari co-curated the landmark exhibition ‘Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World’ (2017) at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and organized the inaugural Diriyah Biennale (2021) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Born near Philadelphia in 1979, he has lived and worked in Beijing since 2006.