RESIST

In 1972, Abet Print, a company producing plastic laminates, tasked Clino Castelli with exploring new interpretations of their materials. The company was immediately receptive to the idea that the product surfaces could be enriched with effects and functions beyond just color and decoration.

This led Castelli to the creation of the Reactive Surfaces project and of a new material called Lumiphos, a laminate that allows the creation of large and very robust luminescent surfaces.

When applied at scale, the luminescent material introduced a captivating new dimension with a profound emotional impact. Building on this phenomenon, Castelli crafted the Resist — a luminescent laminate panel printed with images that emerge in the dark when intensely illuminated, slowly fading away after a while.

Lumiphos Glowing-chair, 1972.

Partita a Scacchi (Chess Game), 1974 (ed. 2016)

  • Version shown after surface excitation with a light source.

  • Price available upon request.

Partita a Scacchi is the title of an iconic image created by Clino Castelli which has been widely published in both national and international press. A work on paper edition was produced in 2018.

"The Chess Game" is also the title given today to the Lumiphos platform reissued in 2016 for the exhibition "Stanze d’Ombra" in Bergamo. The effects of this installation has been documented in a comprehensive report by Paolo Mussat Sartor for Domus magazine.

Lumiphos is a performative material in itself, capturing light and shadows, temporarily fixing the silhouettes created by bodies that obscure it.

As a result, a viewer may experience playing a game of chess with the shadow of an opponent who has just made their move but is no longer present.

L’ Enigma dell’Orologio (The Riddle of Time), Resist, 1974 (ed. 2016)

  • Version before and after surface excitation with a light source.

  • Price available upon request.

Digital Time Perspective, Resist, 1974

  • Price available upon request.

Sinking Surfer, Resist, 1974

  • Price available upon request.

The selected subjects explore the unique properties of luminescence in diverse ways: from the innovative digital clock Digital Time Perspective, designed by Clino Castelli, where time is displayed as a perspective of numbers, to Sinking Surfer, depicting a waterskier at the end of their run whose gradual disappearance evokes the sensation of sinking into the rippled sea, and finally, Faraday Field, a glowing statuette of the Madonna, whose base rests on a pattern reminiscent of Venetian terrazzo floors—yet is, in fact, a graphical representation of an electromagnetic field.

Faraday Field, Resist, 1974

  • Price available upon request.