40 DIGS.NET
| 4.16.2021
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L E G E N D S | V I N C E N Z O D E C OT I I S
roughly 3,000-square-foot apartment with his wife
Claudia Rose. Apart from needing to allocate some
space to new technical systems, he "preferred to
emphasize the pre-existing and to enrich it with some
surfaces that contrast each other, creating a container,
which is visually very exciting while at the same
time respectful." Enriching the existing is De Cotiis's
métier, and in doing so here he fashioned a space that,
though decisively of a period is forcefully, almost
relentlessly, current.
Despite the lack of structural alterations needed,
the space was a decorative wasteland—false ceilings,
ugly moquette floor coverings—when De Cotiis began
peeling away layers of paint and paper that had been
applied over many decades in order to restore its Old
World inheritances and character, which includes a bit
of the Baroque. In wanting to preserve the history and
mood of the space, De Cotiis's excavations revealed
its original paint colors and ceilings. "I then worked
out what my intervention needed in a contemporary
(FROM TOP) A SCULPTURAL SCREEN MADE OF RECYCLED FIBERGLASS AND
SILVERED BRASS SHOWCASES DE COTIIS'S FONDNESS FOR REFLECTIVE
SURFACES; A CAST BRASS SCULPTURE BRINGS MODERN EMBELLISHMENT
TO THE SPACE'S OLD WORLD BONES.
way," he says. Leaving walls untreated, for example,
to accommodate "a bit of plaster dust if you brush
against them," he continues. Every room features
the remnants of a different color. Pink in the library,
blue in the bedroom, ochre in others. "You can still
see the gold traces left behind from the 18th century
stuccos," says De Cotiis. These soft colors and lovely
light coalesce as a canvas where metallic surfaces
shine amid the distress.
Having described his work as "anti-design," De
Cotiis's interior—a juxtaposition of old bones and
new works—is astonishingly confident. Nothing
is uniform, least of all the tone, and it is full of
contorted forms and futuristic feeling. Decadent in
abstractions designed by De Cotiis and produced in
Italian ateliers, the space is equal parts apartment
and gallery for the avant-garde, a showcase for the
designer's interest in aging objects and the pursuit
of "perfect imperfection." One can scarcely imagine
more from something so minimal. The place is a
fascination, with spacious, well-illuminated rooms,
and an extravagance of elements from an older time
(fading frescoes, imperfect finishes) contrasted with
contemporary designs—a dining table of silver-plated
brass and recycled fiberglass, a velvet-covered daybed
in pale pink, a pair of marble and cast brass coffee
(CLOCKWISE
FROM
LEFT)
SCULPTURAL
SCREEN
MADE
OF
RECYCLED
FIBERGLASS,
SILVERED
BRASS;
DC1711D
(2017)
SCULPTURE
OF
CAST
BRASS.
