Gaetano Pesce Goto vase Domus Caffe Florian 1995

This charming vase designed by Gaetano Pesce and made by Caffe Florian in 1995 was created to mark the G. Pesce show at the Caffe Florian during the Venice Biennale in 1995. The vase is shaped like the head of the Lion of San Marco, and it has the Italian text “Toast to Venice” molded onto it. On the bottom, you’ll find the words “Florian Temporanea.” Each Goto vase is one of a kind, hand-cut, and made from soft cast resin in different colors. This particular vase is a beautiful example, featuring a vibrant green with red and yellow accents. All vases come from an old stock, were never used. 10 available but kindly note that all are unique and slightly vary in colour. Manufacturer stamp at the bottom of each vase.

Text on the vase translated into English; ‘A toast to Venice, so that she becomes a locus of modern lives, modern behaviour, progress, joys, optimism, discoveries, trust in the future, courage, openness to the culture of the contemporary world… and not a place of prejudice, protection, conservatism, immobility, soporific museum-cult of the past, reactionary example, hopeless venue for future generations, full of torpor, provincialism, mute and nostalgic enterprises… Let’s get rid of this masque, which claims Venice a space to live in.’

Gaetano Pesce, an architect-artist-designer based in New York City, has undertaken diverse commissions in architecture, urban planning, interior and exhibition design, industrial design and publishing. In more than forty years of practice, Pesce has conceived public and private projects in the United States, Europe, Latin America and Asia, from residences to gardens and corporate offices. Pesce’s extensive body of work – recognized for its emotive and tactile qualities, unrestrained use of color, and insistence upon innovative building materials developed through new technologies – has been described by prominent architecture critic Herbert Muschamp as “the architectural equivalent of a brainstorm”.

Born in La Spezia, Italy, in 1939, Gaetano Pesce was trained at the University of Venice Faculty of Architecture. He has lived in Padova, Venice, London, Helsinki, Paris and, since 1980, New York. Pesce has served as a visiting lecturer and professor at many prestigious institutions in America and abroad, including the Cooper Union in New York. During 28 years, he has been a faculty member at the Institut d’Architecture et d’Etudes Urbaines in Strasbourg, France. Gaetano Pesce has also worked in Italy, Germany, Belgium, Japan, the United States, and Brazil, which has influenced the internationalism of his approach.