This new series, Design bites, unveil the backstage of contemporary creation. Tackling various topics from personal designer processes to the position of Collectible design on the global design market; these bites offer different views to suit all tastes. Today we talk with Nina Yashar, director of Nilufar Gallery.

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COLLECTIBLE: What are the challenges in presenting contemporary collectible design?

Nina Yashar: My biggest challenge is to be able to convey through the works I choose to represent, the same emotions and pathos that I felt. Creating empathy with my audience through the works I select is the greatest success that can be achieved.

I also believe that another challenge in presenting contemporary collectible design today is to trust your instincts. I have always been an instinctive person, I have often let myself be guided by what struck me immediately about a project or the designer who had created it, and I must say that so far I have never been disappointed. I believe in young people, especially in those who bring out their history, their vision and the knowledge of the past that preceded them in their projects. And I am always looking for unique pieces.

“ Creating empathy with my audience through the works I select is the greatest success that can be achieved.”

C: What tips would you give to a collector who wishes to start collecting contemporary design?

NY: The advice I would like to give to new collectors regarding contemporary collectible design is certainly to know, deepen and discover as much as possible, without stopping at the first "love at first sight". And then start with small and functional pieces, possibly also being guided by professionals such as gallery owners, interior designers and curators. And, of course, I suggest taking a look at my latest project Pickedbynina.com !

C: What is your opinion on 3D designs and renderings compared to other more traditional ways of presenting design? How do you foresee evolutions in that domain: do you think it is a perenne practice or an ephemeral one that reflects our needs for escapism and imaginary spaces? 

NY: I strongly believe in the digitization of projects and in 3D design. The future of the design world will surely be exclusively in this direction. As a gallery owner, I am also entering this new area, for example with my latest project, Scale to Infinity by the very young French designer Audrey Large, curated by Studio Vedèt. She creates hybridizations between real and virtual world, associating the technique of modelling and 3D printing with a particular bioplastic material, PLA, with an original and unique design thought, in which various forms overlap and are digitally assembled, giving life to paradoxical objects, which I also love very much for their baroque and hyper-contemporary aesthetics. Without technology, these results could never have been achieved and I think this will be a perennial practice of course!

C: Can you talk about a designer, whom you admire?

NY: I met Flavie Audi in Paris two years ago, through a mutual gallerist friend. I immediately wanted to go deeper with her and I went to London for a studio visit, during which I was very impressed with her design approach. I think that her sculptural pieces are linked much more to an artistic process than to design. Flavie is an artist who perfectly represents today's contemporary and hybrid world: she reflects a lot on current issues, with a critical vision of the future of the planet, which I also share, and manages to create incredibly fascinating and original works. This is why I strongly wanted this year to show her exhibition TERRA (IN)FIRMA in the central atrium of Nilufar Depot, in a post-industrial, alienating and utopian atmosphere, and that’s why I have selected one of her pieces, the Prescient Lagoon low table, for COLLECTIBLE SALON.

About Nilufar Gallery (Italy) 

Starting from the end of the Nineties, Nilufar Gallery, founded by Nina Yashar, knew how to carve out its own space and become the reference point to lovers of historical design as well as to people following the evolution of contemporary design, above all within that more learned, poetic and visionary area shifting between production and contemporary art. Nilufar has its own small manifesto, composed of three words: Discovering, Crossing, Creating.