Vidun turns 20 this year



Wood and screw are like page and ink, marble and chisel.  The material and the tool that transforms it.  A simple concept out of which, as always, Vico Magistretti, twenty years ago, invented a table, the first table in the De Padova collection.  
Vidun, meaning "screw" in the Milanese dialect, is a tribute to these little objects so useful in making, creating something else. An outsize screw made of coloured wood, playful yet refined, like all the objects that come from the hands of Pierluigi Ghianda, one of the greatest of contemporary cabinet makers. And a crystal table top, which leaves the idea bare:  "Total absence of all superimposed decoration, redundant and useless", Vico Magistretti used to say. "It's always the conceptual detail that attracts people's interest".
Carlo Forcolini, president of the ADI, described the Vidun table as harmony of structure, its proportions, its steadiness, but above all as an example of formal dynamism underlying the design enhanced by the use of colour, one of Magistretti's stylistic traits.
The table was recently one of the exhibits in the exhibition "50 Years of the Compasso d'Oro",
promoted and organized by the Fondazione ADI for Italian Design at the Museum of Design in Gent, Belgium.

Joel is a contributor on Design-Milk's weekly architectural posts and Apartment Therapy's Unplggd daily technology posts.