New collection Asinara

The new Asinara collection by La Corallina occupies a very distinctive aesthetic space: one in which Mediterranean decorative tradition meets a contemporary visual language shaped by graphic synthesis, visual irony, and conceptual lightness.
Rather than a direct quotation of pop art, it would be more accurate to speak of a pop suggestion in the most refined sense of the term: the ability to transform everyday elements, animals, and ornamental patterns into immediately recognizable and iconic images, while preserving a deep connection to place and to the heritage of Italian craftsmanship.

Speaking with Simona, who collaborated on the collection’s concepts, it becomes clear that the project was born not from a simple decorative idea, but from a reflection on the Mediterranean as a visual, emotional, and cultural space.

The collection seems to oscillate between contemporary graphics and Mediterranean memory. How did this balance emerge?

“We were interested in working with very clean, immediate, light images, without losing the relationship with a strong Italian visual tradition.
The geometric patterns evoke ceramics, majolica, certain domestic Mediterranean surfaces, while the animals introduce an ironic and narrative presence.
The balance comes precisely from there: from the coexistence of graphic rigor and artisanal warmth.”

The animals almost seem like characters. Was there a precise narrative intention behind these choices?

“Yes, because we didn’t want naturalistic or classically illustrative images.
Each animal carries a sort of implicit personality: the donkey is more ironic, the llama more elegant, the goat more frontal, the ostrich slightly disoriented.
We liked the idea that the observer could establish a relationship with these figures.
In this sense there is also a pop echo: taking simple elements and making them immediately recognizable, without turning them into purely serial objects.”

The geometric backgrounds feel extremely contemporary yet also deeply traditional. How important is Italian design within the project?

“Very important. We were interested in an essential graphic language that would not feel cold. Today many digital images are technically perfect but completely devoid of materiality. We instead wanted to preserve a tactile sensation. Even the geometry of the backgrounds comes from this idea: it may appear contemporary, but it carries within it a Mediterranean memory made of mosaics, tiles, and architectural decoration.”

There is an intelligent sense of lightness throughout the collection, never overloaded or excessive. Was this a conscious choice?

“Absolutely. We wanted to avoid both ostentatious luxury and overly explicit irony. We were looking for something elegant yet playful, capable of being refined without becoming rigid.
The animals contribute greatly to this balance: they introduce humanity, irony, even tenderness, without turning everything into a simple decorative operation.”

The Mediterranean that emerges from this collection feels very different from the traditional tourist imagination.

“Yes, because for us the Mediterranean is not a postcard or a form of nostalgia. It is light, geometry, wind, silence, materiality. Asinara itself is interpreted in this way: not simply as a geographical place, but as a mental landscape. We wanted the collection to retain something essential and suspended, while still remaining accessible and vibrant.”

DISCOVER THE COLLECTION:

https://shortlink.uk/1rbvo