THE GROWING TABLE_Living together

During the London Design Festival 2011, from 19th of September to 25th of September, the Italian creative researcher Elena Comincioli is going to present The Growing Table, showed in the East London showroom of Santa&Cole.

The Growing Table is an artefact which challenges the intangible relationship between people and objects.

Different elements are required to generate a relationship between a person and an object. First, you need an appropriately long period of time, as any affective bond takes long to develop and strengthen. Then you need to have a novel, namely a story that connects you with the object. Finally, it is necessary you can pass through a feeling of empathy: you have to be sure that you’re sharing some essential emotions or attitudes with the object.

The Growing table deals with this last feature in particular, as the empathy element is the one that can boost a new relationship.

The Growing table is not a simple plane table. It’s an alive one. Its wood is raw, it breaths and it needs nutrition to stay healthy. Its copper gets old, changing nuances as time goes by. Even more, the Growing Table is a “he”.

Five different kinds of herbs live inside the Growing Table, within a wide copper vase. The Growing Table cares after them. He can do it, as just a creature with soul can do.

Plants in turn can perceive if you love them or not. They will survive and be prolific if you feed and love them.

Nature grows. Its scent and sound are next to us. You just need to rest and pay attention.

To live with a Growing Table is not complicate. Take your dish, sit down, relax and pick-up a leaf from your favourite herb. Taste it. It is fresh, it is alive.