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n-workshop /set design

4 Copyright © 2007-2009 Nino Comba [n-workshop] All rights reserved. Unless otherwise stated.

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n-n-workshop is a design practice established by Nino Comba in 2005 in Paris.

Visual and communication design

Light and set design

> about n-workshop

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/set projects

2007 / 2009

Chaplin e l’ImmagineJ’ai la Pêche

Fellini, la Grande Paradecnit, 50 d’Histoire(s)

cnit, the opening night

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Chaplin e l’Immagine

Bologna, Italy 2007

This exhibition opened at the Jeu de Paume in Paris in 2005, then traveled to Bruxelles, Lausanne, Hambourg and Montpellier. It was a major event in Italy for five months in 2007.

Late 2006, the Cinématheque of Bologna asked me to design the scenography for this exhibition which was going to be held in the Sala Borsa, a section of the City Hall Renaissance building, on the main square of the city. Along with the gallery space, I was asked to design an outdoor installation to be an “invitation” to the exhibition.

Following the grid pattern of the floor, I installed sixteen steel structures. Each structure had a solar panel on its top, providing enough energy so that LEDs would illuminate a crowd of Charlot silhouettes printed on white boards, once the night had fallen.

The same silhouettes were hung inside the building, and the original prints were shown at the exhibition’s entrance.

More on

www.chapliniana.com www.charliechaplin.org

www.cinetecadibologna.it

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This exhibition was held at

Sala Borsa, Palazzo Accursio – BolognaJune 1st – November 18, 2007

Curator : Sam Stourdzé

865 square metre surface260 pictures22 movies

Client : Cineteca Città di Bologna / GianLuca Farinelli, DirectorProject management : Nino Comba [n-workshop]Set design : Nino Comba [n-workshop]Multimedia set: Nino Comba [n-workshop]Light design : Nino Comba [n-workshop]Construction : Eventidee, Torino

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J’ai la Pêche

Paris, 2002-2009

This installation/performance is part of the light//water//city project, a series of lighting sets created by Nino Comba in 2002.

n-workshop designed the “fishing” equipement, including the electrified fishing rods (using EL wire) and the concrete sound system iPlo.

J’ai la Pêche was produced by Serge Malik & Associés for the Nuit Blanche 2009 in Paris.

More on

www.jailapecheonline.org www.lightwatercity.org

www.lanuitblanche2009.com

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This event was held at

Bassin des Récollets, Canal Saint-Martin - ParisOctober 3-4, 2009

Producer : Serge Malik

300 linear metre lenght30 lighting and sound units

Client : Ville de ParisProject management : Nino Comba [n-workshop]Set design : Nino Comba [n-workshop]Light design : Nino Comba [n-workshop]Construction : Nino Comba [n-workshop]

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Copyright © 2009 Rober Holden

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Copyright © 2009 Rober Holden

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Copyright © 2009 Rober Holden

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Fellini, la Grande Parade

Paris, 2009-10

For this major exhibition about Federico Fellini at the Musée Jeu de Paume in Paris, n-workshop created a “non-Fellinian” space. The design purpose is to be as neutral as possible, in order to underline the philological presentation of images. Sound plays a major role in giving sense to the curator’s work.

Pictures, video ans sounds interplay in a new approach to the Italian director’s syntax, curated by French photography expert Sam Stourdzé.

n-workshop designed the exhibition and multimedia set, and the accessories.

More on www.jeudepaume.org

www.federicofellini.it

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This exhibition was held at

Jeu de Paume - ParisOctober 20, 2009 – January 17, 2010

Curator : Sam Stourdzé

800 square metre surface400 pictures30 movies

Client : Jeu de Paume / Marta Gili, DirectorProject management : Nino Comba [n-workshop]Set design : Nino Comba [n-workshop]Multimedia set : Nino Comba [n-workshop]Light design : Nino Comba [n-workshop]Construction : Artcomposit, Paris

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CNIT, 50 ans d’Histoire(s)

Paris, 2009

The CNIT is the biggest self-supporting vaulted ceiling in the world, a symbol of modern architecture and one of the first building to be raised in the Défense area - which is now a landmark of the city and a unique Paris skyline.

In the fiftieth anniversary of its construction, Unibail-Rodamco sponsored the exhibition which is retracing the 50 years of history of the dome (Paris La Défense, october 21 to november 10, 2009)

The structure of the exhibition was made of modules - multimedia cubes with built-in projection system - piled up and installed in the indoor piazza at the ground floor and at a lower level.

n-workshop created the concept and designed the multimedia structure as well as the exhibition set.

The exhibition was curated by Serge Malik (asma).

More on www.unibail-rodamco.com

www.viparis.com www.sergemalik.com

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This exhibition was held at

CNIT - Paris La DéfenseOctober 21 - November 10, 2009

Curator : Serge Malik

400 square metre surface72 multimedia cubes270 pictures6 movies

Client : Unibail-Rodamco / Marie Allwright, Groupe Director of CommunicationProject management : Nino Comba [n-workshop]Set design : Nino Comba [n-workshop]Multimedia set : Nino Comba [n-workshop]Light design : Nino Comba [n-workshop]Structure : Fractal, Roeselare - Belgium Construction : Jochen Rohrig, Paris

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CNIT, the opening night

Paris, 2009

The CNIT is the biggest self-supporting vaulted ceiling in the world, a concrete dome with glass facades, built between 1956 and 1958 and designed by Robert Edouard Camelot, Jean de Mailly, Bernard Zehrfuss accompanied by the engineer Jean Prouvé for the exterior.

In the fiftieth anniversary of its construction, Unibail-Rodamco officialy opened the newly designed building, which completed a three year refurbishing of the site.

n-workshop designed the special lighting for the opening night, and the exhibition which retraces the 50 year long history of the dome.

More on www.unibail-rodamco.comwww.viparis.com

www.sergemalik.com

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This event was held at

CNIT - Paris La DéfenseOctober 21, 2009

Producer : Serge Malik

220,000 square metre surface

Client : Unibail-Rodamco / Marie Allwright, Groupe Director of CommunicationProject management : Nino Comba [n-workshop]Set design : Nino Comba [n-workshop]Light design : Nino Comba [n-workshop]Lighting : Transpalux, Gennevilliers Construction : Transpalux, Gennevilliers

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My real name is Giambattista, but my parents dubbed me Nino when I was 2, the age at which I started my wandering life.

My very first skill and passion was drawing on any available surface.

At age 3, I had my first exhibition.

At 7, I was filling notebooks with technical drawings of machines I had been inventing with a schoolmate of mine who wanted to be an inventor. The following year I built a telescope and started investigating the lunar surface with another schoolmate who wanted to be an astrophysicist.

I was 9 when my father agreed to lend me his measuring tape and sent me and my younger brother to take measurements of the medieval walls surrounding the old town. Back home I drew the plan on a beautiful pale pink sheet of millimeter paper.

My project soon became measuring and tracing the whole urban area, but one day my father announced that we were moving to a new city, so my project was put on hold.

Then, I started school and I enjoyed it while moving and making interesting discoveries about things, people and places. During my studies I started practicing photography, writing and acting. A few cities and years later, I went back to my old project and I started studying architecture and city design.

Spending time in the wilderness has always been a good drug for me, a necessary and powerful experience which helped me to stay balanced within the city environment. It also brought me to a new and unexpected breakthrough: natural and constructed environments were meaningless without light. I’m aware that it might sound simple now - some giga-lumen later - but the light quality is affecting the way we relate to people and objects, just as day and night mark our lives.

After spending hours in the red light of my darkroom, the world looked different to me, and I felt like I have become a sort of filter myself: everything was so vivid I could see things I would not have seen in normal conditions.

And that’s when I started experimenting with natural and artificial light.

> about Nino Comba

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Biography

195619591973197419761976-811979-811982-831984198519861986-19891990 1990-2003199620042005

Born in Bergamo, ItalyExhibition at Museo della Scienza e della Tecnica, MilanoStudied at Art School in Penzance, CornwallStudied American Contemporary Theater at University of MarylandSolo exhibition “Spazio Self-service” at English Studio, BellunoStudied architecture and city design at IUAV, VeneziaWorked as designer at John Pante Architecture agencyStudied at Nuova Scena acting school, Bologna Served the Country in the Civil ServiceWorked as industrial designer at Costan, ItalyGroup exhibition “Italian Festival for Multi-media Work” at PS122, NYWorked as Project Manager at Costan, Hong KongMoved to ParisManaging Director of Costan FranceInternational design exhibition YUU, Japan Design Foundation, Osaka Process Manager of Epta Group FranceEstablished n-workshop design practice in Paris

Member of AFD, Alliance Française des Designers PMI, Project Management Institute

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n-This book has been updated in december 2009.

More information is available on the web site www.n-workshop.net

n-workshop29 rue de la Grange aux Belles75010 ParisT +33(0)970.466.997M +33(0)6.3307.4343E info@n-workshop.net

> about this book