Your name has Greek origins, just like Artemide’s. Vasilij means royal and was reserved for the Byzantine emperors, to underline their sacredness. Even Artemide is a goddess, but she doesn’t like being in a palace. More than on mount Olympus, you would have found her running in the woods.
And this year Artemide has developed a special outdoor project: O, by Elemental. An attempt to marry the needs of natural and urban environments. An artificial light that finds its place in parks and open spaces, to recreate a dialogue between light and dark, and try to find a solution to the disappearance of darkness in our cities.
Precisely for this reason, O is as discreet and imperceptible as possible. It is a simple yet perfect graphic sign, a circle that merges into the landscape. When turned on, you’d almost see light without a lamp.
O, design dì Elemental - Alejandro Aravena for ArtemideSimilarly, Vassilij, you have discovered a new way to put in dialogue landscape and light, when in 1896 you came across the impressionist paintings in Moscow. You fell in love with the Haystacks series by Monet: you said you had never seen anything like that, and that continuous replication of ever-the same shapes – a low cylinder with a cone resting on top – that varied only due to the variation in natural light changed forever your way of painting. Repeated geometric shapes, no black, no white: only colors. And what are colors made of, if not light?
We wouldn’t expect a realistic painting from you, and similarly we wouldn’t expect an average lamp from Artemide. Rather, you’ll find Ipno, a diffuser that shapes the light beam, to show something that is not visible – just like you did in your Compositions, giving colors a geometric shape and making emotions visible on the canvas.
Ipno, design by Michele de Lucchi / left: Pingtan, design by MAD Architect + Calipso, design by Neil Poulton 
In 1996, exactly one hundred years from the day you first saw Monet’s paintings, Artemide gave life to The Human Light philosophy. A new and innovative approach to lighting design, aimed to enhance the scenic potential of artificial light and its ability to accompany life's moments, to create the atmosphere, to influence emotions. To reach this goal, the company has introduced... colors, exactly. Does it sound familiar?
To continue to experiment and understand contemporary living, both in public and private spaces, as well as its evolution, Artemide has always worked closely with architects, just as you did, Vasilij, in the Bauhaus experience.
Your favorite project would have been studio BIG's Alphabet of Light: a few modular elements that you can combine to create endless compositions – and this is not a random term for you – and thus write your message and make it stand out on the wall-canvas.
Soft Alphabet, design by BIG Architects 
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