FAO Museum adds Close to the Edge by Mario Trimarchi to its permanent collection

Italian designer and architect Mario Trimarchi has long explored the relationship between geometry, perception and fragility within the realm of design. Trained in architecture in Palermo and active in Milan since the 1990s, his practice spans product design, art direction and conceptual object-making. Across his projects—ranging from industrial collaborations with Alessi to limited-edition pieces—Trimarchi maintains an interest in how form and balance can express emotional and material instability.

Within this context, his collection Close to the Edge represents a concentrated investigation into equilibrium, contrast and the physical limits of materials. First presented at Palazzo Visconti during Milan Design Week in 2022 with MoscaPartners, the series comprises unique objects that pair fragments of marble with small glass vessels. Each piece juxtaposes the mass and opacity of stone with the lightness and transparency of glass, creating a visible tension.

The FAO's Food and Agriculture Museum and Network (MuNe), based in Rome, has recently acquired the artwork Close to the Edge by Trimarchi for its permanent collection. "The artwork stems from the idea that art, like diplomacy, simultaneously requires delicacy and strength, unpredictability and confidence. It is an installation in a state of visually precarious equilibrium, reflecting the artist's thoughts on the delicate strategies needed to pursue ethically and socially meaningful causes," the project's press release states.

The compositions are built through careful attention to balance. Each marble fragment is chosen for its shape and texture, while the glass pieces—blown or moulded—are made to rest lightly on the stone. The elements are not fixed with glue but held together by weight and gravity, creating objects that seem to exist on the verge of falling apart. This delicate balance challenges the viewer's sense of stability and structure.

As the Italian designer describes, "At the close of a long research phase, I tried to put back together a border universe that couples rock and glass, weighty matter and fragile transparency, one that would somehow make us think about the magic of unstable balance." Balance, here, is not stillness but a continual search for harmony between opposing forces. Heavy, irregular rock forms appear to defy gravity as they delicately support a transparent element—a symbol of dialogue. It is a tense, vital and fragile equilibrium, much like the diplomacy of ideas that upholds meaningful and ethical progress.

"Close to the Edge for FAO is composed of two almost vertical stones, stacked in balance and joined internally by a titanium pin, supporting on top a round bowl in hand-blown borosilicate glass," the project's press release notes. The sculpture consolidates Trimarchi's interest in 'unstable geometries' and his ongoing attempt to merge poetic reflection with technical accuracy. It situates his practice at the boundary of sculpture art and design, where the act of making becomes an exploration of fragility itself.