When you board a boat, there is a moment when it’s as if you are suspended between the elements: the land, the sea and the sky are not just separate contours but they all seem to merge into one, a sort of dreamlike scenario in which we can choose to be protagonists or become part of the whole ourselves.

This is the concept behind Flow, the installation that Besenzoni will bring to Design Week 2023, in the prestigious setting of the Fuori Salone, hosted by Interni in the courtyards of the University of Milan.

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Flow and Oceano

At the heart of the installation, a collaboration between the shipyard and Francesco Forcellini, a designer who, over the last few years, has come to be recognised as one of the top international young talents, is Oceano.

This is a ladder/boarding platform for yachts equipped with a system that ensures it can be used as a bathing or boarding ladder, as an extension of the sun deck or as a tender lift.

What is so fascinating about the installation, which is located under the portico of the Main Court, is the artistic choice of having positioned Oceano in the middle of a convex mirrored surface, with the result that the ladder appears to be suspended in the centre of a virtual space where the observer can imagine endless floating environments and feel completely immersed in them.

The name of the installation, Flow, expresses the flowing of things in the most positive sense of change, as a sequence of evolutions that creates a revolution. At the heart of the concept of evolution is innovation, because progress requires us to renew ourselves, shift paradigms and change the way we work. With this installation, I wanted to tell the general public about the capacity for innovation of Besenzoni, a company with a long history in the nautical industry, as well as about its transition from hydraulic to electric systems: a spacious motorised ladder/platform with a natural and warm style, thanks to its wooden steps, yet innovative from the point of view of its operation and performance. At the same time, the ladder, enclosed in a mirrored shell which recalls water, metal and the materials normally used by the company, becomes a metaphor for travelling from one place to another, a different space in which to imagine a new future.Francesco Forcellini

Telling the story of Besenzoni

The sculptural effect of the installation speaks to Besenzoni’s desire to move onto a new level in its evolutionary journey, poetically telling how product innovation leads to a new identity, where performance and aesthetic design go hand in hand, also extending to the world of nautical and non-nautical living.

Giorgio Besenzoni, the company’s CEO, explains it well:

The ladder itself, within its mirrored shell, is synonymous with evolution and revolution on a journey towards new, ever more ambitious destinations. In addition to the boating sector, we are excited by the idea of bringing our products into the world of building and design, providing what might be considered sophisticated devices, equipment or systems that, while standard for boats, could be regarded as smart and innovative in the residential or hotel settings to which we are happy to bring our know-how“.