ORA ITO
crédit photo est : Mathieu Colin.
Ora Ïto gets to be known from 1998 with the concept of his Virtual Products. His virtual works are imaginary distortions of famous brands like Louis Vuitton, Nike or Apple that have since been acquired by the Fonds National d’Art Contemporain (FNAC). This first coup de force establishes Ora Ïto as an outsider, bypassing the traditional frameworks of design, and make him one of the first digital artists.
Later, he collaborates with international brands like Adidas, Christofle, Guerlain, Nike or even the most famous Italian furniture brands like Cassina, Cappellini and Artemide. Among other projects, he designed the interior of Toyota's flagship store at the Champs-Elysées and reinvented the layout of Pathé cinemas. He designed the train sets of the new Nice tramway line in 2016 for Alstom, and the new Marseille metro to be launched in 2024.
His work is regularly presented in the most well-known design magazines (Wallpaper, Taschen, Phaidon…). He won a Red Dot Design Award in 2004 for his One Line lamp, presented by Artemide, and was named Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2011 by the French Minister of Culture, Frédéric Mitterrand.
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In 2016, six emblematic pieces created by Ora Ïto Studio join the Centre Pompidou’s collections, testifying the long-lasting impact of his work on art and design.
In 2013, he buys and transforms the Cité Radieuse gymnasium in Marseille to an art center, the MAMO. He exhibits in particular Daniel Arsham, Xavier Veilhan, Alex Israel, Dan Graham, Felice Varini, Invader, Jean Pierre Raynaud, Urs Fischer, Sterling Ruby or Daniel Buren, with whom he collaborates on several artistic projects, including the glass roof of the Elysée Palace, the Yooma in Paris and the Mona Tower in Monaco.