Leone likes beautiful things
Leone likes beautiful things, and if they’re not beautiful, he makes them so, transforming the ordinary into extraordinary
Human of Light Leone Balduzzi
Photography Luca Caizzi
Stylist Emanuela Napoli
Leone likes beautiful things. Leone likes nice stories, but mostly, he likes to tell them nicely. This is the story of an unordinary person raised in an ordinary environment.
‘I believe that each of us remains tightly fastened to a particular place which becomes important for as long as you live, considering what it leaves to you (and sometimes what it takes away from you). As far as I’m concerned, it is about San Salvo, the city where I was born and raised. Overlooking the emotional side, I believe I carried along a lot of that atmosphere and that aesthetic, so placid, yet so extraordinary. I’m lucky to travel a lot, even for work, but eventually my cities remain Milan and San Salvo.’ Leone said.
Though having been living in a big city for years, Leone kept bringing with him, and in his professional life, a love and a predilection for all those things which remind of the past, which remind of home.
‘To create doesn’t necessarily mean to invent. I believe that it has much more to do with looking, with the ability to observe. I like to start from the everyday life that surrounds me, too often underestimated. It all depends on the point of view. Where many see an old shop with a somewhat crazy and bizarre owner inside, I see a story with a unique aesthetic. After all, this is the key point of my job: to transform something apparently trivial into something beautiful. Or at least I try!’.
A blast of friendships and acquaintances always new, which are perhaps born to enhance the small family in which he was born. Small, if you don’t take into consideration the army composed of mom’s friends, so much present to the extent that they are called aunts.
A creator for nature and profession, Leone creates sometimes absurd stories, often carrying a refined comic side that is hidden even in tragedy. They are stories resembling more a memory, despite of a life never lived. It’s not that Leone lacks experiences to recount, like the one spent working at the headquarters of a well-known music magazine of Milan, as he had just finished his studies in communication. A far different world from the one he was used to, yet comparable, perhaps in chaos, to the historical sewing shop of the village or to the hardware store of his friend Tomeo, called Sebon.
Getting to know Leone means not to be surprised if you find him sunbathing on the beach while sharing the beach umbrella with a local lady never seen before.
Like the Biagio lamp received from his father, to which he’s still deeply attached, perhaps also because of this inherent affinity. A limestone with distinctive design, made from an integral marble block. A handiwork which awes even just by how it is realized: an example where design and production stand out for their singularity.
Like the Biagio lamp received from his father, to which he's still deeply attached, perhaps also because of this inherent affinity. A limestone with distinctive design, made from an integral marble block.
