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The Power of Art

For more than thirty years Mauro Micheli and Sergio Beretta have created the most iconic craft on the international market through their Officina Italiana Design. They are inspired by a wide-ranging cultural heritage and a meticulous appreciation of classic and contemporary art works that are rich in formal equilibrium, plays of light and shade and exciting harmonies – just like a Riva by Tania Cinelli

Above left, “Ingerland” by Gilbert&George. Right, “Ho camminato 1736 metri per arrivare al Trionfo della Fede di Tiziano” by Alberto Garutti, paintings from MicheliBeretta collection. To side, Mauro Micheli and Sergio Beretta admire a Madonna by Sassoferrato at the Bergamo Academy Museum. Opposite page, a work by Mimmo Paladino “Senza Titolo” and in a transparent image, the essential lines of Riva’s latest launch, the 68’ Diable

ooking at a work of art, losing yourself in its lines and letting

exhibitions like the Venice Biennale or the Contemporary Art Fair, and

yourself be transported by its harmonious, balanced shapes,

large galleries. “I also like visiting churches like those in Rome. They

leads to profound introspection in an intense aesthetic jouney,

often host significant works – paintings by Caravaggio, for example”. In

stimulating the mind and providing a source of inspiration.

this way the lines of a new yacht take shape, arising out of a deep well of

“In a few words, this is what happens when we make a new Riva – we

knowledge. “If I could, I’d build even more minimalist craft, but market

sense a balance and equilibrium in art that we transpose into our boats”,

requirements always come into play – the strength of our work also lies

says Mauro Micheli, who for over thirty years has been the creative mind

in our ability to find the balance of forms that will appeal to people with

behind the beautiful, iconic lines of the world’s most famous yachts.

very different sensibilities”. Design isn’t a frequent subject of discussion in

Together with Sergio Beretta he is also founder of the Officina Italiana

the studio. “We find stimulation in travel, too. It’s like a refresher course”,

Design. Their works of art are as evocative as a painting, and generate

says Sergio Beretta. “Greece, for example, is very close to our heart, a place

deep emotion. Anyone falling in love with a Riva is lost forever, because

of spiritual regeneration that enables us to capture the spirit of the past

a Riva’s design stimulates the senses. “I studied at Brera and the Fine Art

to find new ideas in the present. Then there’s our passion for collecting,

Academy but by nature I work on instinct – it only takes a millisecond

which blossomed in 2008 in the middle of the market crisis. We felt the

for a work of art to exert its effect on me”, says Micheli. “I love hyper-

need to surround ourselves with beautiful things, so we made space for

minimalist pieces, which are almost non-existent but express the artist’s

a kind of aesthetic research we did every day in the studio”.

thought processes, or those with a great material presence, where you see

The kind of stimulus that art can give to the design of a boat is clear to

the hand of the artist at work. I love quality, I understand it very quickly.

see every time a new Riva is launched. Take the latest, the Diable, for

It’s a question of training. I don’t go looking for the meaning of a work,

example. The hull and coach house are generated by just a few simple

I search for what it gives me in the moment”. Together with Sergio, who

lines, but they express a perfect equilibrium – just like a work of art.

shares the same passion, Micheli finds artistic inspiration by frequenting