contemporary art blends with cycling as never seen before, and it turns into a one of kind creation dedicated to the fabulous machine called bicycle.
Thanks Maestro!
In our collection, NEOS is the one with the closest link to the world of art: its rigid polyurethane surface is like a white canvas, offering infinite possibilities for creativity. This is the core of the NEOS MAESTRO art project: the frame and the bike holder, customized by a hand-painted artwork, turn into a one of a kind art installation.
To pursue this project we were looking for an artist well known in the world of cycling and praised for his recognizable painting style. Last request? He had preferably to be Italian, to underline our heritage. Well we’ve found him. Who else could we wish to involve rather than the man who is considered to be one of the best steel frame-builders in the world? Not only he designed the frames ridden by pro cyclists like Marco Pantani, Mario Cipollini, Miguel Indurain; he’s also the one who creates fabulous custom paint and graphic designs that make his bicycles unique: his hand-painted ciavete scheme, cherished by collectors, has become simply legendary. We met Dario Pegoretti on a crispy spring day in his bottega in Verona… and an extraordinary adventure began.
Dario was immediately captivated by the challenge of painting free hand a totally new surface and shape: our NEOS is much wider than a frame, and it has got different angles and slopes. He asked for a couple of weeks to tackle the challenge. Then, one day he called us announcing he was ready to paint… Dario is a big man, with big hands and long hair pulled back in a casual ponytail: he welcomes his guests with a special cocktail of coffee, jazz and cigarettes speaking Veneto dialect. But his rough look hides an inner illuminated lightness, that he shows through his amazing color palette and the absolute finesse of his artwork traits. And what he had in mind for our art project fully confirmed it.
For the first NEOS MAESTRO by Pegoretti, Dario visioned an imaginary tropical bird, a story of colorful feathers in the breeze, an allegory of freedom, something here in Vadolibero we love very much, as freedom is in our brand name. The one of a kind #01 Wild Peacock art installation was born. He started patiently painting the Neos cover, placing a big red dot in the middle as a center of gravity that rules over his unruly artistic flow.
In Dario Pegoretti the frame master cohabits with a poetic painter. You can picture the tropical bird sitting on the cover with different horizontal views of its fluttering feathers adorning the tube-shaped column. And on the base, a delicate cascade of ruffling feathers, as if the imaginary bird had been challenged in a fight.
The #01 Wild peacock paint scheme slips inside NEOS MAESTRO. A gentle breeze ruffles the birds’ feathers also on the provided mobile shelf: a special treat to be enjoyed only by the lucky owner. The Maestro signature seals the artwork: Dario Pegoretti x Vadolibero.
All the provided hand-sewn leather accessories – the inner net pocket, the shaped frame pad and the wheel strap – have been tinted in the very same red shade used by Maestro Pegoretti to paint the frame and the piece of furniture. And for the very first time Vadolibero logo stands out on the ivory white mat finish with a red outfit: a well deserved tribute to Dario’s artwork.
The magic of the paint scheme Dario has created for the one of a kind #01 Wild Peacock is the subtle balance between order and chaos. Free patterns and strict borders create a magnetic rithm.
And there is little to say about Dario painting the Responsorium frame. It was an amazingly patient process, helped by several cups of coffee and many sigarettes, that brought us back to the atmosphere of a Renaissance bottega. A mazy scheme of fine lines, solid color shapes was animating the iconic Responsorium frame under our eyes; the big red dot was placed in the inner side of the top tube, like a figurative belly bottom keeping the exuberant tropical fiesta in place. As a final touch, Dario bordered the fluttering feathers with a black barbed wire motif.
NEOS MAESTRO #01 Wild Peacock is a single piece of art: an exclusive artistic installation dedicated to cycling, an expression of Vadolibero dolce vita approach to the fabulous machine.
WE MISS YOU, MAESTRO
hand-varnished rigid polyurethane; fine leather mesh pocket, frame pad and wheel strap; hand-painted steel frame