FABRICA TAKES A STAND: Earlier this month Fabrica, the Benetton Group’s communication research center, made an artistic statement about the financial crisis with “Imaginaires,” and apparently some people will be buying it. In fact, Boffi, the Washington boutique, bought the entire collection for $2,700. A series of hand-blown glass objects were transformed into a variety of unexpected objects such as a glass handbag with leather handles, a glass fire extinguisher and an inanimate pet with fake rabbit ears. Set up for the International Contemporary Furniture Fair and staged at the New Museum, the temporary exhibition included a table covered with a labyrinth of white vegetable-shaped ceramic pieces intertwined with black computer wires and monitors flashing vegetable-shaped numbers, which indicated the ever-changing hour, minutes and seconds. The white tablecloth with an intricate black pattern was meant to mirror the New York City skyline. Fabrica’s head of design Sam Baron, whose contribution was a hammer partially encased in glass, noted that design can bring a narrative and still be useful. “It’s a bit strange but it is always better to shake the minds of the people,” he said.