NEWS—Salone del Mobile 2023, the guide to the unmissable Fuorisalone events

May the end of April come soon! Everyone in the city says it, especially the insiders worried about cramming into a 12-hour diary (and I mean 12) events that would need to have at least 36 available (it seems that about 350 people are expected in a week in the various districts) But also the “non-experts” who are worried about choosing the right events say so. Because then if you see a more beautiful installation on your follower’s profile than the one you’re photographing, say so, it’s a bit annoying. That’s why we tried to build a guide to the Fuorisalone 2023 in advance and therefore continuously updated – this year’s theme is Laboratorio Futuro– to orient yourself among the districts and the most beautiful installations. After all, we all love this “very tiring” design week!

To begin we invite everyone to The Vogue Closet event . For the first time, in the offices in piazza Cadorna 5, we are opening our fantastic wardrobe to the public, during the Fuorisalone 2023. Inviting you to visit the rooms of wonder, designed by Sara Ricciardi and full of surprises. Find out here the schedule of talks and how to register .

The ancient Milan of the 5VIE

The streets of the most ancient Milan where you can also come across the remains of the ancient Roman Mediolanum come alive with the young tribe of design. Here the exhibitions and installations address themes such as spirituality, connection with nature and with others, the relationship with one’s roots.

A creation by Ana Villegas in the Take and Eat exhibition max

Not to be missed:

• Take and Mangiate curated by Sara Bologna at SIAM in Via Santa Marta, 18: a collective exhibition-event dedicated to the table: place of exchange and sharing, place of construction of senses and identities, place of negotiation between us and others . Around a long table set up with art and design objects, visitors are invited to exchange food and words, nourishment for the body and mind.
• The seventeenth-century Palazzo Litta in Corso Magenta is beautiful on its own. And it becomes an obligatory stop in the 5VIE district because it hosts a Fondazione Cologni dei Mestieri d’Arte project: Double Signature . Dialogues between design thinking and high craftsmanship, creative marriages between designers, artists and craftsmen. Guests are welcomed by a large site-specific work by the Master of the art of stones and metals Gianluca Pacchioni.

Brera Design District

In the Brera district, as always, there are many appointments.

Rendering of the Tower of Largo Treves

• Among the most spectacular interventions there will be the installation that surrounds the tower in Largo Treves 1. In the meantime, it is the last chance to see it because it will then be demolished, and it is a prestigious building designed by Arrigo Arrighetti (the same as the Solari swimming pool). The invitation of the artist Agostino Iacurci, curator of the project, is to look at how our planet could become in order to build a better tomorrow all together. Dry Days, Tropical Nights marks one of the stages of the glo™ for art traveling art project, created to support art and culture.
• Do not miss the imposing light installation with a setting of great scenographic impact dedicated to Ingo Maurer at the Tollgates of Porta Nuova: a carpet about 30 meters long painted with fluorescent colors will cross the arch, on which a surface of material will be released into the air reflective supported by a string structure. The effect will be an explosion of colours, to be experienced by day and by night.
• The interventions of SolidNature are always scenographic, this year’s one in via cernaia 1, one of the most intimate and secret spaces of the district, is an immersive (and super instagramable) dreamscape, designed by OMA, which draws a parallel between the training and stone quarrying and making dreams come true. Inside, a collection of bespoke stone creations designed by various designers will be displayed, including Sabine Marcelis, Iranian artist Bita Fayyazi and others.

The visual of the installation by Ingo Maurer

Three Design Galleries to plan (even after the Fuorisalone)

When it comes to design, in Milan there are some galleries that have made its history.

Rossana Orlandi Gallery

• One, for example, is that of Rossana Orlandi, the largest in Europe, in via Bandello 14/16 which for more than 20 years has been narrating the best of the curator’s research and is renewed every year with new names in the design and creativity of Worldwide. But in addition to Ro Collectible which brings together furnishings and collectibles, this year there is also the exhibition of the finalists (with related awards) of the RoPlastic Prize , the challenge of RoGuiltlessplastic, the project signed by Rossana and her daughter Nicoletta for raise awareness and involve the design community in the recycling, reuse and upcycle of materials.
• In the Depot space in via Lancetti and in the headquarters in Via della Spiga, this year the Nilufar Gallery is filled with light and renews the choices of the founder Nina Yashar: artichoke-shaped ceramic candlesticks by the artist Lola Montes, glass lamps Venini and the somewhat magical ones of Michael Anastassiades. To welcome the guests of the Depot, also the site specific installation by Valentina Ciuffi of studio Vedèt, entitled Poikilos which brings together a multitude of objects with a seductive and magical appearance.
• Dimoregallery represents a sort of “exhibition” storytelling of Dimorestudio both in the historic headquarters in via Solferino and in the industrial space in via Sammartini, near the Central Station inaugurated last June. The latter in particular offers visitors an itinerary between the past and future of the projects of the design studio founded by Emiliano Salci and Britt Moran.

Nilufar Gallery Filippo_Pincolini

300 design pieces at the Triennale

Manusardi Srl

From the Statale to the Botanical Garden. The interior project

The great Interni exhibition-event this year arrives in 6 different locations with the new identity of Leonardo Sonnoli. Theme of the event: Design Re-Evolution interpreted by internationally renowned architects and young emerging talents. What see?

At the State University “The Impossible Machine” by Piero Lissoni for Sanlorenzo

• An essential stop is the State University, where in the Cortile d’Onore the lights, colours, reflections and visual deformations of The Synestehic Swirl await us, the spiral path designed by Odile Decq for Whirlpool. By reproducing the geometry of a vortex, the installation invites us to discover our sixth sense: intuition.
• Then there is the somewhat magical space of the Brera Botanical Garden, curated by Carlo Ratti Associati and Italo Rota, who this year present an experiential and didactic installation on energy and sustainability. Walk the talk – Energy in motion will play a large living game board.
• We also recommend a visit to Piazza del Quadrilatero , which has just opened in the city where the archbishop’s seminary used to be between Corso Venezia and Via Sant’Andrea. Here you will find The Domino Act, the installation that recounts Audi’s vision of sustainable mobility with a circular architecture made up of 22 monoliths that enclose and protect the Audi skysphere concept car and, with their multiplier reflections, remind us how important it is to act together .

The Brera Botanical Garden transformed into a large gaming table

Tortona Design and Superstudio

The 2023 theme of the district is Future to Share, keywords sharing and inclusiveness with a rich program of installations, exhibitions, events, talks and meetings. All to see. Advice: if you are renovating your house, take a look at the Decor Lab, the interior decoration laboratory in via Tortona 37, which is back this year with WunderDecor, an exhibition with new decoration ideas for having personalized, imaginative and innovative.

At Superstudio, on the other hand, one wonders: Where is design going today, in a world on the border with the programs of Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, the Metaverse, ChatBots and humanoid robots? This is the question Superdesign, Superstudio’s annual event, asks itself. There are two areas that we consider most interesting:

Thailand Sculpture

• Stars of Today, curated by Giulio Cappellini which presents ten new contemporary protagonists of the project, not emerging but already established, who know how to interpret the times we live in today.
• Superstudio has always been able to give us an overview of the best Asian design. It happens again this year with Asian R-Evolution: the countries of the East and Far-East have chosen to be present here with concrete proposals for a real and sustainable home, which grafts tradition into modernity.

WILLIAM SUTANTO

New Adi Monumentale district – The design factories

If those of the previous editions weren’t enough for you, there will be a new district this year to put on the agenda and it promises to be particularly interesting, it is the one between the new Adi Design Museum Compasso d’Oro and the Fabbrica del Vapore.

• At the Adi museum, in addition to the permanent exhibition dedicated to the Compasso d’Oro, there is the exhibition Italy: A New Collective Landscape , entirely dedicated to under-35 designers and their desire to take up the challenges of the moment, curated by Angela Rui. The decision to give space to the designers of this generation is in line with the need to give development opportunities to their work, to highlight its quality to the business world and to present an overall vision of the multifaceted practices of contemporary designers.
• At the Fabbrica del Vapore, on the other hand, there will be an installation entitled Mother Nature by Massimo Caiazzo to introduce the Design+Sensibile project entitled Fragility: Reflections on Our Time . Enjoy meetings with various authors on the fragility of our time.
• In the Sala della Cisterna, also at the Fabbrica del Vapore, the HoperAperta project is interesting, curated by Patrizia Catalano and Maurizio Barberis, which brings together art, design and craftsmanship. This year the exhibition is entitled Esprit Magicien and investigates how and when objects can become part of the collective memory of an era.

A work by Maurizio Barberis for HoperAperta

This year Alcova moved to the former slaughterhouse

Alcove this year at the former slaughterhouse

For five years now, the appointment with Alcova has become a must for the Fuorisalone. And not only for the projects – this year 70 and beautiful – but also for the new spaces that this truly innovative design platform chooses as a location. Founded by Joseph Grima (Space Caviar) and Valentina Ciuffi (Studio Vedèt) Alcova investigates the evolutions and developments of the world of design in an absolutely innovative way. After the military hospital of Baggio in recent years, another magical and still unknown place in Milan will vibrate with people, objects and ideas, the former slaughterhouse of Porta Vittoria which is transformed into a global platform dedicated to offering an insight into the scene international contemporary design.

Alcove this year at the former slaughterhouse

• The protagonists this year will be innovative and sustainable materials, declined and told through installations, talks, lectures and performative interventions. Like every year, Alcova 2023 will be a formidable sounding board for the work of emerging designers, it will explore contemporary craft and also the universe of sensorial design, investigating its olfactory and taste dimensions. And finally, it will host site specific installations by POLCHA and Objects of Common Interest.
• Among the exhibitions we point out Budapest Select, an umbrella brand that brings together the best of Hungarian design: an important exhibition project with 37 designers that offers a cross-section of contemporary design in Hungary, a country that is increasingly positioning itself among the most interesting in the new creative scenario international.
• The convivial aspect remains a strong point of this fifth edition with a food court made up of two bars designed ad hoc to activate some of the most beautiful corners of the Ex-Slaughterhouse. Designed by Space Caviar, the Materials Bar and the Galleria Bar are both curated by the food masters of the Tuorlo Magazine team.

Budapest Select

Porta Venezia Design District, Artificial Intelligence and design

• The MNAD – National Museum of Digital Art is located in the West Daziario exit, Porta Venezia, with an exhibition to see that talks about technologies and design. Future Impact Six Designers from Singapore reveal their vision for a better Tomorrow , curated by Tony Chambers and Maria Cristina Didero, tells us how the designer’s profession will change with AI; how we will address the problems caused by climate change, food production, aging populations, city density and biodiversity loss

• At the Istituto dei Ciechi instead, WonderGlass presents the new collective exhibition Abrakadabra – a name that evokes the magic of glass and its transformative power – with the artistic advice of Jean Blanchaert, to immerse yourself in the installations of Paul Cocksedge, Tom Dixon, Elisa Ossino , John Pawson, Elena Salmistraro, studiopluz, Bethan Laura Wood and Dan Yeffet.
• And finally at the MEET Digital Culture Center, the International Center for Digital Art and Culture presents, in collaboration with Filmmaster Events, EVERYTHING (2021), an immersive installation of 12.30 minutes between environmental video art and immersive digital design of the Turkish study NOHLAB, for the first time in Italy.

Design Pride, the most pop party of the week

A moment of Design Pride 2022 Marco Antinori

Wednesday 19 April: Seletti, the playful and engaging Italian design brand, is once again inviting the public of Milan Design Week 2023 to celebrate creativity with Design Pride, the most pop party of the week. Like every year, the meeting point for taking part in the street parade is Piazza Castello (corner of via Minghetti) at 18.00: the procession, with floats, exhibitions, performances, music, will cross the city center until it reaches Piazza Affari for the inevitable party under the iconic LOVE sculpture by Maurizio Cattelan.