Salone del mobile 2023: the protagonists of the design week

A dimension that is not always easy: «At least half of the participants do not live in our country. They would like to go back but they can’t, also because for years the industry has only been looking for the big names. We offer a platform with one hundred good designers able to maintain a dialogue with companies. The hope is to mend this relationship that has been interrupted». And reconnect the museum with the city: «There will be games, music, screenings, a reading room with a hundred books. With one ticket you can come back as many times as you want, see a film, play a game of cards, attend a virtual concert. It is an exhibition that includes the active participation, not only of designers».

Ghostform. The search for sustainable alternatives

After setting up the Biennale d’Arte in Venice, while waiting for the inauguration of the one at Pecci in Prato, Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin of Formafantasma concentrate on Milan. For the Salone del Mobile (which opens on April 18) they designed “Aurore”, the square of Euroluce, and the twelve “Constellations” of a widespread exhibition curated by Beppe Finessi. Light intervention, materials such as wood and paper, modules made to be reused or recycled. “Let’s hope so. The conditions are there, the good intentions too ». He is not taken for granted: «Design has been misapplied many times. At Euroluce, for example, we recall the Phoebus Kartell case in a video, the agreement that established the planned obsolescence of light bulbs in the 1920s».

Sustainability is also discussed in the “Prada Frames” symposium that they curate for Prada: three days of meetings between professionals and scholars on the theme “Materials in Flux”. «These are complex topics, reducing everything to greenwashing is discouraging for those who take them seriously». In design, before the product, the Formafantasmas give shape to strategies. For Tacchini, for example, they worked on the supply chain, replacing the industrial foam padding with Italian wool, which since the Australian merino rages is often destined for pulping. Traditional sofas will remain on the market, head-to-head with the sustainable option. “The answer will help us understand if this is the right path.”

Alberto Alessi and Giulio Iacchetti. Let’s go back to the origins

The illustrious precedent is a shot from the late eighties. Gianni Berengo Gardin, one of the greatest Italian photographers, posed the elite of design, from Achille Castiglioni to Enzo Mari, on the assembly line. Thirty years later, Berengo returns to the factory for the sequel. In overalls, with Alberto Alessi, this time there are two, Giulio Iacchetti and his assistant Luca Madonini. With eight other designers they gave life to the collection The Mad Turnera series of metal containers made with the oldest of tools. “The lathe was my idea. I felt the need to go back to my origins, when it was the only means available» explains Alessi. «From a technical point of view it is limiting, but this was precisely the bet. I was curious to understand where creativity can arrive». The eight designers invited to collaborate, from Andrea Branzi to Paolo Ulian, worked closely with the artisans. «There were no rigors, there was no confrontation with marketing, we were able to skip a series of steps that the industry normally requires» underlines Iacchetti, who coordinated the project. “It was just us and who really does the job. We got our hands dirty, metaphorically speaking, and it was exciting. To invent something new, sometimes you have to start from the abc».

Paola Navone. I get rid of a few things

Take it or Leave it, take or leave. Paola Navone, the queen of design, has set up a lottery for the Salone. Hundreds of prizes are up for grabs, from the prototype that never went into production to the set of ladles bought on an Indian market. «I collect traces everywhere, it’s a form of bulimia. In order not to remain submerged, I decided to give some as a gift». Anyone can participate in the raffle (on 17, 20 and 21 April) by booking on slowdown.tv/salone2023. On one condition: if you win, you have to answer a couple of questions.

«The idea of ​​Take it or Leave it came about while talking to Spencer Bailey, a friend who owns a well-known media company in the USA, The Slowdown. I don’t know exactly what will come of it, it’s a bit of an investigation into the relationships we have with objects. If the prize sucks you can leave it there, but you have to tell us why, the same if you like it. These things have all been invaluable to me, from the first moment I picked them up. But loves end. I put them back into circulation, they will have another life». The subtext is sustainability. «We produce more and more things, we hope they sell more and more, it’s our job. Yet there is an overdose of everything on the planet. Maybe after making room I’ll see a way out.’

AMArchitectrue: the challenge is to do with little

The appointment is in a very central place that few know, the MAS in Piazza Castello, an educational museum for the verification of fake antiques. The AMArchitectrue studio will review the setting of the rooms to set the fourth edition of the exhibition here F/A Fake Authentic. «Every year we choose a different theme, on which the participants are invited to reflect in order to translate it into a work or a functional object» explain the studio. This year the theme is Lost/Found. Adopt Adapt.

«We are facing a moment of crisisthe costs of raw materials are increasing, there are supply problems… We asked the creatives, all under forty, to work on something that already existswithout production costs. Some have taken up old prototypes to perfect them, others have created fantasy objects such as “Felice di Stare Lassù”, two tennis referee chairs with a small table in the middle, for playing chess two and a half meters off the ground. The lesson is to make a virtue of necessity: «When faced with a limit, you ingenuity. In a “Superleggera”, Gio Ponti’s chair, which we couldn’t get put back in place, we replaced the straw with orange parcel straps».

Giovanna Castiglioni. Moving from Piazza Castello?

It could be the Foundation’s last exhibition in Piazza Castello. Sixty-one years of regularly paid rent have not dissuaded the property, which asks to vacate the ground floor apartment. Milan would lose a piece of its history, the studio where Achille Castiglioni, ten Compasso d’Oro, tempered his ideas, a snapshot of Italian Design with a capital letter, that of the best years, of the democratization of taste, of beautiful objects for everyone and the world that realizes how good we are at designing furniture, lamps and the thoughts behind them . Giovanna Castiglioni will do everything possible to stay. She and her brother have put their souls into this place, in addition to the royalties destined for them as heirs (“even if they are never enough”) and the family anecdote. If she goes badly, she’s trying to get over it, they’ll find another place “for the dad.”

Meanwhile there is the exhibition Fa ballà i man – Castiglioni’s design seen first-hand (from 18 April to 18 February). An invitation to consider design not only for its appearance. «Each object has its own gesture alphabet. Grips, grips, grips… We focused on that. We will also have a room dedicated to touch, where you can train yourself to understand shapes without using your eyesight. If indeed it will be the last exhibition here, it is the right one. Ours has always been a museum where everything can be touched».

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