A special edition of the Milan Furniture Fair called Supersalone turned the limitations of the epidemic into an opportunity for innovation and held a five-day design celebration throughout the city.
It has been 60 years since the establishment of the premier annual furniture fair, Milan International Furniture Fair. It has been two and a half years since the last time a crowd gathered in Milan’s showroom to appreciate the unremitting creativity of international designers and manufacturers.
The spirit of innovation continues to drive the fair, especially the way its organizers respond to the pandemic. Sunday marked the opening of a special edition called Supersalone.
With 423 exhibitors, roughly a quarter of the usual number, Supersalone is a scaled-down event, “but to some extent, it’s greater in our ability to experiment with this form,” Milan architects and The curator of the event. Exhibitors’ booths have been replaced with display walls that hang products and allow free circulation. (After the exhibition, these structures will be dismantled, recycled or composted.) Although Salone was previously restricted to industry members on most days, Supersalone welcomed the public during its five-day operation, and the admission price was reduced by 15 Euros (approximately 18 Dollar). Many products will also be available for purchase for the first time.
A salon tradition has not changed: throughout the week of the fair, shops, galleries, parks and palaces all over Milan celebrated the design. Here are some highlights. — Julie Laski
The Italian ceramic company Bitossi celebrated its 100th anniversary this year and opened the Bitossi Archive Museum at its corporate headquarters in Montelupo Fiorentino near Florence on Monday to commemorate this occasion. Designed by Luca Cipelletti of the Milanese architectural firm AR.CH.IT, the museum occupies more than 21,000 square feet of former factory space (preserving its industrial atmosphere) and is filled with approximately 7,000 works from the company’s archives, as well as Photos and drawings as design professionals and public resources.
On display are the works of Aldo Londi. He was the art director of Bitossi and a writer from 1946 to the 1990s. He designed the famous Rimini Blu ceramic series and began to collaborate with others in the 1950s. A legend Ettore Sottsass collaborated. Other works were created by influential designers such as Nathalie Du Pasquier, George Sowden, Michele De Lucchi and Arik Levy, and recently collaborated with Max Lamb, FormaFantasma, Dimorestudio and Bethan Laura Wood, to name a few.
Although many works are displayed in groups, the museum also has a project room that highlights the work of a designer. In this case, this is the French designer and artist Pierre Marie Akin (Pierre Marie Akin). Marie Agin) A whimsical collection of traditional ceramics.
In Milan, the historic Bitossi ceramics are exhibited in the “Past, Present, and Future” exhibition, which is held at Via Solferino 11 in DimoreGallery and lasts until Friday. Fondazionevittorianobitossi.it— PILAR VILADAS
In his Milan debut, London-born Polish artist Marcin Rusak showed “unnatural practice”, which is a display of his ongoing work on discarded plant materials. The objects on display in his “Perishable” series are made of flowers, and the “Protoplast Nature” series, which uses leaves, arouses people’s attention to his method of reusing flora into lamps, furniture and decorative vases. These vases are designed to decay over time.
The artist wrote in an email that the exhibition curated by Federica Sala was “full of conceptual, unfinished works and ideas to examine our relationship with the objects we collect”. It also features a series of new wall hangings; an installation that examines the influence of Mr. Rusak’s family business on his career (he is a descendant of a flower grower); and a logo related to his work created by perfumer Barnabé Fillion Sexual fragrance.
“Most of the projects we work on have something in common in terms of concepts and materials,” Mr. Russack said. “This installation brings you closer to the way I look at these objects-as a growing and decayed catalog of life.” Watched at Ordet on Friday, Via Adige 17. marcinrusak.com. — Lauren Messman
When London architect Annabel Karim Kassar chose to name her new furniture collection Salon Nanà after the titular prostitute in Émile Zola’s 1880 novel “Nana,” it was not out of admiration for this role to distract men. die. On the contrary, Ms. Casal, who was born in Paris, said that these works were designed to evoke the sociality of literary salons in the late 19th century.
Salon Nanà is produced by the Italian company Moroso. It consists of a luxurious sofa with oversized feather cushions, a chaise longue and two sets of tables, some of which have Moorish patterns and decorative rivets. These designs draw on Ms. Kassar’s three years in Morocco, and more broadly from her long-term tenure in the Middle East, where her company has offices in Beirut and Dubai. For example, sofas are made of black and white striped fabrics, which are influenced by the djellabas or robes worn by Arab men. (Other options include 1960s-style floral prints and corduroy, reminiscent of men’s pants from the 1970s.)
As for the characters that inspired the series, Ms. Casal is willing to slack off the female Second Empire inventions of male writers. “I have no judgment on whether Nana is good or bad,” she said. “She has to endure a hard life.” Watched in Moroso’s showroom on September 19th, Via Pontaccio 8/10. Moroso.it — Julie Laski
Trompe l’oeil is a centuries-old art world’s deceptive technique that has been applied to the Ombra carpet collection of the Milanese company cc-tapis in a completely modern way.
The Belgian couple who designed Ombra—photographer Fien Muller and sculptor Hannes Van Severen, head of Muller Van Severen’s studio—say that they want to get rid of the idea that the carpet is just a two-dimensional plane. ground. “We want to create a sense of movement in the interior in a subtle way,” they wrote together in an email. “This is mainly to study the interesting uses of color and composition and paper and light. But you can’t call it a pure trompe l’oeil.”
During the pandemic, designers worked on the project at their dining table, cutting, gluing and photographing paper and cardboard, using the light of the phone to create and study shadows.
These carpets are produced in Nepal and are hand-woven from Himalayan wool. They are available in two versions: single color or multicolor. They are produced in one size: 9.8 feet x 7.5 feet.
Watch in the cc-tapis showroom of Supersalone and Piazza Santo Stefano 10 until Friday. cc-tapis.com — ARLENE HIRST
George Sowden is one of the founding members of Memphis, a radical movement that challenged modernist ruling aesthetics in the 1980s and is keeping up with Tech Jones. The designer who was born in England and lives in Milan intends to produce a variety of innovative lighting solutions through his new company, Sowdenlight.
The first is Shade, which is a set of whimsical multi-color lamps that utilize the light diffusion and easy-to-clean characteristics of silica gel. Modular lights can be customized to provide customers with dizzying forms and color options.
The initial series consisted of 18 basic shapes, which could be assembled into 18 chandeliers, 4 table lamps, 2 floor lamps and 7 mobile devices.
Mr. Soden, 79, is also developing a product that replaces the classic Edison light bulb. He said that although this symbol of industrial fashion “has a perfect function for incandescent lamps,” it is a manufacturing error when applied to LED technology, “both wasteful and inadequate.”
Shade is on display in the Sowdenlight showroom in Via Della Spiga 52. Sowdenlight.com — ARLENE HIRST
For the Italian toiletries company Agape, the inspiration for its Vitruvio mirrors can be traced back to the traditional stage dressing room, where a circle of incandescent light bulbs help stars make up—I believe they still look young. “The quality of the lighting on the face and upper body is close to perfect,” said Cinzia Cumini, who and her husband Vicente García Jiménez designed a restarted version of the vintage dressing table lamp.
The name comes from the “Vitruvian Man”, this is Leonardo da Vinci drew a naked male figure in a circle and a square, his beauty also inspired them. But they use modern technology to improve the experience. “The light bulb is very romantic, but it’s a bit uncomfortable to use now,” Ms. Comini said. “LED allows us to rethink in a modern way.” The upgrade can smooth out the appearance of wrinkles on the flat surface without heat, so you can apply oil paint without sweating a lot. The square mirror is available in three sizes: approximately 24 inches, 31.5 inches, and 47 inches on each side. They will be exhibited together with other new products in the Agape 12 showroom in Via Statuto 12. agapedesign.it/en — STEPHEN TREFFINGER
Usually, couples who receive unwanted wedding gifts will hide them, return them, or give them away. Franco Albini has a different idea. In 1938, when the neo-rationalist Italian architect and his bride Carla received a radio in a traditional wooden cabinet, which seemed out of place in their modern home, Albini discarded the housing and replaced the electrical components. Installed between two supports. Tempered glass. “Air and light are building materials,” he later told his son Marco.
Albini eventually improved the design of commercial production, creating a minimal glass enclosure for electrical equipment. Produced by the Swiss company Wohnbedarf, Cristallo’s streamlined Radio was launched in 1940. Now, the furniture company Cassina has relaunched it in the same proportions (approximately 28 inches high x 11 inches deep), adding a new status-an artistic speaker from the Italian B&C company. The radio has FM and digital technology, Bluetooth function and a 7-inch display. The price is US$8,235 (the limited edition hand-wired version sells for US$14,770).
Exhibited in the Cassina showroom in Via Durini 16 during Milan Design Week. cassina.com — ARLENE HIRST
Turning familiar things into new and fascinating things is Seletti’s specialty. In 2006, the Italian company commissioned designer Alessandro Zambelli (Alessandro Zambelli) to create Estetico Quotidiano, a series of everyday items such as takeaway containers, tin cans and baskets remade from porcelain or glass . Stefano Seletti, the company’s artistic director, said that these works are “graphic, quirky, and within reach, and have a deep connection with the memories of everyday objects in our minds, but they also carry a sense of distortion and surprise.”
For the new series called DailyGlow, Mr. Zambelli added the element of light. Objects cast with resin—including toothpaste tubes, milk cartons, and soap bottles—“distribute” LED lighting lines instead of their intended products. (Sardines and canned food glow from inside the container.)
Mr. Zambelli said he wanted to capture “the essence of common shapes, that is, the shapes we see in the surrounding objects every day.” At the same time, by adding lights to the equations, he turned these objects into “that can tell how the world is Changing lights”.
The DailyGlow series will be on display at the Seletti flagship store in Corso Garibaldi 117 on Saturday. Starting at $219. seletti.us — Stephen Trefinger
Despite the challenges, the past 18 months have provided room for self-reflection and creativity. In this spirit of optimism, Italian design company Salvatori showcased works that have been in development during the pandemic, including the first collaboration with Brooklyn designer Stephen Burks.
Mr. Burks combined his vibrant talent and cultural perspective with Salvatori’s expertise in stone surfaces to create a new sculptural mirror series. These mirrors are desktop-sized Friends (starting at $3,900) and wall-mounted Neighbors (starting at $5,400), using a series of colorful marbles, including Rosso Francia (red), Giallo Siena (yellow) and Bianco Carrara (white). The holes in the anthropomorphic style works also hint at the hollows on the mask, giving the audience a chance to see themselves in a new light.
Mr. Burks said in an email: “I was inspired by the variety of stones we can use-and how it relates to the diversity of people who might see their image reflected on the surface.”
Although these products can be interpreted as masks, Mr. Burks said they are not meant to cover the face. “I hope the mirror can remind people of how expressive they are.” By September 10, Salvatori was in the Milan showroom on Via Solferino 11; salvatoriofficial.com — Lauren Messmann
Post time: Sep-14-2021