From April 13th to 20th, Milan will celebrate superior design craftsmanship in all its forms. Discover a carefully picked selection from our annual ‘Essential Itinerary’.
Triennale di Milano
From April 14th to 19th, the Triennale di Milano will present Singapore Design: The Alchemists. In fact, the Triennale will exhibit the work of a new generation of designers from Singapore, in the context of an exhibition that has been conceived and curated by Italian writer, publisher, designer Stefano Casciani (who worked with Studio Alchimia in the early 1980s), and co-curated by Patrick Chia, designer and Founding Director of Singapore’s Design Incubation Centre. In this context, 15 talents from Singapore will explore the magic in design through the looking glass of a new alchemy: tools and objects inspired by the alchemical process of turning substances such as lead into gold. In addition, the Triennale di Milano presents two must-see exhibitions that take place during Milan Design Week, namely Kitchens & Invaders, from April 9th to February 21st, 2016, and Arts & Foods Rituali dal 1851, from April 9th to November 1st, 2015.
Palazzo Litta
Following last year’s extraordinary success, Mosca Partners and DAMN° have joined forces to occupy Palazzo Litta during Milan Design Week, along with some of the main international players on the design stage, to express themselves under one theme: Materials. A Matter of Perception. The interpreters will be Michele De Lucchi and Andrea Branzi, who are presenting the exhibition Aesthetics of Misery, in collaboration with Oikos. The exhibition is the result of a workshop in the faculty of architecture at the Politecnico di Milano, under the supervision of Francesca Balena Arista and Marco De Santi, and will introduce to sixteen “social environments” based on the concept of misery, a subject always expressed in arts, cinema and literature, but basically alien to design culture. Further to this is MADE a Milano, an important exhibition on Brazilian design, with a selection of works by Waldick Jatobá presented in a design setting by Fernando & Humberto Campana. Meanwhile, in the centre of the beautiful courtyard, Brazilian architect Marcio Kogan is designing an open space of interaction built of stone from Casone, the Florentine company known worldwide for its stone production. In addition, Emmanuel Babled, Mario Trimarchi, and Belgian designer Ben Storms will display their latest research on objects and materials, while Jasper Morrison will be, as always, the Punkt. interpreter, as the art director of the Swiss company. Studio Irvine with Matteo Brioni, an interesting young Italian company producing raw earth as a building material, will also be present.
Porta Genova
Furthermore, France Design 2015, a co-production between VIA & 14 Septembre will showcase the very best of contemporary French design, such as prototypes for furniture, lighting and interior layouts financed by VIA and created by 12 emerging designers. In addition, the initiative opens up a panorama of 60 new everyday products and prototypes from a wide range of sectors (sport & leisure, home decoration, high-tech). Made by leading brand names and designed by well-known French talents, these pieces illustrate the role of design in creating added value, whether it be functional, aesthetic or emotional. The exhibition produced with the financial support of the French Ministry for the Economy and Finance, the APCI (Agency for the promotion of industrial design) and the Lieu du design, and with the collaboration of the IFD (French design institute), Aquitaine Développement Innovation/Prospective Design, Design’in Pays de la Loire, La Cité du design Saint- Étienne, and Lille Design. In addition, MOOOI - The Unexpected Welcome will be showcasing an assembly of inspirational living quarters, timeless product haikus and a new carpet collection, harmoniously absorbed into the breath-taking depths of Rahi Rezvani’s artistic photography.
Zona Brera - Garibaldi
Advantage Austria, on its side, will stage an exhibition of contemporary Austrian design, which is now taking place for the sixth time. Supported by go-international, an initiative of Austria’s Ministry of Science, Research and Economy and the Federal Austrian Economic Chamber, as well as the Austrian Furniture Industry, this show extending over 800 m2 will present an international audience with the latest products and product lines of almost 70 Austrian designers, manufacturers and traditional companies. In addition, Belgium Is Design will exhibit its most reputed and talented designers at the Accademia Delle Belle Arti di Brera, with an exhibition called Confronting the Masters - The Ten Designers of the Years, since 2006, namely Alain Berteau, Sylvain Willenz, Nathalie Dewez, Alain Gilles, stefan schöning, Bram Boo, Nedda El-Asmar, Jean-François d’Or, Marina Bautier and Muller Van Severen, the 2015 winners. In addition, Belgium Is Design will shocase 6 young designer brands from Brussels and Wallonia at SaloneSatellite, namely Ateliers J&J, Frédérique Ficheroulle, Kaju Design – Leen d’Hondt, Pierre Emmanuel Vandeputte, .Rad Product by Laurent Chabrier, and TwoDesigners.
Duomo / San Babila
Then, the new exhibition-event of Interni will develop the themes of Expo Milano 2015, which will open in May 2015. In this context a range of talented international designers will investigate the theme A Dream for Tomorrow - Looking to the Past to invent the Future with various installations at the Università degli Studi di Milano. The participating designers include Steve Blatz-Antonio Pio Saracino, Antonio Citterio-Patricia Viel, Walter Maria De Silva, Yang Dongjiang, Valerio Maria Ferrari, Raffaello Galiotto, Annabel Karim Kassar, Bernard Khoury, Kengo Kuma, Daniel Libeskind, Alessandro e Francesco Mendini, Alessandro Michele, Josè Roberto Moreira do Valle, Piuarch, Philippe Starck, Mac Stopa, Sergei Tchoban, and Luca Trazzi.
Porto Venezia
Finally, Brand New World, produced by Vesna and Jovan Jelovac – forecasters of design future – will announce the most exciting works of 2015 in the center of the design world, as part of the Milan 2015 Fourisaloni program, in what is arguably one of the most elegant design showrooms in the city – DUŠAN. Exhibitors include Dante - Goods and Bads, Studio Drift, Tom Strala, Studio Appetit, Adrien Rovero, Buro Belen, Reinier Bosch and Carolina Wilcke, as well as Ilan Garibi for Gal Gaon Collection.
Pictures courtesy of Mosca Partners and DAMN°, MOOI / Erwin Olaf / Front Design, and Advantage Austria.
