Euroluce 2023, the catalogue

Catalogue “The City of Lights” Cover Artwork on the cover: Gio Pastori, The City of Lights (collage), 2023 Leftloft (creative direction)

Published by Corraini, with graphic design by Leftloft, "The City of Light" celebrates one of the most important cultural events of recent years devoted to the world of light and lighting.

For all architecture and design enthusiasts, now available is “The City of Lights”, the volume published by Corraini that documents the new format of the Salone del Mobile.Milano, created for the first time for the Euroluce 2023 event. In its 272 pages, with graphic design by Leftloft and texts by, among others, Lombardini22, the catalogue tells the story of one of the most important cultural events of recent years devoted to the world of light and lighting.

With drawings, photos, plans and maps of the pavilions and exhibition spaces, all richly illustrated, the volume recounts the history of the creative and design process: a choral project involving artists and curators of different styles, generations and origins, orchestrated by Beppe Finessi. The publication traces the authorial exhibitions designed (Albe. Luci di domani; Costellazioni; Fiat Bulb. La sindrome di Edison; Hélène Binet. Natura, tempo e architettura; Interno Notte. Artifici luminosi; Sate…Light. 1998-2022 SaloneSatellite Young Designers; Scintille. Lemmario di parole brillanti), and the installation “You can imagine the opposite” by Maurizio Nannucci, as well as the spaces designed by the Formafantasma studio, also the designers of the great Arena Aurore, a place of meditation and at the same time the stage for the Talks held by some of the most brilliant voices of the lighting project.

“A radical reflection. Euroluce 2023 in a nutshell. The 31st lighting biennial was driven by an urgent need for change in the trade fair system, putting people at the heart of the trade fair experience. An ambitious project informed by listening and co-design, with numerous round tables involving sectoral professionals and participating companies, thanks to the collaboration with Assoluce under the helm of President Carlo Urbinati”, explained Maria Porro, president of Salone del Mobile.Milano. “The result was an event that gives maximum visibility to the exhibitors and facilitates visitor orientation. Public areas and spaces, each specially designed by a different architect, dedicated to meetings, culture, and the arts, were integrated into this new plan. Today, light encompasses more than just objects or light fixtures; it embodies technology, architecture, interaction, sustainability, new materials, indeed, a veritable holistic reflection on human well-being. “The City of Lights”, a programme of cultural activities encompassing both artificial and natural light, gathered together a multitude of identities and content. Orchestrated by scientific curator and artistic director Beppe Finessi, this collective project involved artists and curators representing a wide range of stylistic choices, generations, and backgrounds. Not only was The City of Lights the concept and thematic thread that determined the quantity and quality of the products on show, it highlighted the power of imagination and tangible vision that characterized its interdisciplinary cultural content. The Salone has, for the added value comparison generates, always believed in the strength of diverse visions. This book sheds light on the exhibitions, Maurizio Nannucci’s site-specific installation, seven architectural and exhibition interludes by Formafantasma, and the grand Aurore arena, a place for meditation and a stage for Talks given by some of the brightest voices in lighting design. A specialized bookshop comprehensively exploring the theme of light, along with a bistro and restaurant designed by Piero Lissoni, were all integral parts of an overarching curatorial and exhibition project conceived to transform this “city of lights” into a place of harmony, combining technology and poetry, fostering discovery and, beyond the merely visible, enabling a deeper understanding of the contemporary world of light."

“The concluding episode of this experience of a structured palimpsest of exhibitions and events like "The City of Lights", built on the plurality and pluridisciplinarity of its content, could not but take the form of an editorial project for publication, enabling the content to be preserved over time, and leveraging extensive photographic reportage to encapsulate everything that was presented during the six days of Euroluce 2023, in order to conserve a precise memory of it and continue to narrate the experience through the agile medium of a book, designed by Leftloft in an effective and contemporary language, and published by Corraini, an exceptional publisher that, in 40 years of publications, has constantly surprised us with its thoroughness and originality,” the curator Beppe Finessi explained.