Experiments and discussions: cultural events at the Salone del Mobile.Milano 2024

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"Interiors by David Lynch. A Thinking Room" - Lombardini22

From 16 to 21 April, the Salone innovates and is inspired by a rich schedule of meetings, talks, round tables and site-specific installations

One of the features of the 62nd edition of the Salone del Mobile.Milano is the neuroscientific approach, starting from its renewed exhibition layout, redesigned by Lombardini22 to improve the visitor experience by analysing visitors’ neurological, emotional and perceptual reactions to the different routes, locations and distributions of exhibition and rest areas. But this in itself does not suffice. Since the brain is stimulated to leave its comfort zone by art, culture and aesthetics, there will be a broad array of cultural offerings to involve the visitor across the whole exhibition itinerary. A Thinking Room project also saw the collaboration of the Piccolo Teatro di Milano - Teatro d'Europa, which oversaw the executive design and staging.
The exhibitors participating in the Salone del Mobile.Milano will hold events in the Rho Fiera spaces and around the city during the period of the event.

Three great installations at the Salone del Mobile.Milano 2024

The first, “lnteriors by David Lynch. A Thinking Room“ (Pavilions 5-7) is a tribute paid to the Salone by David Lynch, the famous director of the unconscious. Two mirrored “thinking rooms”, curated by Antonio Monda, reimagined as symbolic doors to be passed through to immerse oneself in the Event. With them, the Salone del Mobile.Milano reflects, in an original and imaginative way, on the production of interiors and on the way this is closely bound up with inwardness.

“Under the Surface“, the second installation designed and created by Accurat, Design Group Italia and Emiliano Ponzi for the International Bathroom Exhibition (Pavilion 10) reflects on the ethics, sustainability and technology but also the power, fascination and frailty of water. What is the state of bathroom furniture design with respect to water sustainability? Conceived in the form of a submerged island, the installation suggests a visual, evocative and educational story to raise awareness of the environmental impact of our daily practices with water. The reflections of light, shifting and changing incessantly, will represent the data on global water consumption, while the innovative use of dynamic data-displays will convey the technological and manufacturing advances in water protection in the field of bathroom furnishings.

Meanwhile, at the heart of EuroCucina there will be the opening of “All You Have Ever Wanted to Know About Food Design in Six Performances”, a great stage hosting six independent international food magazines. Together with artists, designers and chefs from around the world, they will present an unprecedented and original vision of the present and future of the ingredients that nature offers us. All this will take place amid reflections, exhibitions, talks and tasting experiences following one another day by day. Discussions of the pairing of food and design will be enlivened by the magazines. The six experiences are intended as a stimulus to supersede boundaries and blaze new trails, so advancing experiments with food that will make a difference to humanity’s future on this planet. The installations, located in the Food Design Arena (Pavilions 2-4), will be open all through the opening hours, while the food tasting experiences and the presentations of the projects and editorial viewings accompanying them will be held live at 2.30 p.m.

The Program of Talks and Round Tables

A new program of Talks and Round Tables, entitled “Drafting Futures. Conversations about Next Perspectives”, curated by Annalisa Rosso, will present some of the most interesting personalities of our time, with the aim of highlighting how project, design and architecture are capable of deciphering the present and imagining the future, opening up new paths, finding solutions, examining the possible and activating intuition and imagination. The morning talks will be held at 11 a.m. in the “Drafting Futures” Arena (Pavilion 14), designed by Formafantasma by recovering the seating from the previous edition upholstered in carpeting printed with abstract designs, patterns resembling doodles made when thinking or conversing. Participation in the Talks entitles members of the Order of Italian Architects to two education credits. To register simply fill out the form in the dedicated event.

Following each other at the center of the stage, there will be: Francis Kéré, architect and founder of Kéré Architects, whose work is notable for a profound sensitivity towards sustainability and social inclusiveness, interviewed by journalist Giulia Ricci (17 April, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.); John Pawson CBE, architect, who will converse with Deyan Sudjic OBE, author, popularizer of ideas, curator of architecture and design (18 April, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.); Jeanne Gang, FAIA, FRIBA, founding partner of Studio Gang, who puts the needs of people and the planet at the center of her practice, in dialogue with Johanna Agerman Ross, “Conran Foundation” chief curator of the Design Museum in London (19 April, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.); Hans Ulrich Obrist, artistic director of the Serpentine Gallery, who will interview Maria Porro, President of the Salone del Mobile.Milano (20 April, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.).

Then the Round Tables will address some of the crucial topics in current design and architecture, such as the use of artificial intelligence, the relation between pleasure boating and design - in collaboration with the Genoa International Boat Show - and innovations in the hospitality sector. In addition, the new Salone del Mobile Library project will be inaugurated in the Arena, also designed by Formafantasma. At the suggestion of the speakers in this and future editions of the Event, the library will bring together books helpful in improving our future actions and prospects.

“Pleasure Boating and Design: the Positive Influences of Made in Italy” (16 April, 4.00 pm), in collaboration with the Genoa International Boat Show, will see a discussion between designers and companies to understand how the role of design is becoming increasingly crucial in the development of the pleasure boating industry. “Form Follows Formulation: Maria Cristina Didero in Conversation with Aesop” (17 April, 4.00 p.m.) will feature the famous high-quality Australian skincare brand, in its Design and customer experience. “The Furniture Sector: Excellence of Made in Italy: Strategic Investments and Competitive Advantages for the International Development of the Supply Chain” (18 April, 4.30 p.m.) by Intesa Sanpaolo: a panel where the issues of sustainability and investments will be framed as strategic drives for the development of the sector. “New Shapes of Hospitality” (19 April, 4 p.m.) will be an event devoted to a sector that is evolving rapidly, discovering new opportunities and markets to develop. “The Present and Future of Artificial Intelligence” (20 April, 4 p.m.): an encounter devoted to the significance of AI for the disciplines of architecture and design, to understand whether it will be just another resource in the service of the sector or whether it can potentially have a much broader and more disruptive impact.

The Corraini Mobile Bookshop, for book lovers

After the success of last year’s debut, also this year the Corraini Mobile Bookshop, curated by Corraini Edizioni, will be set up next to the Arena. On display and for sale, it will present a broad selection of international publications dedicated to design, art and illustration, with incursions into food and food design, representing over 110 publishers. It will include numerous children’s books, posters and graphic works in limited editions, ceramics, small art objects and one-off pieces, curiosities and rarities. With a view to all-round design, it is a space that, by dialoguing with the installations and set-up of the Fair, will be an integral part of the exhibition.