Molteni, MDF Italia, Pedrali and Kartell events

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carteggio, molteni, aldo rossi, salone milano

Design as a promoter of culture: exhibitions, festival participations and international events in September

September, the month everything gets going again after the summer break. Schools, first and foremost, but also professional activities, especially in the fashion world – from New York to London by way of Milan and Paris – and design. The following are four unmissable events in which design in all its many facets becomes not just a promoter of products but also of lifestyles and cultural events.

Kartell at LoveITDetroit

From 1st September until the end of the month Michigan will be the focal point for a number of cultural events – from the NAIAS Detroit Motor Show to the Detroit Jazz Festival, Dlectricity (Detroit’s Nighttime Exhibition of Art & Light) and the Detroit Month of Design. One of the events is LoveITDetroit, an active design, innovation and architecture exhibition that represents and pays tribute to the importance of Italian design abroad, organised by the Italian Consulate in Detroit as part of its four-year campaign promoting Italian design in the only American city designated a UNESCO City of Design. In their role as Global Ambassadors for Italian Design, Ludovica + Roberto Palomba have invited some of Italy’s most representative brands to take part. Alongside Foscarini and Ginori 1735, Kartell, for which the Palomba Serafini studio designed the outdoor HiRay Collection, has been accorded a place of honour.

London celebrates 30 years of MDF Italia

Set up in 1992, MDF Italia celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. To mark the occasion, the company has reprised four iconic pieces from its history in in a limited-edition capsule collection, The Principle of Lightness, with hand-polished steel or aluminium finishes making them impervious to the passage of time. The collection will be presented all over the world, making its first appearance at the Aram Store from 17th to 25th September, as part of the London Design Festival. The four “timeless” pieces are the Tense table, designed in 2009 by Piergiorgio and Michele Cazzaniga; the Minima shelving system designed by Bruno Fattorini, which garnered an Honourable Mention at the XVIII ADI Compasso d’Oro in 1998; the Le Banc bench designed by Xavier Lust in 2001 and the chair from the Lofty collection, designed by Piergiorgio Cazzaniga in 2004.

principle of lightness, mdf italia, ldf, salone milano

Pedrali, a partner of the Landscape Festival – I Maestri del Paesaggio

From 8th to 25th September, Bergamo Alta and its Piazza Vecchia have become the cultural stage for the Landscape Festival – I Maestri del Paesaggio, now in its 12th edition. This is the eighth time the Bergamo-based Pedrali company has partnered the event. This year’s theme is Forgotten Landscape, designed to illustrate the way in which the landscape influences and shapes our lives. Pieces from Pedrali’s outdoor ranges have been chosen for the display in Piazza Vecchia, the beating heart of the event: chairs, armchairs and sofas from the Nolita collection, designed by CMP Design in 2015, along with Elliot tables, designed by Patrick Jouin in 2018.

The Molteni Group’s cultural animus

The Aldo Rossi.Design 1960-1997 exhibition is on in Milan until 6th November, curated by Chiara Spangaro, in partnership with the Aldo Rossi Foundation and with the participation of the Molteni Group. The designer, who died in 1997, had a close personal and working relationship with the group – who could forget the Cabina dell’Elba wardrobe, designed by Rossi and displayed on the Molteni stand at the Salone del Mobile di Milano in 1980? To mark the occasion, Francesca Molteni and Cino Zucchi will be presenting two films on 20th September (7pm, Cinema Arlecchino in Via San Pietro all’Orto, Milan) devoted to the designer: Ornamento e Delitto (1973) and the documentary Aldo Rossi Design (2022) directed by Francesca Molteni and Mattia Colombo.