In October, the events with ADI, Mudac, Lema and Venini

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Venini: Luce 1921-1985, Le stanze del vetro

New museum experiences, exhibitions curated by Made in Italy brand leaders and the opening of a new showroom

October: the working year has moved on from its September start and there’s a buzz and a feeling of achievement in the air, both professionally and culturally. The design world has honed some innovative projects that have finally come to fruition. Here are the unmissable ones.

ADI Design Museum: the ability to renew oneself

Just over a year after its opening, the ADI Design Museum is revisiting the Historic Compasso d’Oro Collection exhibition with Presente Permanente, curated by Francesca Balena Arista, Giovanni Comoglio and Maite García Sanchis, installation by Matteo Vercelloni and reorganisation by Beppe Finessi. The result is a re-discovery of the cultural, productive, and value-related context of each object, and the way they respond to demands that actualise issues that still remain unresolved.

With around 30 previous exhibitions under its belt amongst other things, the ADI is currently hosting 100+1. Alberto Rosselli x Saporiti Italia (until 30th October), curated by Federica Sala with installation by Marti Guixé on the designer and architect’s work as art director for Saporiti Italia from 1966 to 1976. The focus of the exhibition are 100 Jumbo lounge chairs for Saporiti Italia, reinterpreted in basalt fibre by 10 international architecture studios.

saporiti italia, jumbo, adi museum, salone milano — 100+1. Alberto Rosselli x Saporiti Italia, Adi Design Museum, ph. Giorgio Giovara

The collection of Thierry Barbier-Mueller chairs at the MUDAC

The unusual exhibition at the MUDAC in Lausanne, A Chair and You, features Thierry Barbier-Mueller’s collection of designer chairs (runs from 28th October to 5th February 2023). Embodying the tension between aesthetics and usage, with an infinite range of possible solutions, the chair should be regarded as the emblematic design object, to such an extent that almost all designers have taken on at least one over the course of their careers, exploring their limits and reinterpreting them.

Thierry Barbier-Mueller started his collection during the 1990s, and it now includes more than 650 pieces from the 1960s onwards. Among the pieces, products by Edra, Zanotta, MDF Italia and Glas Italia. More than 200 creations are showcased on a 1,500 square metre stage at the MUDAC, set among immersive scenography by the American filmmaker Robert Wilson.

glas italia, patrick goetelen, glass chair, salone milano — Prism Glass Chair, design Tokujin Yoshioka, Glas Italia, 2014. Ph. Patrick Goetelen

Designed by Piero Lissoni, Lema’s new showroom channels a mix of tradition and innovation

The display concept at the Lema showroom in Lema di Alzate Brianza (Milan), entrusted to Piero Lissoni, architect, designer and, since 1994, art director at Lema, forges a dialogue between the past and present of the Italian company, geared to providing an image faithful to the brand’s identity, narrating its journey thus far and its present, whilst also allowing its aspirations for the future to shine through. A large sliding door, a geometrically-shaped red handle and walls painted in contrasting colours make up the style hallmark of an innovative layout that takes in all areas of the showroom: from the ground floor to the mezzanine, to the great staircase. The brand’s iconic pieces are showcased alongside the very latest products for a full immersion into an unmistakable style.

Stand-out Venini pieces on exhibit at Le Stanze del Vetro

As part of the cultural Le Stanze del Vetro project, the permanent exhibition space on the Venetian island of San Giorgio Maggiore is hosting the exhibition Venini: Luce 1921-1985, curated by Marino Barovier. The exhibition features a well-chosen selection of objects by the various designers who worked with the Venini glassworks or its technical department (Vittorio Zecchin, Napoleone Martinuzzi, Gio Ponti, Franco Albini, Ignazio Gardela, Massimo Vignelli and Tobia Scarpa) from 1921 to 1985. Three large installations that form part of Venini’s history have been reconstructed for the occasion: Omaggio a Carlo Scarpa, featuring a reconstruction of the monumental polychrome polyhedron chandelier for the Veneto Pavilion at the 1961 Italia 61 exhibition in Turin; Velario, built in 1951 for the roof of Palazzo Grassi; and the polychrome telescopic Struttura a Poliedri created for the foyer of the Cinema Teatro Giacosa in Aosta in 1962.