Salone del Mobile.Milano 2022: here’s what to expect

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Teatro Lirico Giorgio Gaber, ph. Andrea Mariani

Inclusive, sustainable, a catalyst for creativity and energy: the 60th edition of the event, scheduled for June, has been unveiled. With an installation by Mario Cucinella, 600 young designers called to "design for our future selves" and a new programme of Talks

Dal 7 al 12 giugno, presso Fiera Milano Rho, si svolgerà la 60a edizione del Salone del Mobile.Milano, un traguardo importante da celebrare attraverso i valori chiave della Manifestazione: qualità, innovazione, bellezza e, oggi più che mai, sostenibilità. Dopo due anni difficilissimi a causa della pandemia, ai quali è stato risposto organizzando il supersalone, ora il Salone guarda avanti consapevole della sua lunga storia. L’obiettivo è ambizioso: dimostrare che è possibile e necessario tornare a realizzare grandi eventi internazionali in presenza, fondendo criteri di sostenibilità e attenzione ambientale con la produzione d’arredo.

The 60th edition of the Salone del Mobile.Milano will be held at Fiera Milano Rho from 7th to 12th June, celebrating this important milestone through the key values embedded in the event: quality, innovation, beauty and, now more than ever, sustainability. After two really tough years due to the pandemic, during which supersalone was organised, the Salone is looking ahead, mindful of its lengthy history. The aim is an ambitious one: to demonstrate that it is both possible and crucial to start holding great international events live again, embedding sustainability and environmental awareness into furniture production.

Maria Porro, President of the Salone del Mobile.Milano, had this to say: “The Salone del Mobile has always been a catalyst for creativity, positivity and energy. We have always been a place of dialogue and construction, in Milan and at the Shanghai and Moscow editions. Now, we are as shocked as everyone else by the war in Ukraine and believe even more in the importance of being a crossroads of cultures and styles open to the world. This is why we have made sure that the work of the exhibiting exhibitors takes centre stage again. The event acts as a blank canvas for all its protagonists – companies, brands and designers – allowing them to project their own identities, promote their own content and tell their own stories. A point of reference for the entire design community. We cannot stand still, in fact we have a duty to move even faster in the direction of design, production and distribution solutions that are as sustainable as possible – what we need today is an ethical approach to design”.

Environmental and social wellbeing also inform the theme of Design with Nature, the installation designed by the architect Mario Cucinella for the Salone’s “birthday” and located in Pavilion 15 with S.Project: 1,400 m2, narrating a virtuous ecosystem that will ideally represent the future of home living.

Overall, the 2022 events will involve more than 2,000 exhibitors. The Salone Internazionale del Mobile, the International Furnishing Accessories Exhibition and Workplace3.0 will offer a great many aesthetic avenues, in which the protagonists are products of quality and research. The June event will also feature the biennial exhibitions EuroCucina, and its collateral event FTK (Technology For the Kitchen) and the International Bathroom Exhibition. Making a return after its debut in 2019, S.Project, the exhibition devoted to design products and large-scale project solutions, will highlight the most significant lines of research into surfaces and solutions that will allow the design of individual pieces to be transferred to that of whole environments.

More than 600 young designers will be taking part in the 23rd edition of SaloneSatellite. This year’s theme is Designing For Our Future Selves / Progettare per i Nostri Domani. This edition will invite us to reflect on “inclusive” design, fostering autonomy, comfort, movement, usability, interaction and safety for all.

ART_01_Articolo-Conferenza — Claudio Feltrin, Luca Dondoni and Maria Porro, ph. Andrea Mariani

Following the supersalone experience, a stimulating programme of Talks will add conversations and debates featuring the most outstanding figures on the contemporary design scene into the mix. A brilliant all-female trio is curating the programme: Chiara Alessi, Maria Cristina Didero, Beatrice Leanza and will be weaving the threads of these meetings together, bringing human beings, the planet, beauty and design back into the spotlight.

“The strategic importance of fairs, and therefore also of the Salone, finally making its return after a two-year absence, lies entirely in the great uptake by the companies, demonstrating that they neither wish nor are prepared to miss the 60th anniversary of an unrivalled global showcase. The wood furnishing sector as a whole closed 2021 with a record high, thanks to the strictly home-related segments and a furnishing macrosystem that accounts in its own right for more than half the sector’s total turnover. However, the hike in energy prices, the lack of raw materials and now the war in Ukraine, make for a truly uncertain future and, as we all know, uncertainty is the enemy of business. Thus, being able to exhibit Made in Italy products at the Salone means underscoring our leadership position as well as eyeing up new and emerging markets, and lending our weight to the great efforts our entrepreneurs have made over the last two years, during which they continued to invest, innovate and aim for sustainability as a competitive lever,” commented Claudio Feltrin, President of FederlegnoArredo. Preliminary data for 2021 processed by the association’s Study Centre show that the sector saw a 14.1% increase overall, compared with 2019, with a total turnover of more than 49 billion euros.

The 60th edition of the Salone del Mobile.Milano will again venture beyond the confines of the fairground and into the city: as of 7th June, a monumental site-specific film installation will feature in Palazzo Reale’s Sala delle Cariatidi, based on the 11 values that have always been embedded in the Salone’s DNA. 11 films d’auteur by 11 leading Italian filmmakers will be screened, with Francesca Archibugi and Pappi Corsicato among them.

In the spirit of ever-greater openness to exchange and the circulation of ideas, culture and creativity, the collaboration with the Teatro alla Scala Foundation will be renewed. The Salone will open this year with a concert by the Philharmonic conducted by Lorenzo Viotti, followed by a ballet starring the extraordinary Roberto Bolle.

“The Salone is Milan – and always will be. Few events are as capable of celebrating know how and doing things well as the Salone del Mobile. This is why the design world waits, watches and takes part so enthusiastically in this event: because inspiration and originality are a given in Milan. Materials research, environmentally aware production, beautiful objects, furniture and useful and creatively shaped furnishing accessories will also be the stars of the 60th edition of the Salone. Its all-encompassing energy will fire up the city,” said the Mayor of Milan, Giuseppe Sala.