Before the opening of Salone del Mobile, we toured the city to catch a few of the highlights in this year’s Milan Design Week: Rossana Orlandi, MOOOI, Lodes.
April 17, 2023—Salone del Mobile began its journey in 1961 as a key to promoting Italian furniture on a global scale. Its success ensured the recognition of the quality of Italian products around the world and is undoubtedly why companies in the furniture and industrial design sectors spontaneously initiated Milan Design Week in the 1980s. Two decades later, the festival became more organized with the appearance of the Fuorisalone platform. Both events later opened to celebrate international design, stepping well beyond the confined walls of Italian brands after establishing the country’s notoriety. Year after year, the streets and neighborhoods of Milan welcome more than 300,000 visitors. The nearly electrifying energy has been a magnetic buzz pursued by professionals in the industry and design lovers; until Covid hit in 2020.
The year pause ended when the organizers of both events navigated through the unsure waters to maintain their presence in 2021, although the events took place in June instead of the usual time in April. The brave move to reignite in-person exhibitions, to break the ice, so to speak, became the foundation of the new post-Covid era. Perhaps visitors had hoped for a pre-pandemic intensity only to find the Salone occupied ⅛ of the venue space and to feel slightly alone while walking the city streets, but no one could deny we had to start somewhere. The following year, we visited the Salone to discover it had once again extended to every hall of the venue and certain in-city exhibitions had a decent visitor crowd. Yet, the energy of the city streets remained dim. Now in 2023, three years past the emergence of the virus, and the city streets have still not regained their pre-Covid spirit.
And yet, within the walls of various showrooms and galleries, we joined large groups of our fellow design lovers. Perhaps the new era points to identifying where we want to spend our time during the design week instead of wandering the streets to explore. In light of the current climate, the ongoing discussions and initiatives on sustainability become ever more crucial. This year, Fuorisalone focused on the ideas of circular economy, reuse and sustainability of processes and materials under the theme: Laboratio Futuro.
Sculptures from Discarded Wire and More at Rossana Orlandi Gallery
Rossana Orlandi curated the RoCollectible 2023 exhibition which took place in her gallery on via Matteo Bandello, featuring over a hundred works. Each piece tells its own story, often through recycled and upcycled materials. We began our journey submerged in the photographed portraits of Lyle XOX who uses found objects to create facial sculptures. Each photographed portrait, as stated by Rossana Orlandi on her Instagram account, is a study in contrast and fantasy, with humor and irony.
We loved the Haze pieces by We+ who collected discarded copper wire to create emotional artwork. Through research into mining and its effects on the environment, We+ created a series of objects and partitions in order to reframe the relationship between humans and materials, a connection that has become too complex. The founders Toshiya Hayashi and Hokuto Ando collected the copper wire (discarded wire) in Tokyo to create the pieces.
Draga & Aurel placed emphasis on light and uplifting colors through the concept of its Lighting Boxes by artist and composer Brian Eno. The installation Color Waterfall included Rainbow, a limited edition table of only two pieces, and Ray lamps made from glass and a metal vertical stick with rainbow hues. These lamps represent the first lighting creations the studio created for Rossana Orlandi.
Johannes Budde presented a series of furniture made from marble off-cuts in different hues. The German designer collected the slabs in collaboration with SolidNature, joined the slabs into a block, then carved an exquisite series of stools and a wall desk from the block.
No Boundaries: Merging Design, Technology and Humankind with Moooi
At the entrance of the Moooi‘s exhibition entitled A Life Extraordinary, hostesses gifted visitors a card with a QR code which allowed them to partake in the AI-powered, personalized fragrance experience. The event presented an opportune time for Moooi to discuss its upcoming digital art collection, to be launched later this year on Nifty Gateway, an online auction platform for digital art and collectibles—follow them on Nifty Gateway: @moooinft. Moooi Co-founder Marcel Wanders created the digital art collection, called Virtual Interiors, in 2013. Current technologies allowed him to transform his creation into reality. Built on the foundation of what Wanders developed in 2013, the collection will provide a glimpse into the future of design.
Visitors enjoyed taking photos of the “kissing booth”, the first small room of the exhibition where they could preview the Kisss Chair by Marcel Wanders, designed in homage to the iconic Mae West Lips Sofa by Salvador Dali. Another site-specific preview of an upcoming product included the Tubelight by BCXSY, inspired by fluorescent tubes.
The new products seen throughout the installation of the various rooms include the Pallana light by IDEO, the exquisite Blow Away porcelain vase, whose form gives the impression that the vase is indeed being blown away, the Extinct Animals bath collection, three new carpet collections and our favorite piece: the Knitty lounge chair by Nika Zupanc.
Transparent Pyrex Cone Houses Printed Circuit Board—Lodes x Ron Arad
We found one of the most incredible lighting fixtures, in terms of aesthetics and technology, within the walls of the Lodes showroom: Cono di Luce, designed by Ron Arad. The Venice-based company has been designing and producing lighting solutions since 1950 but celebrates its very first collaboration with the internationally renowned artist, architect and designer. Indeed, Ron Arad is very much known for creating irresistible products and projects. Together, they harnessed an innovative use of printed circuit board (PCB) technology which also translates to the lamp’s graphic motif.
The transparent Pyrex cone houses a printed circuit board (PCB) inside and a frame that is also made of PCB but with a greater thickness in order to provide structural support for the lamp. The customizable frame holds the sheet placed inside the cone which bears the name of the product. The pendant is available in three finishes: red, grey and gold. It embodies the creative vision of Arad and mastery of Lodes.
Also on display in the showroom, Lodes collaborated with Diesel Living on several items that the partners will officially launch in the near future. Stay tuned.
