Crates of Select Aperitivo and champagne are currently being carted throughout Milan and stocked in showrooms. The carbonated calling card can only mean one thing: Milan Design Week is near. This year, design week coincides with the 63rd edition of Salone del Mobile, the year of Euroluce, which will bring 2,100 exhibitors to the city.
One week out from spritz season and the inbox and calendar are filling up with invites and appointments. Already a theme appears to be emerging: theater. Salone’s special guest this year is Robert Wilson, renowned American director, playwright, and artist who will be creating an installation titled Robert Wilson. Mother for the fair. Elsewhere, Formafantasma will mount a theatrical performance, Staging Modernity, at Teatro Lirico Giorgio Gaber for Cassina. Some designers will even be sleeping in the showroom among their works—but more on that later.
Amid the flurry of upcoming activations, AN Interior rounded up these enlightening and engaging events. In addition to the week’s staples like the fair and Alcova, these perhaps lesser-known destinations will provide not just the spectacle surrounding Salone, but also thought-provoking and moving ruminations on design.
The Theater of Things
Delvis (Un)Limited
Via Fatebenefratelli 9, 20121 Milan
Design is only as good as it is livable, and this new exhibition hosted at Delvis (Un)Limited gallery puts this to the test. For the duration of design week, designers will be living at the gallery—yes, eating, sleeping, and partying in the space—all visible through the shop window. Each night, one of the seven designers, whose work will help shape the home/gallery, will spend the night, and each morning, a critic or journalist will wake them for coffee and engage in discussion about the experience. The participating designers include Objects of Common Interest, Linde Freya Tangelder, Espace Aygo, Rich Aybar, Laurids Gallée, Stefania Ruggiero, and Niki Danai. The exhibition is curated by Valentina Ciuffi and Joseph Grima and designed by Space Caviar.
Casa Cork
Via Solferino 31, 20121 Milan
In partnership with nonprofit Cork Collective and cork producer Corticeira Amorim, Rockwell Group has designed an installation that showcases the prowess of cork, both from a sustainability standpoint and its interior applications. The material will be used to craft the interiors, furnishings, lighting, and a lifelike replica tree. Students from Parsons School of Design in New York and Politecnico di Milano will also be presenting cork prototypes at the atelier.
VOCLA
Ex-Macello di Viale Molise
Viale Molise 68, 20137 Milan
Alcova makes it return to the city—but only for night owls. VOCLA is a new platform for design by night. Catering to design experimentation as well as social gathering, VOCLA brings together a design exhibit and a bar and restaurant pop-up to create places of encounter. Henge designed the custom lounge bar with dining by Yapa. This program will be held in the exchange of the former slaughterhouse of Viale Molise, a listed Liberty building. Designers include Weronika Wolińska’s textile-inflatable collaboration, made by astronauts studio’s hydroforming research, and more. Get those Resys in now to dine within design.
Prison Times – Spatial Dynamics of Penal Environments
Via Giovanni Battista Sammartini 60, 20125 Milan
Across five of Dropcity’s tunnels, the exhibition Prison Times – Spatial Dynamics of Penal Environments delves into the spatial and temporal realities of prison environments. Objects from prisons around the world will be displayed clinically and taxonomically to create a show that merges design, market data, and penal objects.
The Numbers Between The Numbers
Via Giuseppe Rovani 20, 20123 Milan
In celebration of Bocci’s 20th anniversary, this exhibition explores the work and process of its founder Omer Arbel. The artist and architect presents archival concepts, fragments of works, and completed pieces. The exhibition’s creative direction is led by David Alhadeff, founder of The Future Perfect. The showcase will culminate in a reimagining of 14, Bocci’s first-ever piece, as well as show the recently debuted 141.
Capsule Plaza
Spazio Maiocchi: Via Achille Maiocchi 7, 20129 Milan
Satellite Venue 1: Via Achille Maiocchi 23, 20129 Milan
Satellite Venue 2: Piazza Risorgimento 8, 20129 Milan
The third edition of Capsule Plaza features the theme “Expanded Living,” an exploration of the design of lifestyles and domesticity. Featured exhibitors include HEM, Stone Island, Harry Nuriev, Sabine Marcellis, Hydro, and many more. This year, the exhibition will include the activations Spazio Maiocchi, the same venue Capsule was held last year, as well as two satellite venues.
More or less 60 chairs in 60 years
Fondazione studio museo Vico Magistretti
Via Vincenzo Bellini 1, 20122 Milano
In 1980, architect and designer Vico Magistretti organized an exhibit titled, Twenty Years, Twenty Chairs. When he reached 21 chairs he staged another exhibit, Twenty One Years, Twenty One Chairs. Now, Fondazione studio museo Vico Magistretti continues the tradition—more or less. The exhibition follows a timeline of original drawings and photographic reproductions of 66 chairs with a dozen or so available to the public to sit and lounge.
Sub-currents (At work)
Studio Frey Barth
Via Kramer 32, 20129 Milan
Tbilisi- and Paris–based Rooms Studio presents an exhibition of new furniture, lighting, and ceramic works that reflect the shifting political and social landscape in Georgia. Hosted by Studio Frey Barth, this presentation is both poetic and quietly political as it captures the unique moment in Georgian history. Featured among the new work, Re-assembled Floor Lamps is a set of utilitarian lighting the aesthetic of captures urban protest sites. Bitossi Ceramiche also contributes vessels that bridge ancient tradition and contemporary design languages.