Within more than a month the Salone del Mobile will be back in Milan and the city is getting ready for the events and installations of Fuorisalone. This year’s edition, which will take place from 17th to 23rd April, will focus on the themes of circular economy, reuse, sustainability of processes and materials, urban regeneration and artificial intelligence.
Specifically, the issue will be ‘Laboratorio Futuro’. The aim is proposing a reflection on how we imagine our future, in relation to the uniqueness of the times in which we are living now. Lab is an opportunity for debate, to imagine and build alternative ideas through moments of collective dialogue.
Laboratorio Futuro will thus set the stage for exhibitions, installations and projects capable of intercepting the ongoing transformations in society, proposing visions of an ambitious and credible future, made of experimentation and tangibility. A future in which design is an agent of change, as well as a lens for interpreting society.
Together with Fuorisalone, we are welcoming also the Fuorisalone Award, an acknowledgement that rewards the most memorable contents and installations presented at Milan Design Week. The selected projects will compete for the 4 special mentions in the categories: interaction, sustainability, technology, and communication. One of the novelties of this edition of the Fuorisalone Award is the special mention by the Salone del Mobile.Milano, created to distinguish the lighting project with the best public impact. The ‘Mention by Salone Del Mobile.Milano: Light for the City’ has the aim of widening the view to the city also during the year: the project or installation with a virtuous impact on the public (lighting for exhibitions, public lighting, lighting art, but also installations or events linked to light) will be awarded.
The following projects too are on the agenda: e.Reporter, dedicated to design, architecture and visual arts students with a particular passion for photography and audio-visual content and Inspire, one digital space gathering all the news, content, inspirations and trends from the Design Week.
The design districts are those we already know and love, from the Brera Design District with exhibitions, installations, group shows and new products to the Tortona District, which will become the spokesperson for current issues seen through the lens of design; from the Isola Design District with other group exhibitions to 5VIE with a proposal entitled ‘Design for Good’, dedicated to auteur design and the contamination of design with art and high craftsmanship. Last, but not least, Milano Durini Design proposes the fil rouge ‘Urban Metamorphosis’.
Some of the Fuorisalone 2023 projects
The first project worth mentioning is The oracle of the Fuorisalone conceived by Studiolabo. It consists of a deck of 28 cards illustrated by Serena Mazzi, produced in a limited edition by Tiburtini, able to help us recover the levity and faith we need to tackle the important issues ahead of us.
Alcova 2023, in the new spaces of the Ex-Macello di Porta Vittoria, will host over 70 projects, from research of innovative and sustainable materials to contemporary craft and sensorial design.
Base Milano hosts the third edition of ‘We Will Design’, while Superdesign Show at Supertudio Più presents ‘Inspiration Innovation Imagination’ with unexpected objects, innovative materials, trendy furniture, sustainability in and out, interactions with art, talks to deepen, visions of the great international design schools and much more.
Triennale di Milano presents a programme that brings together permanent exhibitions. Among them is the new permanent installation of the Italian Design Museum, directed by Marco Sammicheli. Also on stage is the exhibition Droog30, co-produced with Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam and curated by Maria Cristina Didero and Richard Hutten, dedicated to the activities of the innovative Dutch design group 30 years after its first Milanese exhibition for the Fuorisalone in 1993. The exhibition Lisa Ponti. Drawings and Voices, curated by Salvatore Licitra and Damiano Gullì, presents a selection of works by the artist, editor, critic and writer who has made drawing on A4 size sheets her chosen means of expression.
Finally, Dropcity Convention 2023, the winning project of the second edition of Festival Architettura, opens to the city from 15th to 23rd April. Inside the Magazzini Raccordati of the Central Station, Dropcity Centro di Architettura e Design, conceived by architect Andrea Caputo, produces and hosts a packed schedule of exhibitions, installations, conferences and talks with the participation of international architects and designers.
The Milan design marathon is about to start. Are you ready to run with us?
