Yesterday, with a large audience of journalists and sector professionals, the 60th edition of the Salone del Mobile.Milano was presented. The location was the Teatro Lirico, a hall recently reopened after 22 years of silence. The conference was an intense hour of ideas, kicked off by Maria Porro, President of the Salone, who announced a support initiative of the World Food Programme to respond to the emergency of the conflict in Ukraine.
“The Salone is a crossroads of culture, a grand piazza, a builder of worlds,” said Maria Porro. She was echoed by Giuseppe Sala, Mayor of Milan: “Here there is the idea of entrepreneurial courage, of industrious activity, and the desire to meet challenges,” he said, taking the fair as an example to be followed, as “the most important week of the year: it always has been, and always will be.”
Claudio Feltrin, president of FederlegnoArredo and Maria Porro, president of Salone del Mobile.Milano, with journalist Luca Umberto Dondoni, moderator of the press conference. Photo @ Andrea Mariani
The event, together with EuroCucina/FTK and the Salone Internazionale del Bagno, will occupy the entire fair facility at Rho-Pero. After the debut in 2019 the S.Project returns, an exhibition on design products and solutions.
The numbers:
2,083 exhibitors for the Salone del Mobile.Milano;
more than 1,100 for the Salone Internazionale del Mobile, Salone Internazionale del Complemento d’Arredo, Workplace3.0;
82 for Eurocucina;
39 for FTK;
172 for Salone Internazionale del Bagno;
90 for S.Project.
Of course there will also be the SaloneSatellite, with about 600 participants and a new location inside the first two pavilions, in an iteration that will prompt reflection on design that ‘includes.’ Furthermore, after the experience of last September’s supersalone, the program of talks is back, coordinated by Chiara Alessi, Maria Cristina Didero and Beatrice Leanza: encounters to discuss mankind, the planet, beauty and design.
Chiara Alessi; Maria Cristina Didero, photo © Stefano Ferroni; Beatrice Leanza.
Among the personalities at the press conference there was also the architect Mario Cucinella, creator of the installation “Design with Nature” hosted in Pavilion 15 of S.Project: 1400 sqm to narrate a virtuous ecosystem, in an ideal representation of the future of living. The project follows and illustrates three hypotheses, in a spirit the architect has defined as ‘green diplomacy’: the urgency of an ecological transition, the home as the first urban segment, and the city as a mine. The installation takes a position on very timely themes: “Because the Salone is also an accelerator of processes,” said Maria Porro.
Mario Cucinella in front of the model of the installation for Design with Nature. Photo © Andrea Mariani
As usual, the Salone will have an institutional presence in the city as well. This 60th edition will be celebrated with “La Scatola Magica”, a monumental site-specific cinema installation at the Sala delle Cariatidi of Palazzo Reale. Coordinated by Davide Rampello, it will focus – through 11 authorial films – on 11 values that have always been part of the event’s DNA. The installation, illustrated only in part, will have a surprise that has not yet been unveiled: because, as Rampello explained, “the dream is the start of the project”.
Rendering of the installation for La Scatola Magica, curated by Davide Rampello.
The Salone will also collaborate with Fondazione Teatro alla Scala: the Design Week will begin this year with a concert conducted by Lorenzo Viotti, followed by a ballet with Roberto Bolle as its protagonist. This aspect underscores the spirit of the event, which has continued to extend into other forms of expression. Creating a dialogue with the city, its history and its landmarks.
