Exhibitions and cultural events at the Salone del Mobile.Milano 2023
Curated by Beppe Finessi and designed by the Formafantasma studio, the events and spaces of the cultural programme at this edition of the Salone del Mobile.Milano will be in the Euroluce pavilions, offering a multitude of different content, including a palimpsest of talks with leading protagonists, curated by Annalisa Rosso
The many new departures at the Salone del Mobile.Milano 2023 include moving the cultural event from the city centre to the fairground pavilions, making for the complete immersive and complementary integration of the content of the two exhibitions. The 2023 cultural programme will take place in a widespread and capillary manner amongst the new spaces in the four Euroluce pavilions, where the Lombardini22 studio has devised a new irregular loop-shaped visitor path, interspersed with public spaces, places for stopping and interface and learning opportunities. There will be alternating interdisciplinary and experiential content, ranging from architecture to art, with exhibitions, talks, workshops and site-specific installations.
The cultural programme
Curatorship of the cultural programme has been assigned to Beppe Finessi, the design professor and critic with huge experience in orchestrating multidisciplinary and multimedia content capable of penetrating and adding multifaceted levels of interpretation to the themes addressed. The cultural event of this edition is therefore structured in such a way as to provide glimpses of different themes, from the more technical to the more markedly artistic, through seven Constellations - exhibitions within the exhibition curated by Finessi, taking the form of architectural ‘intermezzos’ lining the whole route, with installations designed by Formafantasma - and four exhibitions entrusted to an equal number of curators and exhibition designers.
Aurore, the plaza designed by Formafantasma
The concept and common thread holding together the display, the commercial and the cultural aspects of Euroluce 2023 is The City of Lights, featuring an urban-type layout, providing for opportunities for exchange, rest, interface and learning. Right at the heart of these spaces, in Pavilion 13, is Aurore, a plaza and arena designed by Formafantasma to host a number of different activities, whilst also offering immersive and reflective experiences devised ad hoc.
The curated talks
Aurore is also the venue for the various talks taking place throughout the Salone del Mobile.Milano. The programme, curated by Annalisa Rosso, will have a particular focus on lighting, technology and sustainability, enriching the fair with conversations and debates held by some of the most brilliant figures on the contemporary lighting project scene. A genuine invitation to reflect and share constructive thoughts on urgent contemporary matters that affect us all, such as ecological transition and the role of technology in the near future. So far, the names of Shigeru Ban, Nao Tamura, Kjetil Trædal Thorsen and Marius Myking of Snøhetta, and Andrea D’Antrassi of MAD have been announced, and they will be questioned by an equal number of international journalists on how innovation in the lighting field can improve our future lives.
Gaetano Pesce, the protagonist of the history of Italian design, will be appearing in the SaloneSatellite space. The event dedicated to designers under 35 will also dialogue with the directors of some of the most prestigious design schools in the world - ECAL (Switzerland), Scuola del Design / Politecnico di Milano (Italy), Tongji University (China), Design Academy Eindhoven (Netherlands), School of Design / Pratt Institute (USA) - with the round table “Design: WHERE ARE YOU GOING?”, moderated by Annalisa Rosso.
In addition to the talks there will be two round tables curated by Jacopo Acciaro / Voltaire Lighting Design with the support of IALD, AIDI and APIL: The City and Living Places and The Enhancement of Historical Architecture in Relation to New Urban Interventions. The theme is the evolutionary processes of contemporary architecture that will give life to a moment of transversal study that will see prominent personalities in the field of urban, sustainable, lighting and landscape design as protagonists.
Soon-to-be-announced company-organized events will run alongside Fair-scheduled events. Update the official Salone app to see them or visit the events page to find more details and information.
The four exhibitions
Massimo Curzi will curate and install the solo show of one of the most important contemporary photographers, Hélène Binet, featuring an original selection of images that will show how her work explores the relationship between natural light and architecture.
Martina Sanzarello will curate and install an exhibition that pays homage to the classic incandescent light bulb, a contemporary story built on art and design, in the form of a sequence of light bulbs that are transformed from their primary and pragmatic function into unsettling objects and small experimental installations.
Matteo Pirola has created a display of “artificial stars” - the luminous devices that the “astronomer-designers” are examining, coming up with objects that show luminous happenings, orbiting spheres, reflective surfaces, blinding eclipses and coloured auroras, set up by the From Outer Space studio.
Michele Cazavara will be curating a collection of architectural images of interiors in which artificial light is the protagonist: a layout populated with accents and light points, in which a light source can be discerned, which inhabits and transforms the space in an unusual way; the installation of this exhibition, devised by Berfu Bengisu Goren, makes for a hybrid experience, since the actual exhibition space will also be the venue for workshops by the exhibiting companies, professional meetings, and technical and technological demonstrations contemporaneously.
