From Milan to China: the travels of the Salone del Mobile

The Orbit’s Orbit Performance - Ph. XELEVATION

A journey to Shanghai and Hong Kong, where the Salone presented two events geared to promoting Italian design and celebrating 25 years of SaloneSatellite

The Land of the Dragon hosted two large events of international breadth during November, testament to the importance of the Asian market to the Italian furnishing and design system, underscoring the need to consolidate a bridge with China for a dialogue and exchange connecting two cultures with a thousand-year history.

First stop was Shanghai, where the Salone del Mobile.Milano, accompanied by the ITA – Italian Trade Agency, partnered West Bund Art & Design, the most prestigious Asian art fair, for the first time. The Chinese city saw a presentation of The Orbit's Orbit, a performative installation dedicated to Italian design by the artist Matilde Cassani featuring 36 Italian companies as protagonists. This was followed in Hong Kong by the SaloneSatellite Permanent Collection 1998-2024 Exhibition, promoted by IDFFHK – International Design Furniture Hong Kong and the Designworks Foundation at the Arts Pavilion, featuring a selection of over 100 projects from the SaloneSatellite Permanent Collection. SaloneSatellite is the Salone del Mobile.Milano hub for designers under 35 founded and curated by Marva Griffin Wilshire, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.

Shanghai: the artist Matilde Cassani pays tribute to Italian design with a performative installation

The futuristic The Orbit building designed by the architect Thomas Heatherwick hosted a special event from 8th to 11th November, which blurred the boundaries between design and art with a highly impactful scenic and exciting immersive experience. The Orbit’s Orbit: a performative installation dedicated to Italian design by the artist Matilde Cassani featured recurring performances staged in collaboration with a local school, with visitors invited to take part in the installation. Some ad hoc music was specially composed for the occasion – Oriental-sounding notes in a modern key that helped underscore the extent of the interchange between the two cultures. A programme of talks was also held alongside the performative installation, encouraging interface and sparking conversations, underscoring the Salone del Mobile.Milano’s mission to promote design culture.

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Alongside Maria Porro, President of the Salone del Mobile.Milano, prominent figures on the international design scene took part, such as Ma Yansong, founding partner of MAD Architects; Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator, Architecture & Design, Director, Research & Development at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA); André Fu, founder of André Fu Studio and André Fu Living; Wu Bin, designer and architect, founder of W.DESIGN; Aldo Cibic, designer and architect; Matilde Cassani, artist and architect; Marva Griffin Wilshire, curator and founder of SaloneSatellite, Annalisa Rosso, Editorial Director & Cultural Events Advisor of the Salone del Mobile.Milano; Feng Cao, founder of the 20C Gallery, collector and aesthetic communicator. In addition, with a view to increasingly conscious sustainability, chairs created by designer Lukas Weg for Supersalone were made available for the guests to sit on.

The event celebrated the uniqueness of Made in Italy, featuring 65 iconic Italian furnishing products by 36 companies: Antonio Lupi, Artemide, Barovier&Toso, B&B Italia, Baxter, Caccaro, Davide Groppi, Desalto, Edra, Ethimo, Flexform, Flos, Flou, Frigerio, Gessi, Glas Italia, Kartell, Living Divani, Martinelli Luce, Mattiazzi, Meridiani, Molteni&C, Nardi, Pinetti, Poliform, Porada, Porro, Riva 1920, Rugiano, Saba Italia, Scavolini, Tacchini Italia, Technogym, Turri, Villari and Visionnaire.

“The role of the Salone is to support companies in accelerating their business, but it is also to contribute to the correct positioning of Made in Italy design on the global scene," said Maria Porro, President of the Salone del Mobile.Milano. "Choosing a partnership with a leading fair specialising in the culture of art and the culture of design was crucial for underscoring the heritage of Italian design in China and also for stimulating a fruitful dialogue, an exchange. This is why we also hosted a programme of talks inside the space. The Orbit's Orbit is a complex project that certainly puts the product in the foreground, which is the key to opening up this market, but without neglecting all the other aspects: narrating the cultural dimension and narrating the value of companies. It does so in a creative way, using art as a real medium."

“The installation dialogues with The Orbit building in an almost literal way: it is in fact organised in orbits. The ritualistic idea that architect Thomas Heatherwick had in mind was emphasised by an interior that plays out in concentric circles, where visitors move freely, coming across all the furniture in the exhibition. To further emphasise this concept, the viewer is sometimes surprised by the presence of the dancers crossing the space, becoming the backdrop to the furnishings themselves," explained Matilde Cassani.

The SaloneSatellite Permanent Collection celebrates its 25th anniversary with its debut in Hong Kong

As part of the celebrations marking the 25th anniversary of SaloneSatellite, part of the event’s precious Permanent Collection travelled to Hong Kong for the SaloneSatellite Permanent Collection 1998-2024 Exhibition. The exhibition, held at the Arts Pavilion West Kowloon, in the West Kowloon Cultural District, from 11th to 21st November, featured more than one hundred pieces from among the over 360 held at the Artwood Academy - ITS Rosario Messina Foundation Wood-Furnishing Training Centre at Lentate sul Seveso.

The exhibition was organised at the request of IDFFHK International Design Furniture Fair Hong Kong and the Designworks Foundation and was curated by Marva Griffin Wilshire, Founder and Curator SaloneSatellite and Ambassador of International Relations of the Salone del Mobile.Milano, with her team and the architect Ricardo Bello Dias, the artistic spirit behind all the SaloneSatellite installations from the first edition onwards, who also designed the layout and graphics, with the support of Hariadna Pinate, architect at Studio Bello Dias.

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Marva Griffin Willshire had this to say: "SaloneSatellite is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, with the participation of more than 14,000 young people and over 350 design schools and universities. Manlio Armellini and I decided to offer schools a free space to which they could all bring a selection of their own graduating students who could apply to exhibit at SaloneSatellite the following years. This project proved extremely successful, as their aim was to make contact with the production world, with Italian and international furnishing manufacturers. This exhibition represents the fruit of this long-running project, with which the Salone del Mobile.Milano is sending a clear message to the world: the major contribution it makes to the new generations, which represent the future of the industry.”

The journey of the Salone del Mobile.Milano continues: in the coming months, the event will appear in the main European and international capitals with Salone, Milano and Beyond, the promotional tour for the 63rd edition, scheduled from 8th to 13th April 2025.