The Salone Satellite is back
Marva Griffin at Collezione Permanente, Salone Satellite. Ph. Rossella Papetti
Here we go! From the new location in pavilions 1 and 3 at the Rho Trade Fair site, the SaloneSatellite is also ready to open its doors with its 23rd edition
We would love to tell you all about their stories and their projects one by one. But space forbids, there are so many. And so the invitation to return to the event reserved for designers under 35, after a two-year break, is even more pressing. All the more so because admission, through Cargo 3 of the Rho Trade Fair site, is free and open to all from 7 to 12 June. So it’s really easy to get to know them through their products never shown before and meet them arranged in the stands that also bring together the international collectives (Belgium is Design, Design Week Lagos, Young Balkan Designers) that won the last foreign editions, in Moscow and Shanghai, held in 2019, and the truly budding designers presented by the schools and universities taking part.
A variegated multitude in creativity, languages and origins comes together in an exhibition layout, curated as usual by Ricardo Bello Dias, that converges on numerous points of encounter. Starting from the space devoted to the exhibition (Pavilion 1) of the projects nominated for the SaloneSatellite Award, 11th edition. The outcome of the decision of the International Jury will be known on Wednesday 8th, with the announcement to be made by Marva Griffin, the Event’s founder and the “godmother” since 1998 of many young talents. But the exhibition immediately offers an overview of the novelties presented by most of the designers and the design moods pervading the pavilions. This year, to prepare for what you’re about to see, or to better fix the ideas of the designers, an instrument has been added to the catalogue always available online. A special project brings together all the voices of the participants to offer an alternative guide to those who cannot see, in the edition presenting an all-around reflection on design without barriers.
SaloneSatellite, 1998, ph. Saverio Lombardi Vallauri
To the path between the stands has been added a “showcase” of new sustainable materials from selected research centers around the world. Two “piazzas” that invite you to pause and change the way you look at things, landscapes and people. And, finally, the Arena (Pavilion 3) where 3 conversations and a screening will take place. They were organized as a supplement and in-depth analysis of the theme for 2022: “Designing For Our Future Selves. Sustainability”. On the other stage there will be: the designer Yves Bèhar, founder of Fuse project and always active on the front of design for solidarity. The Director of the Institute of the Blind in Milan, Franco Lisi, with the architect Alberto Apostoli, designer of the Citadel of Wellness at Vigheffio, who will be discussing the social impact of design through the questions raised by Susanna Legrenzi. Instead, the design critic Alice Rawsthorn and the curator of the Department of Architecture and Design at the MoMA, Paola Antonelli, will reflect on the relationship between crisis, design and transformation through their Design Emergency project, from the Arena of Pavilion 15 (also streamed live). The program closes with the Foundation SOS – School of Sustainability, which together with Mario Cucinella Architects invites you to a presentation of the projects created in academic year 2021-23 to recount the novelties and visions for the future.
Another contribution to the various reflections comes from “GREEN GRADS. A special British initiative to promote new talent and care for the Planet”. Created by the editor of Design Exchange magazine, David Morris, for the exclusive preview at SaloneSatellite, the 25’ documentary narrates the results of the project of the same name conceived and directed by the design promoter and critic Barbara Chandler (who will present the work to the public) and co-directed by Michael Czerwinski to explore the “green ideas” that have sprung up at universities in the United Kingdom over the last two years. After the presentation on June 7th, a daily repeat is on the schedule.
As an extra, a particularly eagerly awaited event – not at the Trade Fair site in Rho, but in the heart of Brianza – is the discovery of the new pieces that have just entered the Permanent Collection of the SaloneSatellite. Established in 2018, it now holds over 300 items. These are objects and furnishings created as prototypes that then went into production. Following the initial intent, the exhibit design has been renewed with the rotation of the archived pieces and new ones added cyclically. The Collection is exhibited at the Auditorium dell'Art Wood / Academy in Lentate sul Seveso. The institute for training operators in the sector – from cabinetmakers to marketing experts – immediately appeared the ideal container for showing, through the objects that have made it, how the transition from idea to fulfillment takes place up all the way to appealing to entrepreneurs and the public. It stages the goal of the SaloneSatellite, which is to promote encounters between designers and the world of production in the wake of ever new ideas.
SaloneSatellite, 2019. Table by Mario Cucinella for Riva 1920 for the Italian Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Biennale. Ph. Ludovica Mangini
