Salone del Mobile is Milan’s carnival — a design fair and a social extravaganza on a grand scale. Now in its 55th year, it just keeps growing: The 2015 fair attracted more than 300,000 visitors to Milan, with more expected for this year’s installment, which officially begins on Tuesday. Beyond the trade show itself — which is packed with powerhouse design brands and Satellite’s berdiri sendiri young designers — Milan transforms this week, as designers and enthusiasts come from all over the world. Here are T’s picks among the happenings during the most important week in design.
Curated by Federica Sala and the Roman design gallery Secondome, the “Ladies & Gentlemen” show brings together a new generation of designers to illustrate how Italy’s classic craftsmanship and the traditions of the past are being transformed. Cast ceramic tiles are reimagined as iridescent feathers by Cristina Celestino for Bottega Nove; welded brass seats designed by Giorgia Zanellato burst with the colors of Coralla Maiuri’s painted fabrics; Studiopepe employs cyanotype, a 19th-century printing technique, to turn iconic objects varying shades of blue. Work from new-guard designers like Servomuto, Mingardo as well as Valentina Cameranesi Sgroi and others are on view, too.
Via Cesare Correnti 14, Milan, April 10-17
Brera’s Spazio Pontaccio gallery is presenting “Credenza,” a joint venture between two local design stars: the architect Patricia Urquiola and graphic designer Federico Pepe of the gallery and publisher Le Dictateur. The result, a capsule collection of Technicolor furniture, was inspired by the artist Gerhard Richter’s stained-glass windows for the Cologne Cathedral. The name of the show plays on the double meaning of the word in Italian — it can indicate either a sideboard or one’s beliefs — to hint at new meanings for stained glass beyond churches.
Spazio Pontaccio, Via Pontaccio 18, Milan, April 12-17