Salone del Mobile has announced new updates for the upcoming “supersalone” event in Milan from September 5-10. The 2021 Salone show will open with an emphasis on safety, design transversality and green commitment by recycling the installations to avoid 1.2 kilograms of CO2 being pumped into the atmosphere.
The event will feature more than 423 brands and 50 independent designers, 170 projects from 48 international design schools, 20 of the most influential figures on the creative scene today, 110 Compasso d’Oro award-winning chairs, five chefs, and six films selected by the MDFF and 200 trees from Forestami. The Salone’s digital platform will provide an opportunity to follow the events both in person and virtually.
Curated by Stefano Boeri, the event also includes an international team of co-designers: Andrea Caputo, Maria Cristina Didero, Anniina Koivu, Lukas Wegwerth, Marco Ferrari and Elisa Pasqual of Studio Folder along with Giorgio Donà, co-founder and director of Stefano Boeri Interiors.
Musashino Art University. Image credit: Yunosuke Ishibashi
One of the special “supersalone” exhibitions will be The Lost Graduation Show, curated by Anniina Koivu, showcasing 170 projects from students who graduated between 2020 and 2021, hailing from 48 design schools in 22 different countries in all five continents. A first in the history of the Salone that will involve every sector of furniture design and more besides. Incursions into the world of mobility, inclusive, medical and sports design, research into materials and design sustainability will map out the status quo of the entire sector.
The exhibition Take Your Seat / Prendi Posizione – Solitude and Conviviality of the Chair / Solitudine e Convivialità della Sedia, curated by Nina Bassoli in partnership with ADI / Compasso d’Oro Award, will feature 30 Compasso d’Oro award-winning chairs and more than 80 chairs that have gained honourable mentions ranged around the four “supersalone” pavilions. The exhibition will tell the story of the most iconic of all design objects, the chair, more capable of synthesising the value of good design than any other artefact.
Split into four themed sections, with the addition of an “extra” section at the ADI Design Museum – the ideal end or start point to the visit – it will illustrate just how design has harnessed languages and content throughout the great changes in society and how it has managed to respond to new cultural paradigms with new inventions.
Devised by Maria Cristina Didero, the “supersalone” programme will be packed with conversations, talks and lectures by designers, architects, artists, scholars and managers from Humberto Campana to Bjarke Ingels, Carsten Höller, Paola Pivi, Beatriz Colomina, Cecilia Alemani, Formafantasma and Philippe Malouin.
The Identità Golose Food Court is a new bespoke concept tailormade for “supersalone,” conceived as an integral part of the visitor experience and an opportunity to savour the original recipes of some of the greatest Italian chefs and artisans, including Carlo Cracco with pastry chef Marco Pedron, Massimo Bottura with the workshop Il Tortellante, Michelin star chefs Cristina Bowerman and Matias Perdomo, Eugenio Boer, the Italo-Dutch chef renowned for the international influences that he weaves into his cuisine, as well as Renato Bosco, considered one of the greatest master of pizza, the great ice-cream maker Paolo Brunelli and Andrea Besuschio, who has been ranked among the top 10 best pastry chefs in Italy for years.
Salone del Mobile will venture beyond the confines of the Rho Fairgrounds to underscore and valorise its deep ties with Milan and, in the spirit of increasing openness to the exchange and circulation of ideas, culture and creativity, will reinforce its dialogue with Triennale Milano, the city hub of “supersalone.” Triennale will be marking the occasion with Il Salone / La Città (The Salone / The City), an exhibition conceived by the Triennale Museum of Italian Design for the Salone del Mobile.Milano and curated by Mario Piazza. The exhibition will narrate the cultural events held in the city by the Salone that, over the years, have communicated design to its fans. A spectacular show that will draw on the archives of Triennale Milano and the Salone del Mobile.Milano.
With circularity and sustainability uppermost, all the materials and components used in the installation designed by Andrea Caputo – long parallel sets, designed for the specific goods categories, and the communal areas such as the Food Courts, arenas and lounges designed by Stefano Boeri Interiors – have been devised in collaboration with Lukas Wegwerth to be dismantled and reused.
The same goes for the bricks used in The Lost Graduation Show installation, which are all reusable; all the arenas, benches and seating will be “dry” mounted and can therefore be disassembled and used again at different times and in different contexts.
The trees supplied by Forestami will underscore the green credentials of “supersalone” with an ad hoc project that provides for a “forest” of around 100 trees through which the turnstiles at the East Gate entrance can be accessed. Another 100 tall trees will lead visitors into the various exhibition areas and living areas dedicated to relaxation. The selected trees – lime, ash, oak, flowering plum trees – will subsequently be planted in Milan’s metropolitan area.
For more information, visit: https://www.salonemilano.it/en
