Milano Design Week, 5 things to see today / 4

In this Fuorisalone where imagination certainly does not abound and is especially in short supply as one gets approaching the city center, the Statale might appear almost like the mirage of an oasis in the desert of ideas. In this chaotic design amusement park, long disdained by design gaga, the magniloquence goes hand in hand with entropy, in a sensory vortex that brings one back as if by magic to the pre-2020 fuorisalonic splendors the visitor who crosses the entrance of the Filarete cloister. Great installations, big names (Lissoni, De Lucchi, Hadid, Branzi, Embt, and these are just the most striking ones), and especially big brands. Many of the big installations of this Fuorisalone are there, including the walkway of innocent pipes overlooking the gherkin trunk signed AMDL, plus two labyrinths, one verdant and anxiogenic one by Galiotto for Nardi, then the all-mirrored one by Lissoni for Amazon, because it already wasn’t hot enough: viewed from above, the maze reveals itself as a repeat of the orange logo of the giant of Jeff Bezos, which looks like an arrow, is actually a smiley.
A.S.

871 is the number of days that have passed since the public presentation of the design and fashion brand La Manufacture, a meeting point between French and Italian craft and living cultures. The brand, after the toughest time of the pandemic, is thus presenting itself for the first time at the Milanese design event. For the occasion, Luca Nichetto, in the role of artistic director, curated "871 days, 50 products, 17 designers and 1 single color," an exhibition that unfolds in the magnificent rooms of the Poldi Pezzoli house-museum. There are 17 designers involved in designing the first collection and 50 products that guide visitors through color. The shade of orange chosen is taken from construction site bibs and is meant to metaphorically associate La Manufacture with an open, creative and multicultural construction site. Here, pieces by Neri&Hu and Nendo, Elena Salmistraro and Front, among others, dialogue with the Orangerie overlooking the garden and the permanent collection of the Poldi Pezzoli, as well as with the exhibition of artist Nicolas Party. 
G.R.

With “Twenty”, Tom Dixon celebrates two decades of “global design empire” and as many Saloni and Fuorisaloni, the only place, he explains, where a new product is worth launching. The exhibition in the halls of the neoclassical Palazzo Serbelloni, home of the historic auction house Sotheby’s, however, looks to a sustainable and ecological future. Alongside the Mirror Ball (the first product launched in 2002 now repurposed in recycled polycarbonate), we find the ultra-lightweight aluminum Hydro chair, mycelium sculptures, sculptural cork furniture, and a lounge chair made from the algae that infest the shores of Jutland. There is even a chair designed for the underwater seabed: capable of absorbing carbon dioxide and regenerating coral reefs, it is submerged in a secret location in the Bahamas. For when – who knows – we will have to adapt to living and producing underwater. Until then, as Dixon wryly pointed out, better to stay on the beach. In the last room, some historic design pieces that will soon be auctioned off (June 21-27) by Sotheby’s, including Gio Ponti’s Proteo table lamp (1960). Reiterating, if any were needed, that the main key to the sustainability of a piece of furniture is its ability to last forever. 
E.S.

In Japanese, yama means mount and moto book. This explains the name of the handbag and small leather goods brand Montbook, headed by Mr. Yamamoto and, in its current guise, the result of his 2019 meeting with Giulio Iacchetti. It was originally an artisan workshop-founded more than 70 years ago-concentrated only on the production of the traditional randoseru backpack for elementary school students, but they wanted to open up to a wider audience, always favoring the “handmade.” The Iacchetti studio studied branding and corporate image, as well as designing the series of bags and accessories (nine items so far) to which is added this year a mini-reporter bag designed for the male world. This small rounded bag, the Baltea Bag, is a symbol of the union of Japanese craftsmanship and Italian creativity. It is inspired by the giberna, the leather case typical of the carabinieri weapon. “At firs” they couldn’t make the giberna,” says Iacchetti, “but then an artisan had the intuition to use a technique he learned when making shoes. There is nothing more local and simultaneously global like craftsmanship.”
L.M.

On the bright high floor of the Herzog & de Meuron-designed building, the event organized by the Korea Craft and design Foundation showcases, with an evocative and dreamlike installation, the foundations of the Earth, a craftsmanship inspired by nature that seeks to return to its simple beauty. The value of high-quality craftsmanship using natural materials then becomes concrete matter in the works of three Italian designers-Michede De Lucchi, Francesco Faccin, and Mario Trimarchi-chosen for their approach to design, who identified a technique and worked in collaboration with a Korean craftsman. De Lucchi the chose wood and lacquer for his stitched sculptures, Trimarchi bronze for his sculptures. Faccin decided on weaving to make two lamps-his Pepe completely covered with colored fibers-and a hat inspired by the traditional gat of Korean monks (originally made of horsehair) but here decomposable into its two parts and usable as a fruit holder and container. The fibers are in two colors, differentiating interior and exterior; a carabiner, pencil or any natural element that is at hand can be used to attach the two parts. At the end of the exhibition, the three designers' objects will be auctioned off.
L.M.

Pepa, Francesco Faccin