Milano Design Week 2024. What to see, day 1

A major exhibition opened to the public at the Palazzo Arese Borromeo in Cesano Maderno, on the occasion of the Salone del Mobile 2024. Olivetti. Storie da una collezione (Olivetti. Stories from a Collection) delves into the legendary events of Olivetti through a specific angle never attempted before: communication graphics. The cue is the research carried out by Sergio Polano, an architectural historian, and Alessandro Santero, an antiquarian bookseller, which has already flowed into the volume published by Ronzani Editore. The exhibition, under the art direction of Giorgio Cedolin, brings together hundreds of examples of graphic and advertising materials made by Olivetti - brochures, instruction booklets, company books, posters, letterheads, pamphlets - alongside typewriters and other company products. The monumental Baroque rooms of the aristocratic palace are a worthy setting for this multi-stage journey through the wonders of graphic and product design of the second half of the 20th century. A.B.

For the 2024 Design Week, Ikea is back to the Visconti Pavilion in via Tortona. The Swedish brand offers a rich and balanced mix of product presentation and multi-sensory experience. 1st (First) is the title of the exhibition, dedicated to the objects and emotions of the first home and divided into several sections. The most spectacular is the large elevated platform in the center of the hangar. Soft mattresses, duvets and pillows are lined up on it, inviting the public to pause, relax and even fall asleep. From here, a habitable staircase descends to the dancefloor, the true heart of the pavilion, which will host musical events, each night dedicated to a specific genre related to the city of Milan. A.B.

From the living room to the bathroom: Stefan Diez interprets the trend that is transforming the bathroom into an environment to be lived in, in which we can spend time taking care of ourselves. The e15-Kaldewei Collection presents a series of bathroom furniture and accessories in oak and water-repellent leather. A stool, a bench, a footboard and a bathtub bridge in oiled oak fulfil various functions. They are complemented by practical and intelligent accessories: a bag and a towel loop, which can be magnetically attached to the bathtub rim. The warm, natural surfaces of the e15-Kaldewei Collection thus add a touch of warmth to the bathroom, creating an interesting dialogue with Kaldewei's titanium steel enamel products, which are offered in a unique colour palette.

This year, the counter-Salone of Grima and Ciuffi brings the Fuorisalone outside Milan, to Brianza, epicenter of the Italian furniture system. It does it moving into two very different villas, separated by a few minutes' walk (and the railway). The larger and older one is the Bagatti Valsecchi: don't miss the underground tunnel and the icehouse. More coherent and enjoyable is the exhibition in the stunning villa designed by Osvaldo Borsani, silver medal at the V Triennale and cofounder of Tecno, for himself and his family. The fireplace in the living room is by Lucio Fontana, and the installation not to be missed is by Objects of Common Interest in the basement. A.S.

Alcova
Villa Borsani, Via Umberto I, 148, Varedo
Villa Bagatti Valsecchi, Via Vittorio Emanuele II, 48, Varedo
15-21 April 2024, h. 11-19
Photo Daniele Ratti

Zaventen Ateliers, the Brussels-born cluster celebrating the diversity of inspirations, techniques and aesthetics of collectible design, had made its massive debut at Design Week 2022, in the abandoned Necchi facilities in Baranzate. This year it returns, twice as large, in a new slightly occupied space, this time on the road Linate – the project has won the Van De Velde prize, bringing a recognition of Flemish culture to a multicultural reality, curator Lionel Jadot proudly reminds us.  At the end of the courtyard, cars flow by on the highway, and between the two large and not-so-far-away sheds, the spirit of a real off-fair project, of a design project, comes alive again. The relentless program of events and performances does not overshadow the content, stretching across the research on one-piece resins, on light installations, on metal-woven tapestries, on encounters between industrial techniques, ready-mades and finesse of cultured crafts applied to one-off projects. G.C.

Crossing the symbolic curtain of an urban facade designed by Marco Zanuso (with artist Gianni Dova) overlooking the Leonardesque Darsena, after a Corridor signed by a pairing that immediately evokes the history of Italian and international design – the panels by Nathalie du Pasquier for Abet – two sinuous ramps lead to discover a new spot in the geographies of the Fuorisalone, the space of a modern Milan: a garage that grew up between the 1930s and 1940s, inspired by Pier Luigi Nervi's structures. Inside, the cluster curated by Mosca Partners brings together between walls of hemp blocks (a project by Park Associati, an unexpected dialogue with concrete and prefabs in the garage) a vast panorama, between the contemporary domesticity of Neri&Hu’s furnishings for StellarWorks, the rigorously abstract geometries of Pulkra, the research on natural Andean textiles by Illaripuna, and the collaboration with the workshop led by Michele De Lucchi, Francesca Balena Arista and Marco De Santi for Politecnico di Milano. G.C.

The bioecological space created by Paola Lenti with Stefano Mancuso in Dergano, once again in an unusual area for Milan's design week atlas, hosts nendo: whispers of nature, the solo show of Japanese designer Oki Sato and his studio, 20 years after their debut at Fuorisalone. The "whispers of nature" are crystallized minimal images, “very small images, small ideas, small happenings”, Sato told us, which become objects – a series of sculptural basins born from a passing rain, a shelves system from clustered clouds – and with them we discover the experiments Sato continually pursues, from patterns created with dip dyes, to the "scientific" re-exploration of terrazzo furniture taking us back to the connection between Memphis and Shiro Kuramata. G.C.

Ronan Bouroullec’s highly refined ceramics and furniture are on display at via Cernaia’s Casa Mutina. The absolute star, and potentially the most innovative piece, is the “Adagio” series, which intersects modular elements with a slightly triangular cross-section, to simulate an actual weaving. The “Osso” and “Bottone” ceramics, for indoor and outdoor use, and a series of unusual vases and candelabras, composed of elementary shapes of different scales, are also newly launched. The exhibition continues in the open space basement and in the garden adjacent to the gallery. This is conceived as a space for meeting and relaxing, enriched by the outdoor furniture designed by Bouroullec with his brother Erwan for Hay, of simple elegance. A.B.