From September 5 to 29, 2024, Salone del Mobile.Milano returns to New York with a special event that pays homage to the icons and new proposals of 23 Made in Italy brands.

As a partner of the New York Department Store Bloomingdale’s,on September 4, 2024, the Salone del Mobile.Milano will inaugurate the event “Italian Design: from Classic to Contemporary” dedicated to Made in Italy, part of the project “From Italy, With Love”, which will celebrate Italian culture, luxury and art through a series of exhibitions and activities. Wanting to celebrate Italy and its cultural wealth, Bloomingdale’s has identified the Salone del Mobile as the ideal partner – in terms of credibility and authority – to whom it can entrust a special exhibition dedicated to Italian furniture production, curated by architect Ferruccio Laviani who, in the installation, was inspired by the metaphysical squares of Giorgio de Chirico.

“It is always a thrill to return to New York, the heart of the American market: it is here that the Salone meets a constantly evolving design community and for which it feels it is a point of reference in terms of design culture, creativity and the economy of the sector. The invitation from Bloomingdale’s, which shares with the Salone a particular capacity for vision, resourcefulness and commitment to enhancing the heritage of the brands it hosts, allows us to expand and strengthen connections with a market that is fundamental for Made in Italy. The event will be an imaginative statement that will cross the space with a parade of iconic products, conceived as a single installation; it will bring together art, architecture, aesthetics and Italian production, thanks to the refined scenography designed by Ferruccio Laviani, and will tell our story of innovation and tradition through a program of talks that aim to bring the American public closer to the world of Italian production. We will thus begin the new international tour of the Salone del Mobile: a roadshow made up of new formats aimed at strengthening the image of the Salone as a catalyst for transformation, avant-garde and cultural innovation”. Maria Porro concludes: “Italian Design: from Classic to Contemporary will reflect that very particular and very glam sparkle that is typical of Made in Italy”.

Maria Porro, President of the Salone del Mobile.Milano

ITALIAN DESIGN: FROM CLASSIC TO CONTEMPORARY

The project, curated by architect Ferruccio Laviani, will see the creation of a scenography, balanced between artistic installation and experiential pop-up, in which icons of Italian design will be inserted, which tell a story of ingenuity, industrial production of excellence and high craftsmanship. The objects on display were chosen with a curatorial eye by architect Laviani from those present in the catalogues of a selection of brands that best express the value and allure of Italian furniture production – Artemide, Edra, Flexform, Flou, Foscarini, Frigerio, Gallotti&Radice, Gessi, Kartell, Lema, Living Divani, Minotti, Molteni&C, Oluce, Porro, Riva 1920, Scavolini, Sigma L2, Tacchini, Technogym, Turri, Villari, Visionnaire.

Located on the sixth floor of the store, in the Home/Furnishing department, the set will be inspired by the squares of Giorgio de Chirico – an Italian painter and sculptor, the initiator of “metaphysical” painting, characterized by fantastic suggestions and combinations of disparate objects in a space governed by fifteenth-century perspective, lit up by modern colors, with surprising associations of senses and ideas –, transforming the exhibition space into an immersive experience capable of enhancing the heritage of the Salone, the design capacity and creativity of its exhibitors. Fascinated by the metaphysics of de Chirico’s paintings, Laviani transforms the master’s squares and buildings – which are typically Italian and immediately attributable to the Bel Paese – into wooden screens that act as backdrops for the furniture products exhibited and described through the voice of the Salone del Mobile. These screens, while remaining two-dimensional, acquire volume, like the wooden sculptures, made only of silhouettes and thicknesses, of another famous contemporary Italian sculptor and set designer, Mario Ceroli. In the set design, Laviani also pays homage to two other Italian talents: Luca Ronconi, one of the most significant figures of the Italian theater of the second half of the twentieth century for the great experimentation and innovation in the staging, and to Achille Castiglioni, one of the most famous representatives and founders of Italian design.

“To avoid being too descriptive or forcedly iconographic, I added a touch of contemporaneity and radicalism to the graphic language of the set. The radical movement has revolutionized design since the 1960s, precisely in the years in which the Salone del Mobile.Milano was born, creating new impulses and expressive languages. The works of Keiichi Tanaami and the illustrations of “Yellow Submarine” by George Dunning, with the drawings of Heinz Edelmann, when they meet the squares of de Chirico, give life to a unique and modern image. In this image, the monuments of the squares are the very objects of design that I have chosen from the catalogues of the most representative brands of Made in Italy, furnishings that today are icons of our daily life, worthy of being displayed on a pedestal.

Ferruccio Laviani

CONVERSATIONS ABPOUT ITALIAN DESIGN

Throughout the month of September, as part of the “From Italy, With Love” project, Bloomingdale’s will host weekly events aimed at activating both the New York professional community and design lovers, with a rich program of talks and appointments that will see the participation of leading figures in the national and international panorama of living and will offer unique opportunities to learn about and experience Italian furniture production.

The program of talks, entitled “Conversations about Italian Design” and curated by Annalisa Rosso, Editorial Director & Cultural Events Advisor of the Salone, will open on September 4 with a meeting featuring Maria Porro, President of the Salone del Mobile.Milano, Kelley Carter, Bloomingdale’s Fashion Director, Marva Griffin Wilshire, Curator and Founder of SaloneSatellite and architect Ferruccio Laviani, who, under the direction of Felix Burrichter, founder of PIN-UP magazine, will discuss the heritage of values, experiences and information that the Salone del Mobile puts into play as a strategic resource to become a bearer of evolution and the role of Italian furniture companies in the global market. On September 11, Eleni Petaloti, co-founder of Objects of Common Interest, will discuss with Qiyao Li, Associate Principal at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Italian design as an international reference and the future prospects of the sector, assisted by Ingrid Abramovitch, Executive Editor of ELLE DECOR. Finally, on September 18, artist Francesco Simeti together with Stefano Giussani, Partner & COO Lissoni Architecture New York will explore the relationship between contemporary design and classical Italian culture, discussing the evolution of living space and commenting on Ferruccio Laviani’s installation, moderated by Wendy Goodman, design editor of NEW YORK magazine.