The most relevant of the second day of Milan Design Week 2021
Grand DesignRaawii pottery, neo art nouveau and a thoroughly eclectic home. All this and more happened on day 2 of Milan Design Week 2021.
By Marta Galli, Elisa Mencarelli and Ruben Modigliani
At Milan Design Week 2021 there's a holiday feel, but the pace is lively. After so much time of pandemic and solical distancing, the lines for the star exhibitions are back (we had almost forgotten them). Design Week insiders (among others) exchange tips on their must-sees. These are our recommendations for the second day, seen and approved by AD.
"What do I like about this edition of Design Week Milan? There is a rediscovered human warmth," says Luca Nichetto over an espresso at 10am. We start the second day of Milan Design Week by having breakfast with the designer in the historic Cova patisserie on Via Montenapoleone. Outside are the windows of the Hermès store, a theater full of mythological quotes created by the designer himself: fashion is fascinated by design's ability to imagine new worlds. Meanwhile, through the streets and showrooms, a slew of idea-seeking visitors (some even wearing Bermuda shorts and fresh tans, it's the start of Italy's hot September!) add to the buzz of the event. The search for beauty has just begun.
Nina (Yashar), the lady of design
On the outskirts of Milan, in a former industrial space, is Nilufar Depot, the XL exhibition space for a must-see exhibit. The central space is populated by the Matacubi functional sculptures by the artist Pietro Consagra (they can be used as benches) made from 1985; in the basement, Khaled El Mays's "neo-Tiki" furniture dialogues lively with Federica Perazzoli's textile frescoes. On the other floors, we find a formidable mix of avant-garde and masters of the past. And at the top of the building is a space dedicated to the rising star of 3D design, Andrés Reisinger.
With omar/raawii and Kvadrat by Peter Saville, the design is unconventional
If there is something that unites Omar Sosa, founder of Apartamento magazine, with Peter Saville, creator of memorable album covers such as Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures, it is that they both come from the world of graphics and today are making their debut as designers of product. Saville's collaborations with Kvadrat for the Technicolor textile collection, inspired by the wool of sheep from the English countryside, together with Sosa's raawii stackable ceramics represent a different way of conceiving design that opens up new creative horizons.
Hermès transforms an (indoor) ball court into a world of its own
Bathed in a golden twilight, five "houses" decorated with colorful geometric designs rest on a bed of orange sand (a spectacular set designed by Charlotte Macaux Perelman and produced by a team of set designers who work for La Scala). Inside this small town, we find objects and fabrics for a home of pure refinement. One for all: the Sillage armchair - designed by Bijoy Jain of Studio Mumbai - made of wood covered in papier-mâché, "tattooed" with fine lines like a tribal totem.
Marcin Rusak's Neo Art Nouveau
"While the world stood still, the dynamic process of research and creation was transformed into a slow and controlled process of growth, a prosperous environment in which open endless possibilities," says Marcin Rusak. The Polish artist debuts in Milan with the solo exhibition Práctica Unnatural**, curated by Federica Sala, in which an almost art nouveau aesthetic —vegetable matter covered in metal or resin— is supported by a scientific basis. He brings to Ordet's exhibition a great ecosystem in which the evolutionary process, although presented in its decline, opens up to new metamorphoses.
Home de Toiletpaper: irony is served
A narrow blue façade leans out from 4 Via Balzaretti. Inside, on the three floors of the house-studio, the irreverent and colorful world of Seletti and Toiletpaper unfolds, presenting their Home collection for the first time, an ode to maximalism: tables in the shape of bars of soap, prints of animals and even chickens that roam the garden. Stefano Seletti welcomes us in person. "Here they are not clients, but guests at a meal for a few close friends." There is no shortage of ironic objects for the table during lunch on the terrace. The menu consists of frog burgers, "great insult" tiramisu, and rivers of Spritz coffee. Needless to say, it's the most eclectic banquet of Design Week.
Article originally published in AD Italia.
