PREVIEW – SALONE DEL MOBILE 2021
supersalone

Architect Andrea Caputo has designed a recyclable wooden structure for the "supersalone", which will guide the visitors' paths at the Milan exhibition centre like a large design library and offer manufacturers the opportunity to present their products: Instead of being arranged on a surface to form living worlds, as has been the case in the past, the individual new products will be presented hanging flexibly on the walls. QR codes will provide links to further information, such as individual offers. The "supersalone" will also be open to the public during the event period from 5 to 10 September 2021 in order to give end consumers interested in buying the opportunity to inform themselves comprehensively about the product innovations of the last 18 months and to get in touch with the manufacturers directly via the contact option. In addition to the "supersalone", further cultural offers are planned, which will depict current developments in design as well as presentations on design history and will serve as a meeting point – as in the form of spacious lounges, tours and live music events. Works by up-and-coming designers will also be on show. Even the prelude to the fairgrounds sets a green focus: as part of the Forestami urban reforestation project, 200 trees will be set up in the reception area of the fair at the East Gate, which will be planted in the Milan urban area after the event.

In the city, in addition to the individual offers of the showrooms, visitors can expect the events of the Fuorisalone under the theme "Forms of Living": circular design, sustainability and well-being are central themes. At the same time, numerous digital offers will provide a further accompanying programme and include the international public, who partly will not be able to travel to Milan this year due to the ongoing worldwide pandemic. In its entirety, the special edition of the Salone del Mobile presents itself as a comprehensive cultural event that shows a forward-looking new orientation. The creative team headed by Stefano Boeri and Giorgio Donà includes the Berlin designer Lukas Wegwerth and the curators Maria Cristina Didero, Anniina Koivu as well as Marco Ferrari and Elisa Pasqual from the visual research agency Studio Folder, who already created the exhibition design for the exhibition "Broken Nature" at the Triennale Milano in 2019. Together, they have created the Super Salone in a remarkably short period of time after the resignation of the fair's president Claudio Luti in mid-April.

“The current trend reassesses the centrality of our homes and the need to invest in the places in which we live, to rethink private and communal spaces by designing durable furnishing, based on the new logistics triggered by the current situation. The September event will be an invaluable opportunity for the companies to present their 2021 products that have not yet been exhibited. At a time of huge change, the ability to reinvent will be the main driver of this unique edition which, thanks to tremendous teamwork, will be the event that signals not just the recovery of our sector, but that of the country as a whole. A live, shared event at last, an opportunity for the design sector to focus all its energies on best expressing the quality that sets it apart. Quality that needs to be experienced. We have learned over the last few months that we can no longer do without a digital presence, and the innovative Salone platform will be a tremendous opportunity for the companies, a new medium designed not just for presenting products, but for offering services, underpinning and closely interacting with the physical event, a great shared home in which Made in Italy design can unveil its ongoing research and innovation to the world", Maria Porro, President of Assarredo, commented. (am)