Milan Design Week: A Danish Showcase at Salone del Mobile and Art Around Town

Milan’s Salone del Mobile has grown into the largest fair of its kind in the world, far surpassing its founding mission of showcasing Italian design, and instead becoming a platform for the showcase of over 13,000 global designers’ work. Taking place during what is known as Milan Design Week, the Italian city becomes a “living gallery,” playing host to a myriad presentations, installations and shows throughout its public and private spaces.

This year’s event, which runs from April 14-19, takes place in conjuction with multiple satellite design showcases, and we highlight some of the more noteworthy displays you can catch around town.

The Garden of Wonders

BE OPEN, Yelena Baturina’s international foundation whose mission is to foster design and creativity, will host The Gardens of Wonder: A Journey Through Scent at the Brera Botanical Gardens. For the show, the foundation enlisted the help of 8 designers—Tord Boontje, Fernando und Humberto Campana, Dimore Studio, Front, Jaime Hayon, Piero Lissoni, Nendo and Jean-Marie Massaud—who were tasked with “recreating” 8 now defunct fragrance brands such as Czech brand Waldes et Spol, French brand Guyla, British brand Boissard and Russian brand R.Koehler & Co.

 

The Gardens of Wonder runs at Orto Botanico di Brera, Milan, from April 13 – May 24, 2015.

 

A Stomaco Vuoto

Il Lazzaretto, a new gallery space in Milan celebrating its grand opening during Milan Design Week, will show A Stomaco Vuoto (On an Empty Stomach: Objects, Words and Projects on the Theme of Fasting)—an exhibition, as the name says, of works inspired by the concept of fasting, curated by DWA Studio. Artists including Patricia Urquiola, Luc Guy Beaussart, Studio Dessuant Bone, Andrea Q and Ferruccio Laviani have created physical interpretations of the delicate topic of fasting: from hollow dinnerware to a table set with food in a setup that changes light according to mood.

 

A Stomaco Vuoto runs at Il Lazzaretto gallery (Via Lazzaretto 15, Milan) from April 14-19, 2015

 

Spheres

German automaker BMW has enlisted the help of Swiss-Argentine designer Alfredo Häberli to create mobility-themed installations that will be shown during Milan Design Week with the purpose of exploring how humans will live and move in the future. In response, Haberli has created Spheres, which the press release describes as a “large-format, deliberately abstract object, the shape of which cites the lightness of forward motion and the design of which explores key values of future automobile design.” An apt description for a project which it being kept under tight wraps until its reveal next week.

 

BMW “Spheres” by Alfredo Häberli is on display at Area Sciesa Tre (Via Amatore Sciesa, 3, Milan) from April 15-19, 2015

 

Eat Shit!

Perhaps one of the most boldly titled shows on the schedule this year, Eat Shit! is Design of Academy Eindhoven’s showcase of their new curriculum Food Non Food. The Academy will show the work of the 18 students from the first class of the Food Non Food program as well as a selection of projects from alumni. The academic program, despite what its name might suggest, is not a cooking curriculum. As the prospectus explains, “[the program] has little to do with cooking and everything to do with systems, rituals and materials.” The focus of this exhibition, as you might have guessed, is… excrements. A selection of the students’ work is shown below.

And you will be able to do more than just see art: As a special treat for Eat Shit! audiences, food curator Lucas Mullié will present Infinite Sausage, a food-producing machine that will provide dinner to be enjoyed with beverages in the exhibition’s courtyard space.

 

 

 

 

Eat Shit! runs at Ventura Lambrate (Corner of Via G.Crespi and Via dei Canzi) from April 15-19, 2015

 

Fuha

Benetton’s “Fabrica” think-tank has teamed up with Daikin, the Japanese air/con maker for FUHA—The Expression of Air, an exhibition exploring “breathing” through “breathing” installations that address issues relating to breath, air, and water, in different ways.

 

FUHA will be on display at Foro Bonaparte 60, Milan from April 14-19, 2015.

 

Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art

The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art will exhibit the work of 45 architecture and design students and 36 new design graduates. In the exhibition, extending both outdoor and indoor, they will show their vision of what Danish design, lighting, furniture and architecture is all about in 2015. Furniture students have created individual seats in rattan, students of architectural lighting design are presenting large-scale lighting fixtures and the students from the Spatial Design, Perception and Detail programme have been responsible for the graphics and design of the exhibition, in collaboration with Danish architect Dorte Mandrup. Other works on display in the space includeion includes award-winning Danish game design, prosthetics for children and a wheelchair that can be mounted on skis, designed for the Danish Sitski Olympic athlete, Ulrik Nyvold, flexible LED lighting, Nordic production design, new banknotes and learning campaigns aimed at drone attacks.