Arts & Culture
Originally published on Tuesday, 28th April 2009
Tuesday April 28: Milan Furniture Fair
UJ’s style blogger, Paul Smith, journeys out to Milan’s Furniture Fair to discover the latest talent in art and design, and indulges in some window dressing of his own.
I have just been in Milan for the Milan Furniture Fair as I was asked to curate a space for the British Consulate and British Trade & Investment in the beautiful Villa Reale. It is a temporary space called The Design Embassy, created as a meeting and work place for visitors to the Milan Furniture Fair, as well as showcasing a selection of British Design products, a short film showing British Design Achievements from the past and the present, and ‘my room’.
The room I was given is magnificent, overlooking a park with lots of green outside through full height windows. The idea I had was to put something that was really wrong into the space. I chose flowers as the feature to link in with the garden using a selection of my photographs printed onto fabric and used as curtains. The contrast of the classic room against the kitsch curtains seemed to work very well; in fact the boss of the Villa Reale, who was initially unsure about us taking down his classic curtains, has now asked if he can keep ours.
As the furniture fair is about new ideas, furniture and product, I selected some British designed furniture from the company Moroso to put into the space. I used furniture by designers Ron Arrad, Tord Boontje and Ross Lovegrove, but then added 19th Century dark wood chairs covered in my photographic prints.
Milan always embraces the furniture fair in a big way as it is one of the most important fairs that the city hosts. The effort is not restricted to showrooms, and can be seen spilling out onto the streets.
Milan Furniture Fair Photos
Whilst in Milan I had a quick look at some of the exhibitions. Moroso, one of the very hot companies now, full of energy and ideas, have a superb display in their showroom. The whole new collection has a strong African influence and includes designs from Ayse Birsel & Bibi Seck, Tord Boontje, Ron Arad, Patricia Urquiola, Philippe Bestenheider, Aissa Dionne, Stephen Burks, Boubacar Toure Mandemory, David Adjaye, Fathi Hassan and Soly Cisse.
