What to see at Fuorisalone 2024

Milan Design Week is approaching and there are more and more events to attend (perhaps even too many for a seven-day experience). In this Milanese week – which goes beyond the city boundaries with Alcova at Villa Borsani and Villa Bagatti Valsecchi in Varedo – it is easy to get lost in Instagrammable installations and exhibitions without quality content. Precisely for these reasons, WeVux proposes a list of events you can’t miss during this edition of Fuorisalone. (Cover Isola Design Festival 2024)

Starting from the southern part of the city, there will be DOPO? space (Subway M3 line, Porto di Mare stop) presenting the project RUNAWAYS: through exhibitions, experimental spatial practices and a dedicated public program, the space will address the effects of Design Week on the ongoing housing crisis in Milan – one of the themes we talked about last year. Four designers will create temporary structures that will be inhabited by a community of runaways. The group, selected through an open call and coming from different disciplines, will receive hospitality in exchange for contributions or activities based on their skills and interests.

BASE Milano (Tortona area, M2 line, Porta Genova stop) will also investigate the same urgent theme of the housing crisis with a parallel project. The space will in fact present “The Convivial Laboratory – Camp”, a collective experiment that will propose a temporary cohabitation for a group of 20 participants in the cultural centre’s terrace from 12 to 23 April. BASE and DOPO? will propose an exchange of practices and moments of shared discussion on the topic. From 15 to 21 April 2024, We Will Design also returns to BASE Milano, the experimental laboratory platform that since 2021 has welcomed and promoted projects by designers from all over the world, schools, universities and international institutions.

Not far from BASE Milano, more precisely in the Darsena area, there will be Design Variations 2024, which will have as its new venue a 3,000-square-metre garage, an icon of modern architecture, located in the historic area of Milan. The installation is curated by Park Associati with a creative design of modular hemp-cement bricks that will be reused after the event.

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In the southern part of the city, in Piazza Olivetti (M3 line, Lodi stop), it will be possible to see the project ‘Linee d’Ombra – vivere la piazza’ by Alessandra Mauri and Giuliana Zoppis of Best UP, with the patronage of the Ministry for the Environment and Energy Security, the Municipality of Milan and ADI – Lombardy Delegation. The project aims to answer the question: “Why is shading vital in today’s cities?”, and it does so concretely by choosing a square in Milan – Piazza Olivetti – and through an event for the city with a functioning market, workshop-performances and moments of conviviality, scheduled from Friday 19 to Sunday 21 April.

Not far from Piazza Olivetti, at the Fondazione ICA space, Formafantasma will present La Casa Dentro, an exhibition comprising a series of furniture and light objects that explore themes of personal identity and collective memory. The works critically address the canons of Modernism, highlighting its gendered nature and rootedness in a conservative conception of masculinity.

Returning to the theme of living, The Glith Camp is a free campsite that will be set up in the football pitch of the ‘Enrico Cappelli Savorelli’ Sports Centre (Tibaldi area). Thanks to the collaboration with the Municipality of Milan and Milanosport, the Istituto Europeo di Design (IED) will contribute to making the Fuorisalone week accessible to young people from all over the world. The campsite will host up to 100 people and will be equipped with Ferrino tents, each one with a “perfect sleep kit” by Ikea Italia which, for the occasion, will provide everything needed to make rest and stay more comfortable.

TERRASZA, the new phygital platform exclusively dedicated to Outdoor Design presents the first edition of TERRASZA MILANO at the evocative Giardino di Alik Cavaliere (via E. De Amicis 17). An itinerant and international project to create a circuit of showrooms and events among the leading brands in the furnishing sector.

In the city centre, at Palazzo Clerici, Porsche presents the ‘Lines of Flight’ installation by the Numen/For Use design collective, a large suspended net to be climbed, a monumental interactive artwork inspired by the iconic houndstooth motif.

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At the Museo Bagatti Valsecchi (Via Gesù, M3 line, Montenapoleone stop) Formafantasma return together with Prada with the third edition of Prada Frames, from 14 to 16 April. “Being Home” examines the living environment as a framework to address contemporary challenges. The home is not merely a source of comfort; it acts as a shelter and an infrastructure of services. This constantly evolving space is also where socio-economic norms have historically been shaped. 

Isola Design Festival returns to the Fuorisalone with installations, events, workshops, live performances and talks hosted in over 40 locations, including 3 main hubs: Lampo Milano, WAO PL7 and Stecca 3.0 – and five exhibitions curated by Isola’s creative team led by Elif Resitoglu (creative director of Isola Design Group) and other guest curators. With the aim of connecting different cultures and countries, Isola Design Festival will also present at Galleria Bonelli (via Luigi Porro Lambertenghi 6) collaborations with partners from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, through the exhibition “Routes to Roots” conceived for Tanween (Ithra Creativity Conference) and “Anatolia” presented for the first time at Downtown Dubai – which we talked about here.

Other events at the Isola Design Festival include: KeepLife (via Confalonieri 21), which is back with the third call for “Bestiario”, a collection of furnishing accessories in the shape of animals (real or imaginary) created by designers from all over the world – here is the project – and the Around the table installation by Masquespacio (via Luigi Porro Lambertenghi 3).

Also worth mentioning is ID.exe, the Fuorisalone diffuse district by DOS Design Open Space, which will explore the theme “Shaped by Design” through a selection of projects, prototypes, and interactive installations. The event will not only be an exhibition, but also a platform for dialogue and learning, with workshops, conferences and meetings that will allow the public to interact directly with designers and experts from each sector. Also part of the programme is the diffuse exhibition ‘Peripheral Design‘, which will showcase some of the protagonists of WeVux’s Materials Design Map.

Other locations not to be missed at Fuorisalone 2024 will be: Dropcity – with exhibitions, installations, lectures, workshops and initiatives related to the theme of process in Architecture and Design; the Casa degli Artisti – with a collective exhibition bringing together designers, studios, universities, brands and galleries from all over Switzerland; the second edition of the LABÒ project, curated by The Design Blender, in the Barona district; and for light enthusiasts there is Brokis, which will present three new collections at the Eurostyling showroom (via Locatelli 6).

To discover the various locations and exhibitions of Fuorisalone 2024, follow WeVux on Instagram!

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