Salone del Mobile.Milano has renewed its focus on China with an exhibition in Shanghai that aimed to bolster the presence of Italian design in the key Asian market.
Following a record-breaking 2024 edition, the Milanese design fair has taken its show on the road. After a September showcase in New York, the fair traveled to Shanghai with “The Orbit’s Orbit” exhibition during the city’s art week, which will be followed by a showcase of the SaloneSatellite Permanent Collection in Hong Kong.
The Shanghai exhibition, which ran from Friday to Saturday, is part of 024 West Bund Art & Design, an annual art fair that brings together more than 120 global galleries and stages art events across the West Bund Cultural Corridor, which includes locations such as West Bund Art Center, West Bund Dome, Gate M Dream Center and The Orbit.
The Orbit
Courtesy
Inside The Orbit, an iconic building designed by U.K.-based Heatherwick Studio, more than 65 pieces of design from 36 leading Italian brands were placed around the room, forming what the artist and curator of the show Matilde Cassani called “an imaginary home.”
“What we wanted was to have also a very big variety of furniture from the small scale to the big scale,” Cassani said. “So you have the bed, the very small table, the bathtub, the sink, tables, lamps, everything. Because no more than two pieces were showcased from each of the companies, everyone was presented equally because of the special distribution and layout.”
To liven up the exhibition, Cassani devised a recurring performance that featured local dancers creating movements around the furniture. The “human architecture” piece culminated with “an island made of bodies” on the central stage.
A performance devised by Matilde Cassani.
Courtesy
“The scenography around the furniture pieces was made half by the curtains and the carpets and half by the human bodies,” explained Cassani. “This is why the performers are actually not doing a choreography or a ballet; they are actually working on human architectures, architectures made by these bodies moving around the furniture and creating backgrounds or improvisations around them,” she added.
During the three-day showcase, a series of talks featured local design creatives, media partners and Salone del Mobile.Milano leaders helped foster in-depth conversations between Italy’s and China‘s design industries.
The exhibition coincided with Italian President Sergio Mattarella’s trip to Beijing, where he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Chinese Premier Li Qiang and National People’s Congress chairman Zhao Leji. Mattarella and Chinese leaders signed a series of agreements ranging from culture to technology and trade.
Next up, Salone del Mobile.Milano will touch down in Hong Kong from Monday to Nov. 21, with the SaloneSatellite Permanent Collection 1998-2024 Exhibition. It will be promoted by the IDFFHK — International Design Furniture Fair Hong Kong and the Designworks Foundation at the Arts Pavilion, in the heart of the West Kowloon cultural district. The exhibition will showcase a selection of more than 100 projects from the SaloneSatellite Permanent Collection founded and curated by Marva Griffin Wilshire in 1998, in an effort to promote young design talent worldwide.
Salone del Mobile.Milano’s emphasis on China underscores Italy’s strong export market for furnishings, with Italy remaining China’s leading furnishing exporter in 2023, valued at more than 479 million euros.
In addition, Salone del Mobile.Milano said China ranked number one in terms of foot traffic at the 62nd edition of the fair in Milan in April. In total 370,824 people flocked to Fiera Milano Rho for the event. However, a report by Italian Statistics Bureau Istat paints a more grim picture and said, overall, Italian exports to China fell 7.6 percent in August, ranking second in the drop, next to the U.S., which saw exports plummet 23.1 percent.
