A Wunderkammer for Collectors

Some considerations on the future of design after the whirlwind of Miart and the Salone. How are roles, channels and interactions being redefined in a complex and increasingly articulated chain of production and consumption?

first piece of "Fossili Moderni", modular bookshelf by Massimiliano Adami, 2005 (Subalterno1, Milano)

As the stardust slowly settles after being kicked up in Milan for ten days or so – between the miart art fair and Design Week – one wonders what’s fading and what’s settling for the benefit of the future of design. And how are roles, channels and interactions being redefined within a complex and increasingly articulated chain of production and consumption? One wonders, for example, what the future of design galleries might be in a world distinctly projected towards virtual communication, between new platforms and online auctions.

Last autumn, in a meeting coordinated by Domitilla Dardi for TDM, some of the most influential gallerists on the Milanese (and international) scene seemed rather pessimistic about their available space for manoeuvre. Instead, the game appears to be totally undecided and with many cards still in the deck, at least judging by what was to be seen in recent days.

The close positioning of the two initiatives forced the galleries participating in both events to engage in a veritable tour de force. Yet the proximity also underlined the intensity of many of the proposals. The rooms of an imaginary collector – set up on the request of Dardi herself, who for the second year running curated the Object section of miart – offered a vibrant and variegated vision between well-balanced experimentations and well-chosen historical graftings. Focused on their own “ideal collector” – the essential stimulus of limited-edition design and historical reproposals – each room staged furnishings, lamps and art objects according to a personal interpretation that could nonetheless be traced back to more general positions.

Thus we had the erudite mix of historical and contemporary design represented by the unerring taste of Rossella Colombari, Luisa Delle Piane and Nina Yashar/Nilufar – who are now more influential than ever, also on virtual platforms.

Matilde Cassani, <i>Welcome</i>, 2015. Exhibition “The man who sat on himself”, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin. Photo Matilde Cassani — **Top**: first piece of "Fossili Moderni", modular bookshelf by Massimiliano Adami, 2005 (Subalterno1, Milano). **Above**: Matilde Cassani, *Welcome*, 2015. Exhibition “The man who sat on himself”, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin. Photo Matilde Cassani

We also encountered the Dimore Gallery’s close yet uninhibited comparison between the work of masters and a rereading by the duo composed of Emiliano Salci and Britt Moran, owners of Dimorestudio, and the reinterpreted classicism in the Giustini Stagetti Gallery from Rome. Then there was the careful re-stitching with the great tradition of a forerunner of editions: Paradisoperduto reproposed pieces from the Gavina and Simon catalogue, flanked by new proposals such as the Frenchman Pierre Gonalons. Then there were those who preferred typological interpretations, such as Antonella Villanova from Florence who has made an international name for herself through jewellery; or Luciano Colantonio from Brescia who proposed the theme of mirrors for the occasion, with his fellow townsman Otto Berselli closeted with Gio Ponti. Or the Christine Park Gallery from London, which displayed works by the Korean ceramist Yikyung Kim, executed with traditional techniques. There were those who pushed the expressive research of materials, such as Bergamo’s young Colleoni Arte, which invited five contemporary Italian designers and architecture/design studios – including Servomuto and Matilde Cassani – to reinterpret the typical elements of habitation through fabric. Or instead there was the Nero Design Gallery from Arezzo, for which Duccio Maria Gambi created three chairs using Luserna stone (instead of his beloved concrete) while drawing on the design language of the historical avant-gardes. Gambi won the CEDIT Prize for Object for the best emerging Italian designer, awarded for the first time at miart 2017.

Lastly, one encountered galleries who invented an entirely original role for themselves, such as London’s Matter of Stuff, a veritable agency of coordination between design, creation and narration. This year, the gallery was also present with three tables resulting from interesting research into working techniques and finishes by the Canadian duo UUfie. These designers were immediately intercepted by Rossana Orlandi, who transformed the spaces of an old tie factory into an unmissable destination for international pilgrimages.

Erastudio Apartment-Gallery, meanwhile, stood out with its museum-theatre-style proposition, with a display designed by Nanda Vigo. Focused on the 1970s and ’80s, the gallery’s offering featured an incredible throne created by Riccardo Dalisi, two chairs by Ugo Marano and Urano Palma, and a painting by Kenny Scharf. Genuine exhibitions were the outcome of the eclectic experimentations of Subalterno1, which for miart conceived a provocatively “poor” wunderkammer in terms of the materials used (with historical names such as Ponti, Schirolli, Rinaldi, BBPR, etc.) in dialogue with self-produced, historical and contemporary objects. Such objects were once again the protagonists of the “Anthropocene” collective show staged in the gallery a week later.

Premio CEDIT per Object: acquisita per il Triennale Design Museum — *Retrostorico | Zuperfici Collection*, 2017 by upcoming Italian designer Duccio Maria Gambi (Nero design gallery di Arezzo) is the winner of the Premio CEDIT for Object. The work was acquired by Florim Ceramiche and will be donated to Milan's Triennale Design Museum permanent collection

Outside the perimeter of the fair, the gallery of Antonia Jannone is a specialist in exhibitions. The gallery periodically also hosts objects of affection, such as now with the Indian Memory ceramics by Sottsass, allowing us to fully reconstruct their genesis and even witness their production.

The space opened a little over a year ago by Salvatore Lanteri only deals with ceramics and art. Located in a literally eccentric place (a former mechanic’s workshop), in these days the bright and rough gallery hosted a many-voiced reflection on materials shaped by artists’ hands and eyes, from the mix of foams and concretes by the abovementioned Gambi, to the scagliola of Odd Matter and the synthetic granites of DWA Design Studio.

Affection understood as passion; physicality of objects and spaces: these are (still) the winning cards for galleries.

A Wunderkammer for Collectors

Some considerations on the future of design after the whirlwind of Miart and the Salone. How are roles, channels and interactions being redefined in a complex and increasingly articulated chain of production and consumption?

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