Operae, Italy’s first sales-exhibition dedicated entirely to self-produced design, will be held in several locations in the old part of Turin, from 5 to 7 November 2010. It is promoted and organised by Biella Intraprendere in conjunction with the Torino Design Week Association, with the backing of Turin Chamber of Commerce, the City of Turin, Turin Provincial Council, the National Confederations of Artisans and Small and Medium Enterprises of Turin and ADI, the Industrial Design Association.

Operae is aimed at all those production companies that implement complete, high-level control of the product chain (design, production, communication, promotion and sale), and are characterised by excellence, innovation and the modest numerical dimension of the series that that they produce. The fair particularly addresses designers who produce their own designs, the creators of one-off products or limited editions, companies that focus their production on unexplored niches of the market. Operae is an authentic sales-exhibition, which invites Italian and international designers to exhibit and sell their products directly to the public and intends to bring the world of self-produced deign closer to the general public.

Operae will be held on the same days as Artissima and the numerous other events that, dedicated to contemporary art in Turin, convey a particularly lively and international climate to the city. Operae falls within an itinerary that Turin and the neighbouring territory of Piedmont have developed in recent years and which has witnessed an increase in the interest of businesses and the general public in design culture. To take part in Operae you have to do is fill in the application form on line at www.operae.biz. All applications must be presented by the 8th of October.

Operae will be part of the 2010 edition of the Torino Design Week and will be included in Contemporary Arts Torino Piemonte, the festival that has characterised the autumn season of contemporary arts for years with the scheduling of events featuring the visual arts, music, theatre, film and the performing arts, now joined by design.