Design=Milano is the equation to refer to, in order to understand the Milanese
FuoriSalone, an event organized for the first time in 1990 by Interni , when Salone del
Mobile, usually held in Setember, was held instead in April, and that has now crossed the
boundaries of a conventional market-show, from the point of view of cultural interest and
experimentation, to become a festive event, the design project, invading the whole
city.
In Italy, when you speak of design you inevitably end by speaking of Milan.
That explains why FuoriSalone came into being right in Milan, on home ground, and the
development of which seems to be almost unrelenting, as for a week it takes up large
areas of the city, that change into showcase “districts” luring the so-called “design
community”, invading and conquering the city. Furthermore, as years go by FuoriSalone
has influenced the city morphology, re-inventing and upgrading some of its districts
permanently.
The April Design Week is by now a unique rendezvous on an international plane, felt
by everybody as a transversal, spectacular and unmissable happening, apart from any
specific interest in design.
Within this project covering the whole city, FuoriSalone takes up every space
available, from the usual locations to traditional places such as museums and art
galleries, on this occasion cleared of their collections to accommodate experimental
furniture and objects; from “found out” places (workshops, warehouses, disused
factories) to monumental places well-known to tourists yet “squatted” by temporary
installations, thus “atypical”, The most important component of ‘FuoriSalone’, apart
from the content of the many proposals, is the cultural-spectacular as well as market
consumption – rendered in performances, installations, shows and experimental
events – for everybody, spontaneously, in city spots transformed in “atypical” and
attractive places, stages for a collective and many-sided pièce, that are also a direct
“training” process on a planning-educational plane.
A balance of the last few FuoriSalone allows to set a team effort historically, with
Interni as one of the players, the result of concepts backed by a multilinear production,
entrepreneural and creative context, that wants to be complementary and not opposed
to the renowned Salone del mobile di Milano and that takes the city as ideal place for the
interaction of a widespread culture to make design a factor of meditation, development
and encounter.
