DIARIO
VOL 01, ISSUE 06

Design and the City

Every year in April, the city of Milan hosts one of the most important events in the world of design: Salone del Mobile. One of the exhibitions this year will be the immersive Living Objects, curated by Artemest, a company founded by Ippolita Rostagno giving Italian craftsmen a global platform.

Photo by Sean Litchfields via Architectural Digest

Artemest was born to arouse and celebrate a desire for beauty in our everyday lives.

IPPOLITA ROSTAGNO

Returning regularly to the city of her birth, Florence, Ippolita began to realize with every visit that the landscape of her native city was changing: each time she returned a few more artisans had closed shop, suffering from a declining interest in their craft and no one to carry on their legacy. Traditional craftsmanship, so much a part of Italian culture and of her own life as an artist and as a Florentine, was fading away. Hence, four years ago, Ippolita founded Artemest, to keep these ancient traditions of craft from extinction. Artemest champions artisans and Italian excellence, bringing them to global recognition.

 Image courtesy of Martyn White Designs

This year, during the Salone del Mobile in Milan, Artemest will showcase a variety of its craftsmen's and designers’ objects in a curated, site-specific exhibition, Living Objects. This immersive experience will mix theater and design in a series of tableaux, with actors inhabiting the various rooms of the headquarters of TED Milano at 5 Via Giovanni Randaccio, an avant-garde, Gio Ponti-designed showroom. Beauty is not an abstract concept. It permeates the air we breathe, the things we touch and use every day. It needs to be a part of our lives. And this exhibition will prove just that. A selection of furniture, lighting, and décor objects will come to life with unique pieces by Barchi, Brass Brothers & Co, Gebrüder Thonet Vienna, Giobagnara, Larghevedute, Luci di Seta, Lorenza Bozzoli, Malvezzi, Manifattura Richard Ginori 1735, Servomuto, Tacchini, and Zanellazine, among others. 

Image courtesy of Ted Milano

Image courtesy of Ted Milano

Photo by Gianluca Di Ioia via Elle DECOR Italia

The Triennale di Milano, an art event held every three years in Parco Sempione, will present a group exhibition by MoMA senior curator Paola Antonelli entitled Broken Nature: Design Takes on Human Survival, underscoring design’s potential to deter climate change.

Massimo De Carlo's eponymous, new gallery and Milan headquarters is housed in Piero Portalupi's Casa Corbellini – Wassermann. De Carlo acquired the building in 2004 and renovated it with Studio Binocle and Antonio Cittero ensuring that the original design would not be compromised.

Finally, the public can experience this architectural treasure.

Photo by Delfino Sisto Legnani e Marco Cappelletti via Wallpaper

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