CITY Issue 55 - (Page 55) THE SALONE DEL MOBILE, BESIDES ORGANIZING A FAIR, HAS INTERVENED IN THE WHOLE FURNITURE SYSTEM. WE FIND YOUNG DESIGNERS AND PUT THEM IN CONTACT WITH PRODUCERS. ///// / / / / / / / / / / / nd you have new fai g ounds, designed by a chitect Massimiliano Fuksas. It’s not an indust ial shed, but a designed space, which makes the Salone even mo e appealing. It’s like a ca . Rolls Royce is mo e p estigious than othe automobiles and you want to show it off to the most people possible. The p omotion of the new fai g ounds became a way of att acting even mo e people. Milan is famous fo having a pa ty-like atmosphe e th oughout the city at fai time. Is that something you actively cultivate? Fi een yea s ago we sta ted hosting cultu al events. The othe fai s, like Cologne and Pa is, just sell space. That’s all, nothing else. Salone del Mobile is not just a comme cial fai , but something mo e. We ask the municipality of Milan fo pe mission to use st eets and squa es, and we open those spaces up with public events. We p omote Fuo i Salone [the name used to desc ibe the huge ange of events happening th oughout the city], and we have elationships with Inte ni [magazine] and the T iennale [museum]. It’s pa t of eve ything. The e a e some companies that don’t get to exhibit at the fai because it’s booked to capacity. How do you decide who gets to be the e? One is how long they’ve been waiting. The quality of the company is impo tant, too. In Italy, the indust y is becoming highe and highe in te ms of quality, and pe cent of the companies that exhibit at the Salone a e Italian. In te ms of numbe s, we’ll have to figu e out what to do, because companies a e waiting to join in. We have to fi nd a solution to this p oblem. ou once said that design talent is in Italian DN . We e you se ious? es, I’m su e it’s t ue. If we go back in time, Italians have Michelangelo, Leona do, and Raphael, and those a e ou o igins, so we have that in ou blood. Ou cha acte is ve y a tistic and c eative, and that’s whe e ou design sensibility comes f om. SALONE EXTERIOR: PHOTO BY ALESSANDRO RUSSOTTI. SALONE INTERIORS: PHOTOS BY SAVERIO LOMBARDI VALLAURI. 55
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