Triennale di Milano: InterfaceFlor – The Positive Floor. The global giant in carpeting, InterfaceFlor’s Positive Floor installation aimed to take peoples perception of flooring and turn it on its head. Francesco Maria Bandini design project created a physical journey into the surreal where what should be under our feet, the floor, exists high up in another reality, a reality as positive as the InterfaceFlor carpet tiles.
Bisazza: Alessandro Mendini – Limited Editions. Over a period of ten years I have created a series of nine figure in Bisazza gold mosaic tesserae. I have called them Furniture for Man. These items of furniture feature elements which symbolize or describe the contemporary man. What makes them unique is their unique gigantic proportions. They’re not normal, but massively blown up…off-the-scale creations which represent in part the decomposition, the breaking down of the bourgeois man a giant character transformed into a collage…..writes Mendini, here photographed with Rosella Bisazza in front of a giant Borsalino hat.
Francesco Mendini and Elio Fiorucci
Yii – Street Life Exhibition. Daily life gets special attention at the Yii exhibition, Street Life where new concepts by Taiwanese and international designers explore the synergy between crafts and design.
Above: Chair 43 in bamboo designed by Konstantin Grcic and made by craftsman Kao-ming Chen. The cantilever chair ’43 is comprised of forty-three laminated bamboo slats, utilizing the structural potential of this fast growing material to create comfort and flexibility.
Klein Karoo: Ostrich Leather. Humberto and Fernando Campana and a piece of their furniture designed for Klein Karoo in ostrich leather.
Interware – Transversal Design Haute Couture Design Architecture by Marurizio Galante and Tal Lancman. 2003, designer Maurizo Galante teamed up with trend forecast analyst and designer Tal Lancman, to form Interware, their crossover vision transverses the different design disciplines, from fashion to furniture, interiors, architecture and gardening.
Another facet of Interware’s philosophy proposes a series of objects/companions; expressive, amusing, and thought-provoking designs, bestowing owners with their friendly presence. Charged with anima and aura, they await to welcome us on our return home; a familiar friend, providing strength, comfort, and belonging.
Above: Canape Cactus, 2011 designed by Maurizio Galante and made by Cerruti Baleri.
The exhibition showcases the fruits of Interware's collaborations with well-known editing companies and cultural institutions, as well as exclusive designs edited and manufactured at Interware's atelier.
Above: Aura, 2006 designed by Maurizio Galante and made by Cerruti Baleri.
Design for Charity – Chairs at the Fore. Now in its fourth edition, “Design for Charity” is a charity organization involving high-profile professionals and companies in the field of design with the aim of collecting funds for projects supporting under priviledged children.
Above: Nanni Strada sits on her chair for Design for Charity.
Karim Rashid’s chair Milan/NY for Design for Charity “... Our digital pad, our mobile phone,
I crawl into my chair … Hence I sit and dine alone."
Area Magazine - Karim Sampler exhibition. Karim Rashid at the party for his exhibition entitled Karim Sampler organized by Area magazine at which over one hundred touchable and visible products tracing his career where exhibited.
Italy Crucified – Gaetano Pesce. The installation by Gaetano Pesce L’Italia in Croce, or Italy Crucified is Pesce’s new interpretation of the state of contemporary Italy. The installation is a big cross, with Italy nailed on to it. This huge 7.5 metre-high installation is in set in the stalls of Teatro dell’Arte at La Triennale. At its feet, stones, garbage, rubble and a number of kneeling stools and pews where visitors can sit and look at the work, rest, sit or light votive candles as a good wish for a better Italy. Italia in Croce was first designed in the seventies following Ugo La Pietra’s request as a reflection on the delicate historical and political time Italy was experiencing, but the installation did not come to fruition back then.
Pesce thought of resuming that idea as still extremely compelling, in the attempt to arouse a proactive, challenging debate that could get rid of that conformism, righteousness, selfishness and conservatism that, in the author’s opinion, have "crucified" our country. This work is against the political world that “spends its time spending a huge amount of words instead of proposing plans that could really help our country and make it progress into the future and advantageously cope with the huge competition embodied by the other countries of the world”.
Artist Nuala Goodman and designer Terri Pecora
Simas – Metamorfosi. Indian Mood by Terri Pecora and Nuala Goodman is an iconic totem, a homage to the pop colors and architectural design of Memphis, and completely Indian in inspiration: Indian Mood explores the infinite visual and tactile possibilities of the world of ceramics, employing the surprising application of flocking techniques to offer an unexpected and highly original interpretation of bathroom design.
Cinzia and Aldo Cibic