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Forbes
10-04-2025
- Automotive
- Forbes
The best of Milan Design Week 2025 including exhibitions at Fuorisalone
Lexus Designer Team's 'Discover Together' encouraged us to create and release our own unique virtual butterfly to illustrate the transformative power of small actions Milan Design Week is an exuberant celebration that transforms every nook and cranny of this vibrant Italian city, renowned for its design, style and fashion. Originating in 1961 as the Salone del Mobile—a fair aimed at promoting Italian furniture exports—it has since blossomed into a global beacon of creativity. Complementing the main fair, the Fuorisalone emerged spontaneously in the 1980s, extending the festivities beyond the exhibition halls into boutiques, showrooms and pop-up spaces throughout Milan. This dynamic duo not only showcases innovations from furniture to fashion but also effectively kick-starts the global creative season, drawing design aficionados from around the world. The vast scale of Milan Design Week makes it simply impossible to experience everything. Yet, being on the ground in person offers a unique flavor of the global design discourse. This year, the festival chimed with the theme 'Thought for Humans,' exploring our identity in this ever-accelerating machine age (although as a side note, I couldn't help but reflect on how we're faring on a human-to-human scale.) Through various installations, exhibitions and talks, the event examined how design can navigate the man-machine relationship through human-centered approaches that prioritize well-being and sensory engagement. This naturally led to numerous thoughtful, sustainable and innovative designs in almost every gallery and showroom I had the chance to visit. 'Prada Frames: In Transit' is curated by Formafantasma and held quirkily abroad Gio Ponti's ultra cool Arlecchino train 'Prada Frames: In Transit' encapsulated the theme well. Launched in 2022 by the design duo behind Formafantasma, Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin, the symposium is an antidote to the sheer speed and (at times) lightness of Fuorisalone, instead fostering interdisciplinary conversations that challenge and expand our understanding of the infrastructures shaping contemporary life. This year, academics, artists and designers gathered at the Padiglione Reale, the former waiting room of the Italian royal family at Milano Centrale station, and aboard Arlecchino, the ultra-cool 1950s Gio Ponti train. The choice of venues added urgency (and a touch of stylish theatre—this is Milan after all) to discussions on how generative AI is shaping the environment, the infrastructure of borders, and the complex choreography of global systems and exchange. In one session, artist Hito Steyerl and curator Natalia Grabowska explored the nuanced ways surveillance technologies are embedded in modern infrastructure, and what this means for personal freedoms. Elsewhere, MoMA senior curator Paola Antonelli and journalist Nicola Twilley reviewed the sensory aspects of infrastructure, and how design and food systems intersect to influence our human experience. A favourite at Milan has to be Nilufar Gallery and founder Nina Yashar's commitment to championing emerging designers as well as pushing the boundaries of contemporary design. This year, 'Repertorio' explored the relationship between art and craft, nature and artifice, and history and the present across the gallery's two venues: Nilufar Depot on the city's edge and Nilufar Gallery in Milan. At the former, celebrating metal's aesthetic qualities, 'Atto I: Silver Lining,' conceived by Fosbury Architecture, transformed the space into an environment inspired by 1970s aesthetics. Benjamin Hubert's design studio, LAYER, presented '101010' at 10 Corso Como Meanwhile, addressing pressing global challenges such as urban density, resource scarcity, and environmental resilience, Benjamin Hubert's design studio, LAYER, presented '101010' at 10 Corso Como. The exhibition unveiled a collection of six prototypes developed in collaboration with brands like Andreu World, Bitossi Ceramiche, Kvadrat, MDF Italia, Muuto, RÆBURN and Orrefors, each reflecting the studio's commitment to human-centered, sustainable design. Highlights included 'Host,' a modular bee home created with Andreu World to promote urban biodiversity, and the algae-powered oil lamps 'Lights' with Muuto, offering renewable, off-grid illumination. Another highlight was at Lexus, where the Japanese carmaker took over Superstudio to showcase two exhibitions, both aiming to explore how design can ease the tension between man and machine. The main installation, 'A-Un,' by Tokyo-based creative agency Six and design studio Studeo, delves into the Japanese concept of A-Un no Kokyū or harmonized breath—a traditional notion where two entities instinctively synchronize their movements and emotions. Using the Black Butterfly motif from the latest Lexus LF-ZC concept car, it featured a vast butterfly-shaped screen crafted by hand over three months using woven threads made from about 35 kilometers of bamboo fiber. As we approach the installation, the structure comes to life, responding to our heartbeats; as the heartbeat synchronizes with fluctuations sampled from nature, we witness the seamless connection between people, society and the world. When I spoke with the creators, Takeshi Nozoe of Six and Tatsuki Ikezawa of Studeo, they offered this explanation: 'Big Data is not living. It's inorganic. We are expressing it as if it's a living thing: sensing the visitors' heartbeat, the color changes from blue to yellow, and then red for fast. We wanted to express A-Un no Kokyū, one of the very important Japanese aesthetic philosophies about human-to-human connection. In Japan, we find beauty in that connection—something that is invisible.' Lexus "A-Un" installation created in collaboration with creative agency Six and design studio Studeo introduced emotion to technology Elsewhere on the stand, three installations invited visitors to participate in creating their own butterfly. In 'Earthspective' by Bascule Inc, participants' spoken words became imprints on a digital Earth, emphasizing our collective impact on the planet. Northeastern University's 'Our Energy Nexus' visualized real-time air pollution data, with visitors' interactions symbolically contributing to environmental change. My favorite though was from the Lexus Designer Team and their 'Discover Together' which encouraged us to create and release our own unique virtual butterfly as a way of illustrating the transformative power of small actions. 'A-Un,' by Tokyo-based creative agency Six and design studio Studeo, delves into the Japanese concept of A-Un no Kokyū or harmonized breath And finally, this being Milan, it would be remiss not to mention fashion's contributions to Fuorisalone. All the big Italian names were naturally present. Gucci's 'Bamboo Encounters' in the Cloisters of San Simpliciano explored the material's legacy and contemporary relevance through designs by several outside creatives. Jil Sander collaborated with heritage furniture maker Thonet to introduce at Galleria Il Castello, a minimalist reinterpretation of Marcel Breuer's timeless S64 chair. Loewe's 'Teapots' was all about championing the art of craft, featuring 25 artists and their interpretations of the classic teapot to blur the line between function and art. Louis Vuitton unveiled its latest products and furnishings from the 'Objets Nomades' series at Palazzo Serbelloni—a more straightforward presentation compared to its peers. Charlotte Perriand, La Banquette de la Résidence de l'Ambassadeur du Japon à Paris, 1967 by Saint Laurent More interestingly perhaps was Saint Laurent's exhibition on via Tortona which spotlighted the legendary designer Charlotte Perriand. It featured four of her creations from 1943 to 1967 which had previously existed only as prototypes or sketches. Under the creative direction of Anthony Vaccarello, Saint Laurent has meticulously reproduced and reissued these pieces in limited editions, offering a rare glimpse into Perriand's visionary work. Saint Laurent and Charlotte Perriand's 'La Bibliothèque Rio de Janeiro' made in 1962 for her husband Jacques Martin The collection includes 'La Banquette de la Résidence de l'Ambassadeur du Japon à Paris,' a striking monolithic five-seat sofa of rosewood, cane and Thai silk that gives the impression of floating on air which Perriand designed originally in 1967 for the Japanese ambassador in Paris. Also reproduced is 'La Bibliothèque Rio de Janeiro', conceived to display works of art alongside books and originally made in the 60s for her husband Jacques Martin from solid Brazilian rosewood. And finally, a favorite concept from the fashion crowd comes via Prada, a designer with an impeccable eye for art, architecture and design (a visit to Milan is incomplete without at least half a day lost and found in Fondazione Prada). At Miu Miu, the designer hosted a salon-style event as part of the fashion house's Literary Club. Titled 'A Woman's Education,' it explored girlhood and love through the works of Simone de Beauvoir and Fumiko Enchi and featuring performances and discussions with authors Lauren Elkin and Naoise Dolan. The Salone del Mobile and Fuorisalone 2025 take place throughout Milan from April 7 to April 13, 2025. See what's happening at the 24th Triennale Milano starting in May here, and read my 2024 year in art. For more articles on art and design, visit my page here.
New York Times
13-02-2025
- Science
- New York Times
11,000 Years of Designer Sheep
We've taken dogs and cats into our homes, trained hawks to hunt for us and taught pigeons to deliver our letters. Our relationship with sheep, though, is more of a symbiosis. For centuries, we have relied on sheep's wool for clothing and blankets, and they relied on us for shearing. Now, sheep can't molt without human help, though we're using little of their wool. Because consumers today favor softer and less expensive synthetic fibers, an enormous output of raw wool — estimated by researchers at more than 317,000 tons worldwide — goes to waste each year. This paradox of mutual reliance is at the center of the exhibition, 'Formafantasma — Oltre Terra,' at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, from Feb. 15 through July 13. The show, by the design studio Formafantasma, is billed as examining the 'co-evolution' of sheep and humans across some 11,000 years and contains thoughts about how we might improve the relationship. Formafantasma, founded by Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin and based in Milan and Rotterdam, the Netherlands, creates products for international companies such as Lexus, Tiffany and Prada, as well as exhibitions for museums and galleries. Its unique design objects have been acquired by arts institutions including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. 'For me they are among the most important designers of their generation,' said Hans Ulrich Obrist, the artistic director of Serpentine, a London-based art institute which hosted a 2022 exhibition by Formafantasma, that focused on a different raw material: wood. 'They have this impressive multidimensionality,' Obrist added. 'They are amazing researchers and they are environmentalists, and at the same time they are creating these extraordinary objects.' Working with a small team of designers, Trimarchi and Farresin say they begin each project by conducting two or three years of research into the materials they plan to use, a process they call 'investigative design.' To better understand wool for 'Oltre Terra,' the team began by interviewing experts including farmers, shepherds, biologists and anthropologists, as well as philosophers and activists. This approach stretched the definition of design to include a process of 'co-creation' between species, said Amanda Pinaith, a Stedelijk curator. 'We as humans have designed this relationship with sheep,' Pinaith said. 'Over hundreds and hundreds of years, tame sheep have developed through human design,' she added, 'so that it would become a wool-producing machine with ears and eyes, instead of an animal.' Take Shrek, for example, a merino sheep in New Zealand who became a global celebrity in 2005. After escaping his flock, he lived alone for six years until he emerged, weighed down under 60 pounds of fleece. His televised sheering was a national event; he met New Zealand's then-prime minister, Helen Clark; made charity appearances; and was featured in children's books, before he died at age 16 in 2011. Shrek's reliance on human intervention reflects one small way in which we have, over centuries, 'designed' sheep rather poorly, according to Formafantasma. The Stedelijk exhibition begins with a replica of Shrek, whose story is a useful metaphor for how social design shapes our environment and how we think about nature. Those relationships are explored in a variety of displays. For example, visitors are invited to sit on a carpet made using 12 types of wool to watch a short video, 'Tactile Afferents,' that explores the nature of physical contact between humans and sheep, created by the artist Joanna Piotrowska. Photographs of prizewinning Australian merino sheep with rippling fleeces are shown alongside images of the damage that deforestation and overgrazing by the sheep farming industry have caused to Australia's soil and plant life. The exhibition also explores recent efforts to 'redesign' sheep to produce new breeds that can shed their wool without shearing. Formafantasma interviewed Tim White, a British sheep breeder who is attempting to crossbreed his sheep with ewes that grow hair instead of wool. In the catalog, White explains that farmers could once pay rent for a full year from wool revenue alone, especially in the early 20th century, when wool was used for army uniforms. Now, however, 'the price of wool doesn't even cover the costs associated with sheering,' he is quoted as saying. The installation includes information about the crossbreeding efforts by White and others in a large-scale diorama built around an aluminum lattice, on which a range of elements is displayed: videos, taxidermy, archival photographs and objects, like sheep sheering devices from across the ages. Visitors learn, for example, that the wool we tend to use today is merino, produced in only a few places in the world, primarily Australia and New Zealand. Fleece from most ordinary sheep everywhere else has become waste material, which is usually dumped or burned. Formafantasma plans to use its accumulated knowledge to find new ways to use excess wool for sustainable design. The studio is already working with an Italian furniture company, Tacchini, to manufacture sofas using surplus wool for the interiors, as a replacement for industrial foam, and with the American textile company, Maharam, to develop a second project, details of which Formafantasma said it could not yet disclose. Obrist, the Serpentine's art director, said that the strength of Formafantasma's approach was that its research-based method also ends up transforming the ways that real-world products are made. 'At the moment, we have a lot of design is really strong on research but that doesn't produce any objects, and then we have a lot of wonderful design that produces objects, but doesn't have any research,' he said. 'Very few people do both,' Obrist said, 'and I think that's a big achievement.'
