Three women – three versatile journalists – put into writing the history of the legendary Fuorisalone in three similar but different books. Through the memories, the images and the contributions of the protagonists, Gilda Bojardi Gisella Borioli and Roberta Mutti illustrate (each in her own way) the changes in Milan when design disseminated as a popular, fun and imaginative art form in the heart of the city. Milan has thus become the world's design capital: unique, much imitated, but never equalled.

There is no doubt that Fuorisalone is closely related to the creativity, the initiatives, and the risk-taking attitude of a bunch of Milanese women who started a game that in the end became harder than any initial predictions. 
In 1990, Gilda Bojardi, the dynamic commercial chief of Interni Mondadori, seized the opportunity to relocate the Salone del Mobile (from September to April) and organized the first Interni Design week. By using her impressive communication strategies, she was able to connect 120 shops and showrooms in the city, thus paving the way for the FuoriSalone to come. Unprecedented innovations in fashion and decor in the 70s and 80s became part of the system; cabinets displaying original design evolved into exciting shopping and cultural venues. Gilda anticipated opportunities and perspectives. It has all started here.
“XXX-Y 30 ANNI DI FUORISALONE / 1990-2020 Milano Design Stories” (published by Electa) is the book Gilda Bojardi designed for Interni Magazine to recount thirty years of moments, meetings, installations, occupations, unforgettable parties. It’s a fascinating chronological diary, with almost 1000 archival images over 510 pages. Images like these remind us of many personalities, designers, businesspeople, communicators and promoters who, from the beginning, were at the centre of FuoriSalone and later. When you browse the pages of this book, it's like entering the extended family of design, which is united by imagination, wonder, and the goal of always giving more.
"DESIGN SUPER SHOW / 2000-2020 Evoluzione e mise-en-scene del design al Superstudio di Milano", published a few months before "XXX-Y 30 ANNI DI FUORISALONE, is about memories of the past, but strongly rooted in the future. The book deals with the last twenty years from a specific, personal and clear point of view: mine and Superstudio's. In the 80s, a portion of General Electric's huge complex in Via Tortona, Milan, was transformed into Superstudio Più, a hub of creativity and temporary events, which includes fashion, art, and design. Then, the idea of a Tortona Design Week was conceived, an exhibition focused on a street (via Tortona) and its surroundings. This set an example to other initiatives, and the design disseminated throughout the city. A private space with a long-term development guarantee. As entrepreneurs and communication experts, we faced a design project that went beyond the object itself and the immediate orders.
Superstudio has soon become an icon, a must. “Less a fair, more a museum” is still our motto today. As the book itself proves, it is centred on a storytelling about heritage and culture, while also looking toward the future. Anything but traditional exhibitions of products. Instead, immaterial experimentations, evocative scenographies, scientific projections, furniture models, high-tech objects, simulations of augmented reality, holograms, special effects, interaction with contemporary art, interactive exhibitions, real laboratories, and young talents alongside famous international designers. Additionally, meetings and interviews with the protagonists of the project to anticipate the future, and gain lessons from the greatest international masters. With 520 pages and 750 illustrations, this book discusses trends and previews about another design, in synergy with that published by Interni and the third volume, edited by DDN-Design Diffusion World, written and edited by Roberta Mutti, prominent architect, journalist, and consultant.
“STORIA DI FUORISALONE-Eventi temporanei per effetti duraturi” begins in the 80s, when Milan, after many difficult years as an insurgent city, was on its way to becoming a cosmopolitan and avant-garde metropolis. Over its 272 pages in Italian and English, the book invites the Fuorisalone's creators to speak: it takes the reader behind the scenes, telling untold stories. It demonstrates through the chronicles how a spontaneous movement of aggregation on a particular theme overthrew a longstanding fixed system without the support of either institutions or supernational investors. The Salone Fiera, enclosed inside a neat commercial area, the one of Rho Fiera, was indeed flanked by a very different kind of event, an urban one, perhaps anarchic, but very creative. It became more and more global with each new edition. There is no doubt that the first and most significant projects were always by women: Gilda Bojardi for Interni, Mariuccia Mandelli with Krizia, Gisella Borioli with Superstudio, Tanja Solci with la Segheria, Carla Sozzani, 10 Corso Como, Rossana Orlandi with its art gallery R.O., Margrit Vollenberg, Fulvia Ramogida for Ventura Projects, Maria Antonia Menada and Daniela Triulzi for Tortona Location and more. Finally, Milan municipality's advisor for Fashion and Design, Cristina Tajani, transformed the Salone from the economic and philosophical moment to an officially urban event.

The volume "XXX-Y 30 ANNI DI FUORISALONE / 1990-2020 Milano Design Stories" will be in the bookstore from 18 January. You can also buy it on the website of Triennale’s bookshop:https://www.electa.it/bookshop/triennale-di-milano/ 
To buy "STORIA DEL FUORISALONE-Eventi temporanei per effetti duraturi", please visit the following link: IBS .
To buy the book "DESIGN SUPER SHOW/2000-2020 Evoluzione e mise-en scène del design al Superstudio di Milano" please visit Amazon or contact Superstudio: info@superstudiogroup.com