Months of silence, yes-maybe-no-well yes weeks. The Salone Del Mobile special light edition is confirmed from September 5 to 10 and design starts again together with city’s economy. But let's not forget the Fuorisalone, at the forefront livening up Milan.

A support and hope machine has been set in motion, that’s good news. 
The great possible void left by Salone, which first suggested a "recovery" edition in September after two missed appointments in April 2020 and 2021 and then wavered for long weeks, will be filled up.
New format, new ideas, well-known curator/s, collective thematic exhibitions, simplified set-ups, probably lighter costs, more inclusive spaces are already on the way. Precisely the project on which Superstudio has already been working for some time for its Superdesign Show Special Edition. A coincidence that reassures us...

Salone and the associated Fuorisalone, moved to September, seemed a certainty, thanks to the improved health situation and Fairs opening. But no. The Salone hangs in the balance. And what about Fuorisalone? Maybe it’s time to strengthen Design in the City, regardless of the Fair. Even with a new name to emphasize a new identity.

Almost every day a fluctuating statement on destinies of the Salone del Mobile in Milan, traditionally in April, which due to the pandemic has already "skipped" two editions, 2020 and 2021, assuming (until yesterday) a certain recovery this coming September from 5 to 10. A date painfully achieved by the dialogue between Federarredo and Cosmit, Salone del Mobile organising bodies, with Draghi Government which had to ensure the certain opening of Fairs prior to that date and with the willingness of the most important companies to be present in the renaissance Fair...

In the midst of what should have been Milan Design Week, the week event that has always made Milan the undisputed capital of International Design, the Government announces positive and confidence signs. A commitment's collective confirmation to start again in September bravely and carefully, from institutions to politics, companies and the whole creative world. Superstudio is there, with Superdesign Show R/evolution edition.

We will have important news on the restart of international fairs soon ”, FederlegnoArredo and Salone del Mobile. Milano point out at the end of a series of meetings with Palazzo Chigi, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Economic Development Ministry, Health Ministry, Ministry of Regional Affairs, which have acquired the Government's willingness to actively support the recovery of Salone del Mobile.Milano and the whole wood-furniture industry already in the next Council of Ministers...

Due to the uncertainty of the effects of the Covid-19, Salone del Mobile has been finally moved to the beginning of September.

Many operators were beginning to wonder about the Salone del Mobile to be held April 2021: yesterday, the Organizers released a communication to inform that the event has been definitely moved to the beginning of September.

Not an easy choice, given what has already happened in 2020, but a choice of responsibility: this solution will leave to the participants a wider span of time to prepare the exhibition, guaranteeing as well a period where the effects of Covid19 are minimal.
The President of the Salone del Mobile, Claudio Luti, declared: "we interacted with Fiera Milano, thankfully we can guarantee a low-risk period..."

16 years ago, Cristian Confalonieri, a design student back then, had a brilliant insight: while trying to plan what to see in the city during the design week, he realised that on the web there was more or less nothing. This is how the website Fuorisalone.it was born and had become the portal that gathers all the exhibitions and projects of Milan Design Week. He co-founded the company Studiolabo that deals with communication design and territorial marketing. Accepting an invite from Council Member Cristina Tajani, he coordinates the Interzone Focus Group where all the most important players of design take part, including Superstudio.

For the first time in 1991, design showrooms gather together under an official guide called Fuorisalone, by initiative of Gilda Bojardi. In 2000, districts of design were born, by impulse of Superstudio that opens its space to design, with the accomplished creation of Tortona District. Later on, the development of other districts such as Brera and Ventura Lambrate... What is the success of the Fuorisalone, an event that the world envies us and uselessly tries to imitate?
I think the success of Fuorisalone is strictly connected to the inability to define it. And therefore to reduplicate it. Is it an event or a fair? Is it BtoB or BtoC? And so on. It is a strictly Italian model, Milanese actually. The city dimension, a little metropolis as it is usually called, is a fundamental element for the event success. We can shortly go through it and all neighbourhoods (who became then areas, and then districts) feel involved...

Today should have been the first official opening day of Salone 2020, with the corollary of Fuorisalone in the city and Superdesign Show at Superstudio. We miss immensely the Milan Design Week, the beneficial tsunami of creativity, the excitement, the curiosity, the sociality, the beauty, the innovation, the vision, the whole world that, for a week, were the life of it. Let’s try to feel again the atmosphere with this 2018 short interview for Sky TG24 to Gisella Borioli, project leader of Superdesign Show. The event is postponed in exactly a year.

Watch the Sky TG24 video

What is going on? Simply the cancellation of Milan Design Week with Salone and Fuorisalone also in June 2020 brought the whole world of design and its surroundings into fibrillation, including organizers, communicators, institutions. April 2021 appears very far away for the cre-active tribe which are designers, architects, entrepreneurs used to anticipate times. So ideas fibrillate and projects take shape. Virtual and non-virtual. Here is Brera Design District launches its renewed fuorisalone.it in June and an expansion of the Fall Design Week in October. Interni under the guidance of Gilda Bojardi could celebrate the 30th anniversary of the design in the city initiative - thanks to her the Fuorisalone started since 1990 - in conjunction with the Salone del Mobile with a macro event like those she is used to organize at the Statale University ...

Despite the crisis, despite the uncertainty, despite the fear, we continue to believe that the appointment with Design in Milan will be - whenever it is - a moment of redemption, trust, beauty, progress, sociality. We are working to return at the beginning of summer with a renewed, sparkling and exciting Superdesign Show, together with the districts of Milan and the Salone. But also ready to propose real and virtual innovations that will make our event even more interesting and irreplaceable. With the presence of large global brands that are wondering about life and the environment. With a stroll through the cultured and technological proposals of the contemporary East. With an endless roundup of young international designers. With a special on Women Designers in the year dedicated to female creativity. With Supercampus ...

“It is precisely in the most difficult moments that tension must not give way and creativity must always think of the future.
Superstudio Più in an open, eclectic space, always ready for new interpretations and transformations. And Superdesign Show, the Milan Design Week event that kicked off the Fuorisalone in the neighborhoods twenty years ago, will be full of surprises to the next appointment .
The new layout for the design event will have as its main theme red, which will connect, sometimes on the walls and sometimes on the floor, the different installations.
Suspended lights in the air will create a magical effect.
Never before has the task of design been to create beautiful projects but above all to make the audience dream!”
 
Giulio Cappellini, art director Superdesign Show