The Best Of The 2009 Milan Furniture Fair

You may be confused at to just what exactly is the name of the week long event in Milan, which is the world's largest trade show for furniture manufacturers and designers, where many new collections are debuted for the first time. Just to make it clear for those of you who do not follow furniture design as if it is your life's blood, the week long event in Milan took place from April 22-27th and it's often referred to by various names such as the following:

Salone Internazionale del Mobile
The Milan Furniture Fair
The Milan Show
Salone del Mobile
Guida Fuori Salone
the Milan report
iSaloni

So many bloggers, journalists and photographers have done an excellent job covering the 2009 Salone del Mobile in Milan this year, that rather than duplicate many of their efforts by covering the week long event, I just wanted to share with you some photos (from designws) from them as to what I feel are the stand out pieces and displays.

After the photos, there are links to the best sites, databases and online magazines with coverage of the show.

Gaetano Pesce for Casamia:

Dosh Levien for Moroso:

Tord Boontje for Moroso:

Front Design for Moroso:

Matali Crassalt for Established and Sons:

Peter Marigold, Design Miami /Craft punk:

Javier Mariscal for Magis:

Jaime Hayon for Baccarat:

Fernando and Humberto Campana for Edra:

Marcus Tremento:

BCXSY:

Frank Gehry for Emeco:

Stephen Burk's M'Afrique collection for Moroso:

Martin Baas:

Zaha Hadid for Artemide:

Ross Lovegrove for Artemide:

Chris Kabel for Droog:

Nacho Carbonell for Droog:

Karim Rashid for Meritalia:

Studio Mendini for Meritalia:

Byblos Cas, Mendini Atelier:

Scholten & Baijings:

Pieke Bergman's Lights:

Tom Dixon:

Arik Levy for Swarovski:

Studio Job's tableware and stained glass:


Kiki van Eijk and Joost van Bleiswijk for Skitsch:

Michael Kruijne for Zuiver:


And below are links to what I feel are the best and most comprehensive round ups of the week long furniture fair by various bloggers, magazines and companies.

Links to the best online reports and photo collections from Milan (in no particular order):

twentytwentone has a superb flickr set here

designws has daily reports from each day and hundreds (really!) of great photos here

Wallpaper magazine's highlights, videos and coverage here

At Casa's special Salon coverage is wonderful here

designboom's daily coverage featured some of the best picks here

design magazine Dezeen's coverage can be found here.

Inhabit's daily coverage here

Interni has a wonderful guide that includes daily video interviews, photos maps and more here

The New York Times coverage in The Moment here

The Los Angeles Times photo gallery (32 images) of the event here

Fast Company's coverage can be found here

So, you can stop googling stuff and just go to the above links, it will save you much time and grief while simultaneously enlightening and delighting you. Enjoy!

Conceptual Art Meets Luxury Lighting: Holzer, Starck, Flos And Baccarat

Conceptual artist Jenny Holzer, best known for her "truisms"and light projections teamed up with uber designer Philipe Starck, Baccarat Crystal and FLOS lighting to create 2 unique lamps; a floor lamp and a table lamp, comically named HOOO!!! & HAAA!!! The lamps debuted at this past week's Salone Del Mobile in Milan.

Below are some examples of Jenny Holzer's phrases, known as Truisms, that run within the lamps:
Expiring For Love Is Beautiful But Stupid
Decadence Can Be An End I Itself
Abuse Of Power Comes As No Surprise

To see more truisms, go here.

The Floor Lamp aka HAAA!!!:



Only 9 editions of the floor lamp will be made and each will cost a hard-to-swallow $110,000.00 USD approximately. The floor lamp is an iteration of Starck's previous work for Baccarat, the Firelamp, only now it stands 6 feet tall and incorporates an LED display of Jenny Holzers' Truisms that runs vertically within the Baccarat Crystal stand.

Philippe Starck is shown below with his lamp:


base detail:

Starck's Firelamp for Baccarat:



The Table Lamp aka HOOO!!!:
49 editions of the table lamp will be made. This one costs approx $10,000.00 USD. The design is based upon their classic Eury Dice vase, only now with the incoporated LED light strip displaying Jenny Holzer's Truisms.





Baccarat's Eury Dice vase:


The majority of images in this post are courtesy of Moritz Waldemeyer, who did the custom electronics work for the lamps. He was generous enough to share these wonderful images (and the text is his own commentary) of the impressive invitation from Baccarat and Flos to the inaugural dinner at Salone Del Mobile.


above: The invitation to the launch dinner goes into history as the technically most advanced and most elaborate invitation ever. Each guest was sent a small box containing a mirrored cube. Inside this cube was a tiny LED matrix display that scrolled the text of the invitation including the date and location.


above: Included was also a small tool to switch the cube on and to access the battery, should it need to be changed in the future.


above: At the dinner the guests received the catalogue which had a cut out in which the cube fitted and where it was held in place by 4 invisible magnets.


above: The circuit contained in the cube is the most sophisticated piece of electronic design required by any of our projects so far. It contains about 100 LEDs, a processor, on/off switch and a battery to produce a fully functional text display on a board of 25mm by 25mm in size. To fit all components in an aesthetically pleasing layout required many days of manual optimisation and the first working prototype was soldered by hand to test the design.

special thanks to Domus, DesignWS and Corriere for additional images

Baccarat
Philipe Starck
Jenny Holzer
Flos

Alessandro Mendini's Nod To His Own Design: Proust Chair In Miniature

Based on the Italian designer's own 1978 Proust chair, Alessandro Mendini has created a series of 14 miniature ceramic versions in conjunction with SUPEREGO editions.

The original chair (source):
The Proust Armchair was first designed by Alessandro Mendini in 1978. This unique armchair represents the original meeting between handcraft and design, between classic and modern. It is part of Mendini's series "redesigns furniture". Believing that Modern Design had reached the end of its natural life and that designers could no longer create innovative designs, Mendini "redesigned" acknowledged classics. The Proust chair is inspired from the Louis XV style. Mendini was attempting to create a feel for the work of late XIX Century author Marcel Proust and used a style of chair of the period.


above: The Proust Armchair, now produced by Cappellini, is hand-carved on a hand-painted wooden frame, upholstered with fixed multicolor fabric matching the colours of the structure. This armchair is the re-edition of one of the historic pieces of contemporary Italian design. It is available in two multicolored versions.

Now, the new miniature ceramic versions:

Each miniature ceramic Proust chair measure 40cm high. The solid colors are limited to 55 of each, the three metallic versions are limited to 45 of each and the two pixel patterned versions are limited to 35 editions of each.

Solids:









Metallics:



Patterned:



The piece were shown at the Tingo Design Gallery in Milan, Italy during Salon del mobile. If you are interested in purchasing one, please contact the gallery.




About the artist:

Architect Alessandro Mendini was born in Milan in 1931. He directed the magazines Casabella, Modo and Domus. Monographs on his work and his projects with the Alchimia group have been published in different languages.

His focus is on objects, furniture, concept interiors, paintings, installations and architecture. International collaborations include Alessi, Philips, Cartier, Swatch and Hermès. Alessandro Mendini is a design and image consultant to many different kinds of companies, including ones in the Far East. He is an honorary member of the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem. In 1979 and 1981 he was awarded the Italian Compasso d’Oro of design; in France he carries the title of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres; he is the recipient of an honorary title from the Architectural League of New York and was also awarded an honorary doctorate degree from the Milan Polytechnic. At the Universität für angewandte Kunst in Vienna, Mendini worked as professor of design. His work is featured in many museums and private collections.

With his brother Francesco Mendini he opened Atelier Mendini in 1989, designing the Alessi factory in Omegna; the new Olympic pool in Trieste; a series of subway stops in Naples; the refurbishment of the Naples City Hall, the Byblos Art Hotel in Verona; the new Trend Group headquarters in Vicenza, Italy; a commemorative tower in Hiroshima, Japan; the Groninger Museum in Holland; a district of Lugano, Switzerland; the Madsack office building in Hanover, a commercial building in Lörrach, Germany and other buildings in Europe and the USA.

Now, I have a thing for chairs. If you do too, check out:
Artists Take A Seat: Various Paintings of Chairs By Contemporary Talents