On the day of the cancellation of the Cologne Fair in January, the Salone del Mobile announces two more international events after New York

It is significant that, just a few hours after the announcement that the January edition of the Cologne Fair will not take place, the Salone del Mobile has presented two more stages of its program of international events (in Shanghai and Hong Kong) after the one that just ended in New York with Bloomingdale’s.

But it happened.

And it was natural to ask ourselves, faced with the news of a furniture fair that is canceling, what would have happened if, during the Covid pandemic, the Salone del Mobile in Milan had not chosen to reconsider its role, its vision, its processes and tools. If it had not opened up to its public re-examining its physical, cultural and communication assets and had not grasped the potential of digital and learned to exploit it as a tool to expand its role as a connector of people and content.

“The news from Cologne is very bad news,” said presenter Maria Porro, commenting on the announcement while presenting the calendar of activities. “Covid represented a turning point for trade fairs, requiring responses that traced different trajectories in the sector. As Salone del Mobile, in that moment of general difficulty, we adopted decisions considered disruptive with respect to the international context: with the Supersalone in September, then the postponement of the fair to June, changing the exhibition layouts after practicing various techniques for listening to our various audiences, introducing digital formats and investing in internationalization strategies. Companies, the press, our stakeholders have followed us and this remains our vision”.

A vision that, also considering the scheduled attendance in the various continents, seems to want to position the Salone del Mobile no longer as an international fair in Italy but as a widespread event, with a key location and moment in Milan but which is expressed – with different formats and timing – in the markets considered key for the companies that are part of its circuit.

Like China for which Italy is the main exporter of furniture (value 479 million euros) and which brought to Milan, during the last edition of the fair, the highest number of visitors ever.

The Salone del Mobile in Shanghai: The Orbit’s Orbit

The first of the two Chinese events will be in Shanghai, where an new format will be tested, in partnership with the Asian art fair West Bund Art & Design: a performative installation in which dancers will interact with more than 50 icons of Made in Italy according to a scenography and choreography by the artist Matilde Cassani.

The show, entitled The Orbit’s Orbit, will be staged from 8 to 10 November, in the spaces of the homonymous architecture, designed by Heatherwick Studio.

The Salone del Mobile in Hong Kong

The second stop is Hong Kong, from 11 to 21 November, with “SaloneSatellite Permanent Collection 1998-2024 Exhibition”. Promoted by IDFFHK – International Design Furniture Hong Kong and Designworks Foundation in the spaces of the Arts Pavilions, in the heart of the cultural district of West Kowloon, the exhibition will present a selection of over one hundred projects from the Permanent Collection of the SaloneSatellite, founded and curated by Marva Griffin Wilshire.