FuoriSalone 2021: unmissable events around the city

With its events, some of which are dedicated to young designers, FuoriSalone 2021 will also colonize the less traveled districts of Milan. Here's where to go, what to see and why

FuoriSalone 2021 will not only occupy the historic design districts but also, as often happens, also the areas where you cannot arrive without a good reason. The characteristic search for unexpected locations and the rehabilitation of decayed industrial spaces has therefore not withered even in the Covid era. And it is excellent news.

Here is a selection of FuoriSalone 2021 events that are worth seeing (and why).

Alcova 2021 in via Saint Bon 1, Inganni area

Three buildings designed in the shape of a temple, for some bizarre historical reason. Today they belong to the state property and were once used by the Military Hospital and inhabited by the nurses. This is the location chosen by Alcova, the appointment with experimental design curated by Joseph Grima and Valentina Ciuffi that has been expected for some years at the FuoriSalone. “They are spaces where nature has had the upper hand, inside an abandoned, wild park, a magical place”, says Valentina Ciuffi.

Why do we like it? “This year I expect a crazy energy, completely new, similar to the one breathed in the first events of the FuoriSalone. We feel like children ready to start something new”. And also: “We believe in the exhibition as a physical experience, together with other people and in surprising places”.

What to see at Alcova 2021? “As usual, Alcova is built around the work of many different people, without real curatorship, guided by a principle of elective affinities and a common vision”. It is the alchemy of one of the unmissable events of FuoriSalone 2021.

LOM - Locanda Officina Monumentale, via G. Ferraris 1

LOM - Locanda Officina Monumentale is a brand new project by Andrea Borri, Michele Borri, Stefano Micelli and Alfredo Trotta, to encourage and accelerate the concrete encounter between 4.0 technologies and the supply chain of small artisan businesses. It is a candidate to become one of the new hubs of design culture, within a beautiful sustainable urban regeneration project.

Why do we like it? First of all it is worth going to see the place, a farmhouse that later became a workshop, surrounded by a garden restored thanks to a project by the Hortensia studio. in an area in full swing but still being defined.

What to see at the LOM - Locanda Officina Monumentale? The contents of the opening are reserved, but interior design deserves, with pieces by Francesco Faccin, Tommy Fantoni, Federico Peri and Alessandra Salaris, all belonging to generations X and Y: a segment of professionals whose work is hinge between artisan tradition and digitization.

Alpha District, the district in the former Alfa Romeo area at Portello

Piazza Gino Valle, one of the largest in Milan, is the epicenter of the youngest and largest FuoriSalone 2021, in the former Alfa Romeo area. Alpha District is a bold project, born in an area neglected by city tours, the Portello.

What to see in the Alpha District? There will be the Cathedrals, exhibition pop-ups occupied by brands and designers. And the Hysteria exhibition, a project by young designers, men and women, around the themes of the female condition around the themes of pleasure and the body.

Why do we like it? Because Hysteria revolves around a widespread but ignored object in its most metaphorical meanings: the vibrator. And it is an opportunity to talk about women in an unusual but fundamental space of thought. And because one of the cathedrals in piazza Valle will be occupied by a new collection of Antonio Aricò puppets. Which in the meantime, however, also presents its new collection for Moooi from Calabria. A hint on the definition of typicality and cultural roots.

Michael Anastassiades' solo exhibition at FuoriSalone 2021, ICA Foundation

Cheerfully Optimistic About the Future is Michael Anastassiades' first Italian solo show, a highly anticipated event by the design community.

Read an interview with Michael Anastassiades here

What will there be? The Cypriot designer presents a personal research that comes out of the rigorous geometric canons that are familiar to him. Bamboo and pewter are the materials of choice, completely new in the language of Anastassiades. ICA Foundation Milan | Contemporary Institute for the Arts, via Orobia 26, office@icamilano.it.

Why do we like it? The exhibition starts with a Glossary Room, which collects a selection of objet trouvés from the designer's personal collection. An opportunity to understand one of the most fascinating obsessions of designers: the collection of materials, objects, tiny natural remnants. A spontaneous alphabet that Anastassiades combines with a rigorously little interventionist approach.

Other FuoriSalone 2021 events around the city: list being updated

Time and Place of Matter (Constellations), an exhibition, hosted by Simposio Design in viale Umbria 49, of the ceramic models of the architectures of Gianluca Peluffo, produced in the furnaces of Albissola.
Sono tazza di te! 100 smashing women designer, curated by Anty Pansera and Patrizia Sacchi, Boschi di Stefano House Museum, Marieda di Stefano Ceramic Laboratory, via Giorgio Jan 15.
RoGuiltlessPlastic 2021, Sala del Cenacolo and Vinciani Cloisters of the Leonardo da Vinci National Museum of Science and Technology, via San Vittore 21. The 2021 edition of the exhibition and the plastic redesign award, conceived and curated by Rossana Orlandi.
No entry, The secret places where magic is born. At the Arcimboldi Theater, viale dell'Innovazione 20, seventeen design studios interpret the dressing rooms to give a new soul to those magical and secret places where actors, singers, dancers and musicians prepare to enter the scene.
Officina Milano, the new Mohd space inaugurates, with a high visual impact setting designed by Studiopepe, Botanica Collettiva, in via Mauro Macchi 82.
Earth cubed - living in the future, an exhibition that arises from the research activity on eco-design that ISIA Faenza has been carrying out for some time, focused on the home of the future and sustainable design. Cloisters of the Humanitarian, via Francesco Daverio 7.
Assab One (via Privata Assab 1) proposes the fifth edition of the 1 + 1 + 1 format. A three-way dialogue, curated by Federica Sala, between the Belgian architects Jan De Vylder / Inge Vinck, the Piacenza artist Claudia Losi and the Turin duo of artists / botanists Caretto / Spain. Three interventions that speak of care, time, relationships and a new look: another, non-invasive way of living in the world.
In Alcova, Onda Calabra is staged, a collection of ceramics and fabrics by Trame, a French brand that has chosen Calabria as a territory of investigation and production involving local artisans, and De Rerum Natura, an installation created by Gupica for Visionnaire with the collection of sculptures bright Aracea that draws inspiration from lianas with large leaves (read here the interview with Eleonore Cavalli).
In the spaces of Ordet, via Adige 17, the ephemeral installation Unnatural practice by Marcin Rusak Studio, curated by Federica Sala, is exhibited. A collection of perishable pieces explores the perpetual cycles of renewal and decay of nature, showing the decay process of works of art as much as their final results.
Design against gender inequality. The Sipario di Myin collection is staged at the Hyatt Centric Milan Centrale hotel (via Giovanni Battista Pirelli 20), the proceeds of which will go in part to support the Amleta association against discrimination and abuse in the entertainment world.
Lasvit, a blind lighting company specializing in traditional Bohemian glassmaking, presents the Perspectives exhibition, consisting of two design concepts in tandem, A: Live and Fireborn, at the Czech Consulate (Czech House) in Milan, in via G.B. Morgagni 29.
Dehomecratic is a new brand of furnishings with a 'democratic' spirit, which combine quality and accessibility, outside the box of an elitist concept. The first collection, which incorporates the designs of Giandomenico Belotti, will be presented at Green Hub, in via Feltre 28/6, between NoLo and Lambrate.
Nilufar Depot, in Viale Lancetti 34, inaugurates a fascinating journey into the territories of art. In the large atrium of the creative space, Nina Yashar proposes Matacubi by Pietro Consagra (1920 - 2005): nine sculptures-objects with rounded and sensual shapes that invite two or three to sit down, creating a playful, immediate and direct involvement with the user.
At Villa Mirabello, in via Villa Mirabello, the exhibition (La) Natura (è) morta?, curated by Sabino Maria Frassà, which exhibits the results of the eighth edition of the Cramum prize. Alongside the young finalists, 12 established artists, including the duo Bloom & me formed by Carolina Trabattoni and Valeria Vaselli who present the cycle of 8 site specific works L'erbario apparente. With an unprecedented mix of photography and ink drawing, the artists create a sort of herbarium in which nature is only apparently dead.
Be water, a large site-specific installation imagined by Toiletpaper with Disegual, will contaminate the impressive architecture of the historic Cozzi municipal swimming pool in viale Tunisia 35, which, exceptionally, opens to the public of Milan Design Week.
LaFeltrinelli Piazza Piemonte will be transformed into Interno D.200, a project, curated by Victor Vasilev, inspired by the masterpieces of Dostoevskji, on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of his birth. A metaphorical interpretation of the value of 19th-century Russian literary culture, as well as an invitation to read.
FuorisalonePlogging will be a walk / run through the streets of design for the collection of plastic waste. On Thursday 9 September, the DAAA Haus studio calls design enthusiasts together to actively collaborate in cleaning the environment, combining it with healthy physical exercise.