Beyond the borders

photos David Zanardi - by Cristina Monica

AT THE Triennale, A SERIES OF VERY DIFFERENT INSTALLATIONS PROVIDE A 360-degree overview of design IN MANY OF ITS APPLICATIONS, BEYOND furniture, BEYOND light and even fashion, cars and boats.

With a more craftsmanlike approach, using traditional materials, a futuristic vision emerges

Danish Chromatism, a very colorful interpretation – in blue, in this case – of Danish design. The exhibition curated by Signe Byrdal Terenziani was installed by the Italo-Dutch duo Gamfratesi using a selection of pieces – some new, others icons from the past – produced by about 30 Nordic companies.		For its 30th anniversary Prandina presented Sand, Fire and Air, an installation created by Filippo Protasoni, putting glass objects back in touch with their material origin: sand.

Below, traditional natural cotton costume, with impalpable layering, shown in the context of Constancy & Change in Korean Traditional Crafts.		The exhibition – with exhibit design of great visual impact by Migliore + Servetto Architects – focused on the traditional values of Korea, demonstrating the modern quality of classic Korean crafts in everyday objects made with different materials.

Installation by Xavier Lust & Ateliers Georis presented in The Toolbox, an exhibition organized by Belgium is Design, on contemporary Belgian design that still owes a lot, today, to the work of Henry van de Velde (to whom the show was dedicated), the Belgian artist and designer born 150 years ago. The Face of Time, an exhibition of watches by the Florentine producer of fine timepieces Officine Panerai, featuring the timeless design of certain iconic models.		Above, Flexible Architecture proposed by Philippe Starck for Ceramica Sant’Agostino: a collection of 3D tiles that become an integral part of architecture.

Above, Ludovica+Roberto Palomba showed Benetti Design Innovation, an installation based on a small 3-meter model of the Jolly Roger yacht, spotlighting Italian excellence in yacht design by narrating the evolution of the historic Benetti shipyard, now in its 140th year of activity.		At the Material Connexion space, Setsu & Shinobu Ito presented Frottage – Natural History. Using the frottage technique applied to natural and sustainable materials, the Japanese designers try to bring out the soul of objects.

Some of the seats presented at Taiwan Contemporary Chairs, the exhibition of crafts from Taiwan.		Different applications and ways of working bamboo in Chinese design objects, presented in the show Handmade in Hangzhou.

World premiere for Twin’z, the 100% electric concept car based on collaboration between Renault (under the supervision of the vice-president of Renault Corporate Design, Laurens van den Acker) and the English designer Ross Lovegrove. An original, very playful approach to the city car, which in this model inspired by the natural world combines essential and refined design with sophisticated technological devices. Special LED lighting makes it possible to play with light in guided programs.

The name – Wonderland – already clearly reveals the source of inspiration for the surreal installation created by Ferruccio Laviani for Unopiù. Small colored gazebos scattered in the Triennale garden but connected by an ideal trail in wood, revealing surprising solutions for outdoor furnishings by the Italian brand, or depictions of dreamy beings of different kinds form an imaginary world. In the meantime, models of chairs in red emerge on the walkway, as if catapulted out from some subterranean world. Photos by David Zanardi and Stefano De Monte.

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