With just under 60 days to go until the opening of its 56th edition, the Salone del Mobile.Milano is the sector’s acknowledged showcase for excellence and quality and the international appointment for those who work in it. It also attracts more than 300,000 visitors from over 165 different countries with its comprehensive and extensive range of goods – from furnishings to lighting to the workspace – and is covered by more than 5,000 journalists worldwide.
5 exhibitions: the Salone Internazionale del Mobile, the International Furnishing Accessories Exhibition, Euroluce, Workplace3.0 and SaloneSatellite, will run concurrently at the Fiera Milano Rho from Tuesday 4th to Sunday 9th April
“The Salone del Mobile is on the home strait and both the companies involved and the organisers are looking forward to mid-April with great optimism. This positive mood is driven by the sector’s upbeat performance during the first ten months of 2016, and it will hopefully maintain this trend over the next few quarters. Italian furnishing continues to gain ground on almost all the international markets. The Salone del Mobile’s strong international vocation saw the return of 67% of the high profile foreign professionals with solid buying power at the last edition”, said Salone del Mobile.Milano president Roberto Snaidero.
Data processed by the Federlegno Arredo Eventi Study Centre show that exports during the first ten months of 2016 confirmed the Salone as a powerful driver for the growth of Italian furnishing and lighting companies. Foreign sales rose above 11 billion euros between January and October last year, with signs of significant growth in France (+5.3%), the United States (+8.1%) and China (+18.4%) in particular.
Following the successful launch of the last edition of xLux - the section devoted to timeless luxury reworked in a contemporary vein - the Salone Internazionale del Mobile has brought in an innovative format for classic furniture and furnishing accessories, in Pavilions 2 and 4, under a new name, Classic: Tradition in the future, and with a more homogeneous, balanced and fluid layout.
The two biennial exhibitions will be running in full synergy with the Salone Internazionale del Mobile, Euroluce in Pavilions 9-11 and 13-15 and Workplace3.0 inside Pavilions 22-24 dedicated to the workspace, as well as the International Furnishing Accessories Exhibition and SaloneSatellite. The 20 years of SaloneSatellite will be celebrated with the SaloneSatellite 20 Years Collection - a special edition of bespoke pieces designed by international designers whose careers took off at SaloneSatellite - and with “SALONESATELLITE. 20 Years of New Creativity”, a large exhibition curated by Beppe Finessi at the Fabbrica del Vapore.
Alongside the purely commercial exhibitions, the fair will feature two events, at the fairgrounds, tying in with the two biennial themes, light and the workplace. The first, DeLightFuL, a portmanteau for Design, Light, Future, Living, is curated by Ciarmoli Queda Studio, which produced Before Design: Classic for the last edition of the Salone del Mobile.Milano, and will feature a short fantasy film d’auteur by multi-award winning director Matteo Garrone. The second event, A Joyful Sense at Work, curated by Cristiana Cutrona, is a visualisation of the evolving workplace scenario of the future, using innovative content to recast the theory of office product and workplace design with four installations, each representative of the cultural characteristics of the international architects’ areas of provenance. America, Asia and Europe will be produced by Primo Orpilla and Verda Alexander/Studio O+A (United States), Arash Ahmadi/Ahmadi Studio (Iran), Ben van Berkel/UNStudio and Jeff Povlo/SCAPE (Holland) and Alfonso Femia and Gianluca Peluffo/Studio 5+1AA (Italy).
Back for a second edition, space&interiors, the only other event officially connected with the Salone del Mobile.Milano, puts the spotlight on architectural finishes. The exhibition Absolute Lightness will round off the 2017 edition, harnessing an innovative interactive and digital display to underline the value of finishes in contemporary architecture.
