The 10 unmissable exhibitions of autumn-winter 2024

Text by

Paola Carimati

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Parasite 2.0, Under construction, 2022 - Ph. Stefano Colombo

A roundup of events to mark in your diary. From Italy to Finland via the UK and Australia

Solo shows, traveling exhibitions, festivals: the events that set the standard and blaze a trail to knowledge by means of cultural sampling. Exploring the small scale through niche galleries, forgotten stories and talents to be mapped is the choice embraced by institutions and curators at all latitudes: distancing themselves from the hype to bring culture closer to zero miles. A challenge to the mainstream that finds the new strength of sharing (including digital participation) through word of mouth, elective affinities, and love of the project. Whether they are public or private places, we can tiptoe in and enjoy this new authentic spectacle. Almost in every part of the world, starting from Italy, here are the must-see exhibitions for autumn-winter 2024.

salonemilano, joe colombo — Joe Colombo, Elda 1005, Comfort, 1963 - Ph. Ryan Hernandez

Bulleen Victoria (Australia), ‘Molto Bello: Icons of Modern Italian Design’

An exhibition that tells an extraordinary story. How, through the combination of the rich Italian craft tradition, technological innovation and creative talent, Italian design is invariably the best loved worldwide. Playing on the combination of experimentation and invention, the exhibition, presented by WeBuild and supported by the Italian Australian Foundation and the John and Rose Downer Foundation, tells the story of Made in Italy through 170 iconic objects. There are the evergreens by Gio Ponti and Carlo Mollino, Gae Aulenti and Joe Colombo, the Castiglioni brothers and Ettore Sottsass, Nanda Vigo and Gaetano Pesce. A timeless journey reminding us that design is always beautiful, when it is useful.

Where: Heide Museum of Modern Art
When: from 26 October 2024 to 23 March 2025

salonemilano, formafantasma — Formafantasma, Botanica III, 2011

Gallarate (VA), ‘Hyperdesign. XXVII Premio Gallarate’

Reserved for design projects and processes since the noughties, the exhibition cureted by Chiara Alessi investigates some of the crucial themes of our present: sustainability and the environment, safety and work, inclusiveness and relationships. The protagonists of this open workshop are designers, collectives, ethical and social projects: Acta Architects, Archeoplastica, Arduino, CHEAP, D-Air Lab, Fondazione Tetrabondi Onlus and the Department of Architecture of the University of Roma Tre, Formafantasma, Giacomo Moor and Liveinslums, Internoitaliano, Isinnova, Odoardo Fioravanti, Parasite 2.0, Sex & the City, Studio Folder. (Editor’s note: Together with ‘Art and design. Design is art’ — a project by Philippe Daverio curated by Emma Zanella, Vittoria Broggini and Alessandro Castiglioni — the event stages a three-dimensional dialogue between art and design. The exhibit design of both is by Parasite 2.0.)

Where: Museo MA*GA
When: from 13 October 2024 to 2 March 2025

salonemilano, arte sella, — Quayola Proserpina, #A_S4, 2024 - Ph. Giacomo Bianchi

Borgo Valsugana, ’Quayola Proserpina #A_S4’

The Malga Costa exhibition venue is exhibiting the first of four large site-specific sculptures in Carrara marble devised by the Italian artist. In 2020 he also presented his video installation Jardins d’Été here, a visual tribute to Claude Monet’s brushwork. Starting from the great Baroque and Renaissance tradition, Quayola uses programming code to subject matter to algorithmic mutations, which take the form of sculptures. The artist reflects on robotic sculpture, where technology and machines are not simply instruments but become his veritable collaborators. “I try to investigate the paradigms of the old and the new, the real and the artificial. My work often analyzes the way we look at masterpieces of art and it explores the tensions between direct experience and the point of view mediated by technology.”

Where: Arte Sella
When: from 6 October

salonemilano, arabpop — ArabPop, Issue 4, CASA, Spring 2023

Milan, ‘Houses : Homes’

Growing out of a project by Erica Petrillo, the 14th edition of the Milanese festival of contemporary art, promoted by Video Sound Art, is an open and multi-site event. For the occasion, historic shops, stores and recreational clubs are transformed into exhibition venues for video works and installations by Italian and international artists. The schedule is completed by a dense public program with round tables and performances. Everything turns on the theme of housing: from material factors, such as the right to housing and the ambiguous consequences of gentrification — more relevant than ever in the neighborhood that hosts the festival — to symbolic issues such as the sense of belonging to a community or its denial. The two sides of the coin are then ‘houses’, the architectural and material apparatus of the house, and ‘homes’, its symbolic and affective value.

Where: Lodi Corvetto district, Milan
When: from 24 to 27 October

salonemilano, yanning zeng — Yanning Zheng, Sun Flare

Milan, ‘In prise of shadows’

Clarity and darkness, presence and absence, joy and melancholy: Xiaosu Jing, Hao Han, Tomoro Yamanaka, Chiara Zucchi, Manami Hayasaki, Diliziya Dilixiati, Cecilia Del Gatto, Yanning Zheng and Xizi Du, inspired by Junichiro Tanizaki’s essay, which explores the aesthetics of the shadow in Japanese culture, try to celebrate what is often overlooked. In a world obsessed with clarity and brightness, areas of shadow offer a counterpoint, reminding us that what is hidden can be just as meaningful as what is revealed.

Where: Galleria N.51
When: until 20 December

salonemilano, kimmo metsaranta — Kimmo Metsaranta - Ph. Paavo Lehtonen

Helsinki, ‘FIX: Care and Repair’

Curated by Sara Martinsen, Jutta Tynkkynen, Jemina Vainikka Lindholm and Hanna Kapanen, with exhibit design by Lauri Johansson, the exhibition investigates the design practices of repair and maintenance: how to take care of works of art, design and architecture? Objects and buildings are constantly changing. They age, get dirty and break. Maintaining and repairing things is a form of cultural activism that nurtures our status as model citizens. A very dangerous test even for design addicts.

Where: Museum of Finnish Architecture and the Design Museum
When: until 5 January 2025

salonemilano, martino gamper — ‘Before, After & Beyond', Martino Gamper

London, ‘Before, After & Beyond’

An exhibition that redesigns the architecture of interiors: a music room, a home office, a living/dining room, a bedroom. Each room, reinvented, gives Martino Gamper an opportunity to draw on his output and create decidedly authorial interiors. The exhibition is offered as an immersive experience, a chance to absorb his creativity, to understand the origin of his first plunges into materials and the disruptive force of his industrial explorations, while being amazed by his most intimate and original pieces. After ‘100 Chairs in 100 Days’ in 2007, ‘Before, After & Beyond’ is Martino Gamper’s first solo exhibition in London: a way to take stock of one of the most disruptive talents of the noughties.

Where 11 Mansfield Street, London W1G 9NZ
When: from 7 to 26 October

salonemilano, julie richoz — Julie Richoz, Fabric

Paris, ‘Julie Richoz, Fabric’

In his contemporary design gallery in the heart of Saint-Germain des Prés, Maxime Bouzidi hosts the first solo exhibition devoted to the young French-Swiss designer Julie Richoz. It is a journey into a gentle world where all the interest centers on the new collection of handcrafted lamps. Set on a wooden base, they have three rods supporting a fabric drape that serves as a lampshade. Material and tactile experimentation define not just a new way of designing but also of living. Which becomes more intimate.

Where: Signé
When: from 10 October to 16 November

salonemilano, triennale, monica bolzoni — Left, Silhouette Tailleur *Nanette* in PVC mirror, 2002 (by Bianca and Blu). *Poetica del semplice. Moda e design secondo Monica Bolzoni/Bianca e Blu* - Ph. Adriano Mura, 2021. Right, Photographic portrait of Monica Bolzoni, 2019 - Ph. Gioia Olivastri

Milan, ‘Monica Bolzoni. Il modulo’

An atypical figure in the history of Italian and international fashion, over the years Monica Bolzoni has repeatedly traversed the fashion system, in each case consistently selecting from it with a free and independent personality. Invariably choosing to develop a sophisticated and synthetic aesthetic code, her work revolves around the design of clothes, accessories and jewelry, as well as installations and interiors. A change of scale that never loses sight of the archetypes of the feminine. The exhibition, curated by Marco Sammicheli and Anna Di Cesare, exhibition design by Paolo Giacomazzi, recounts her whole story, a eulogy of simplicity that includes some stages of her career, which began in 1970 in Milan and Paris as a fashion coordinator, a position she initially held with Frank Olivier and later Fiorucci. This enabled her to learn the method and the ability to manage the whole creative process. From the dress to the space, and vice versa.

Where: Design Platform, Triennale Milano
When: from 25 October 2024 to 12 January 2025

salonemilano, mudac losanna — ‘We Will Survive, Le mouvement prepper’, exhibition view - Ph. Khashayar Javanmardi

Losanna, ‘We Will Survive, Le mouvement prepper’

Curated by Anniina Koivu and Jolanthe Kugler, the exhibition is an invitation to enter the world of the ‘preppers’, people who are preparing to face the end of the world, as we know it, and establish the new world order to come. The exhibition explores both the threats that weigh on our existence and governments’ responses to protect their countries from the disasters they cause. We Will Survive, with the help of research from many well-known minds in the contemporary design scene, explores how the new survivalists turn to design to prepare for an uncertain future and ensure their survival. And it encourages us to ask ourselves to what extent we are – or should all become – preppers. the Italians include Studio Folder, Beatrice Balducci, Ezio Colombrino and Leo Fabrizio.

Where: Mudac
When: until 9 February 2025

7 October 2024