An exhibition, a postage stamp, and an all-around brand update. Andrea Meneghel, Director of Marketing, Innovation and Sustainability FederlegnoArredo, tells us about it
10 events involving design, art and architecture to prepare for autumn
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Venice Design Biennial
A selection of cultural appointments to mark in your diary. From Milan to Venice to Rome, passing through Naples
The scale is the local one, of the human dimension: except for the work of Giuditta Vettese, a young Italian performer who brings the gaze, the body and modesty to the stage in London as instruments of connection. A necessary incursion that resonates in the creative explorations, projects and cultural insights of Edoardo Tressoldi in Matera and Duccio Maria Gambi in Milan, Francesco Faccin and Beppe Finessi in Rome and Davide Biancucci in Gessate, Anna Quinz in Naples, Paola Niccolin in Piacenza and Giovanna Massoni in Como. Ten moments of reflection, ten opportunities to reflect on the time we are going through and try to reconnect with what we risk losing. Forever.
Venice Design Biennial
Extinction / Salvation is the curatorial theme proposed by the curators Luca Berta and Francesca Giubilei for the fifth edition of the lagoon festival. Among the more than 40 designers selected in the exhibition, Lucia Massari at the SPARC* Contemporary Art Space and Guillermo De Yavorsky at the Space for the Arts SPUMA. “We will all become extinct. Reluctantly or joyfully. Or perhaps on the contrary, will we all be saved? The apocalyptic tone is so widespread that everyone adopts their favorite conditioned reflex in defense: nihilistic condescension, activist rebellion, messianism, denialism, indifference, whataboutery... Design is in a singular position,” the curators say, quoting Emanuele Coccia, “to address the neo-anticapitalist imperative starting from an intrinsic residual faith in objects. Bearers of meaning in daily life.” Long live design.
Where: SPARC* + SPUMA, Venice
When: until November 2
Ph. Delfino Sisto Legnani, Piercarlo Quecchia
Dark Times, Bright Signs
Panorammma, Jirah, Diaphan Studio, Duccio Maria Gambi, Joy Herro, Natalia Triantafylli, Unicoggetto / Zihan Zhao and Wei Xiaoyan are the art designers featured in the installation “A journey shaped by form, matter, and the shadows we live with”, in the Milanese gallery in the heart of Brera. “Times have been dark more than once in history, and the world has been falling apart for centuries, it has always been repeated, generation after generation,” says Valentina Ciuffi, curator of the exhibition (with Studio Vedèt as creative director and exhibit design by Space Caviar). “Today, however, dystopia is visible in HD, certified, experienced in real time through technologies and corroborated by scientific theses accessible to all. And what’s more, apocalyptic thinking surrounds us, it has become mainstream.” On display are objects that absorb, interpret, exorcise, feel the world and work on inwardness. Creativity, an apotropaic weapon.
Where: Delvis (Un)Limited, Via Fatebenefratelli, 9, Milan
When: from 24/09/2025 to 01/02/2026
Pedestals
Pedestals support, elevate and display: while remaining in the shadows, they act; through form, material, height and arrangement, they guide our gaze. They are never neutral. Hence the pedestal is not only a support, but a mediator between the work and the world, between the artist and the viewer. It is never neutral. Francesco Faccin’s solo exhibition at the Giustini Stagetti gallery is a truly poetic and radical reflection that recognizes the design dignity of the role of the support. Threshold, presence and active device in the observer’s gaze, the exhibition “unhinges the visual and conceptual hierarchies to showcase this mute servant”, says Francesco Faccin. “Mine is a gesture of listening to what is normally silent. A celebration of what is marginal and what hits the mark.” Always coherent.
Where: Galleria Giustini Stagetti, Via Gregoriana 41, Rome
When: from 10/10/25 to 15/11/25
Ph. Tiberio Sorvillo
Sciscioré. The game as an alpine gesture
A title, Sciscioré, which borrows the Ladin word for the game of marbles and naturally restores its Neapolitan musicality: a play with linguistic hybrids that anticipates what will be staged in the spaces of La Santissima in Naples. Here the exhibition curated by Anna Quinz will land in this hub overlooking the Parco dei Quartieri Spagnoli: a foray into alpine design that, viewed under the lens of play, recovers the historical matrix of the toy. 24 designers are involved, selected to restore an authentic and profoundly contemporary meaning to this field of research, which over time has developed around the mountains. Furnishings, accessories, lamps and fabrics, made of wood, ceramic, steel and glass stud “a world that is anything but uniform and crystallized. Rather, a wealth of extraordinary skills and workmanship that, without transmission, risk being lost,” Quinz points out. The art of play needs to be protected.
Where: La Santissima, Edit Napoli
When: from 10 to 12 October 2025
