The Salone del Mobile at Art Week Miami. Here’s how the recently completed 2024 edition went
Soho Beach House Miami
Reportage from the US leg of the on-the-road trip to discover the novelties of the next edition, scheduled from 8 to 13 April
The Salone del Mobile was back in Miami again this year. In a city that seems to be in perpetual evolution, where new construction sites bear the signatures of architects such as Tadao Ando and Peter Marino, Art Week 2024 continues to attract art and design insiders from all over the world, as well as a large number of enthusiasts. Confirmation of just how hot this edition was, was the presence of A$AP Rocky, one of America’s most famous rappers, who presented his Hommemade collection for Gufram at Design Miami. Interviewed by the New York Times about the near future, he replied that his horizon was design. “I think homeware is the new vibe. It's the direction everything’s taking now,” said Rihanna's partner.
For the second time, the Show hosted a big party on the terrace of Soho House in Miami Beach together with ITA - Italian Trade Agency, the Consulate General, the Italian Cultural Institute and leading American associations of architects, designers and builders. Among the over 400 guests were Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator of the Department of Architecture and Design at MoMa in New York, the co-founder of the Formafantasma studio Simone Farresin, Fahad Al Obaidly, Acting Director of the Design Doha Biennale, and the architect Adam D. Tihany. The upcoming Salone in Milan was discussed, and in particular the first ever edition of the Euroluce International Lighting Forum, to which both 10th and 11th April will be dedicated.
Over the course of the next few days, Marco Sabetta, General Manager of the Salone, spoke at the fifth edition of The Best of Italian Design 2024 at the Istituto Marangoni Miami with the Italy-American Chamber of Commerce in Miami. Salone President Maria Porro took part in a conversation with Vincenzo De Bellis, Director of Trade Fairs and Exhibition Platforms at Art Basel, in a packed evening at the Italian Cultural Institute in Coral Gables. Among the topics touched upon, in addition to the role of ‘Italianness’, was the importance of education and the role of responsibility of the Salone and Art Basel, two of the most important art and design institutions in the world.
The installations presented at Design Miami included Herbarium Radiant by Mária Čulenová and Jan Formánek for Lasvit, dedicated to the perception of glass and the future of this eternally fascinating material. Interwoven Narratives by Draga & Aurel for Visionnaire turned the strong connection between art and design that has always characterised the duo's work into an immersive experience, in which works, furniture and textiles became part of an emotional whole. While Edizioni del Pesce curated by Maria Cristina Didero for Meritalia, paid tribute to the late Master with an exhibition project that celebrated the imperfection and subjectivity, and the imaginative and free originality that characterised the great Italian designer's entire output. Plus the aforementioned Hommemade by A$AP Rocky for Gufram, a tribute to the city of New York and an interpretation of a new way of contemporary living.
There was no shortage of events in the city, including the opening of the new Artemide showroom in the heart of the Design District, attended by the CEO and designer Carlotta de Bevilacqua, and the opening of the new West | Out East furniture and design showroom in Coconut Grove. Also deserving of special mention were The Sleep of Reason exhibition containing 1,500 pieces of art and design held at the Craig Robins Foundation offices, the solo show dedicated to the artist Olaolu Slawn, straddling street art and abstract expressionism, at the Saatchi Yates gallery, the one-man show devoted to the designer Jaime Hayon at the Mindy Solomon Gallery and the great exhibition project that enlivened the spaces of the Wolfsonian-FIU museum, bookshop and research centre in the Art Deco District.
