Salone, Milano and Beyond: the Salone centre-stage in New York and Toronto

Robert Wilson, master of the creative use of light, from theatre to video art 

The American artist will be the protagonist of a Masterclass at the Euroluce International Lighting Forum on 10th April. He will also open the week of the Salone with his extraordinarily powerful project Mother, dedicated to the Rondanini Pietà. The work underscores the universal and timeless value of Michelangelo’s masterpiece, which will strike up a theatrical dialogue with the Stabat Mater, in the vocal and instrumental version by the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. The installation will take the form of a 30-minute sequence of music, lights and images in a continuous loop, which will be open to the public by appointment until 18th May, in parallel with live performances of the Stabat Mater until 13th April. Lastly, Robert Wilson will also star in the opening night of the 63rd edition at La Scala as the curator of The Night Before. Object Chairs Opera with the Teatro alla Scala Orchestra conducted by Michele Spotti.  

Robert Wilson had this to say: “I set out to create my own vision of Michelangelo’s unfinished masterpiece torn between a feeling of reverential awe and profound admiration. Prevailing over all, however, is a feeling of serenity, of peace with oneself even in the face of the tragedy of death. Which for me has nothing to do with religion. It is a universal image, a spiritual experience that moves something deep in us that needs no explanation.” 

Maria Porro, President of the Salone del Mobile.Milano, commented: “We are particularly happy to have the opportunity to present here in New York two very important projects that will imbue the  Salone and the city with wonder and fascination: Villa Héritage by Pierre-Yves Rochon, a well-known architect in the U.S. hotel and luxury residential interior design world, who has created iconic interiors in New York; and Mother by Robert Wilson, an eclectic artist who, like few others, has the ability to explore the full landscape of the arts while remaining faithful to a unified poetics expressing his vision in this very city.” 

Euroluce 2025: the first edition of The Euroluce International Lighting Forum  

The first edition of The Euroluce International Lighting Forum will be held at Euroluce 2025 on 10th and 11th April, promising two packed days, held in the arena designed by the Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto. The project is directed by Annalisa Rosso in collaboration with APIL. The programme, entitled Light for Life. Light for Spaces will feature 6 masterclasses, 2 round tables and 2 workshops, and see 20 international speakers take the stage – lighting designers, artists, scenographers, botanists, scientists, biologists and anthropologists – invited to share their visions, insights, research and design practices, cutting across complementary disciplines in a bid to stimulate a deeper understanding of the future of lighting.  

Alongside Robert Wilson, the protagonists will include the Dutch duo Drift; Stefano Mancuso, the “plant neurobiologist” and Director of the International Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology in Florence, and a leading botanist and essayist; the “solar designer” Marjan van Aubel; the Japanese lighting designer Kaoru Mende, a master of light and shadow; A.J. Weissbard, the American lighting designer and artist, who  works all over the world in theatre, opera and dance; Rogier van der Heide, who has illuminated some of the world’s most iconic collective spaces, from the Beijing Olympic Stadium, to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Then, from the Big Apple there will be: Hervé Descottes of L’Observatoire International, known for its innovative and artistic approach to light, which has illuminated such extraordinary projects as the Philharmonie de Paris and the Qatar National Museum in Doha, both designed by Jean Nouvel, as well as the High Line and the Alice Tully Hall at the Lincoln Center in New York.; Elisa Orlanski Ours of Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group, a company that manages the marketing and sales of luxury real estate projects such as 432 Park Avenue, Rafael Viñoly’s skyscraper and Central Park Tower, the world’s tallest, and whose iconic projects include Hudson Yards and the Waldorf Astoria residences as well as Bjarke Ingels’ The XI in NYC, Renzo Piano’s Eighty Seven Park and Zaha Hadid’s One Thousand Museum in Miami. 

After New York, the Salone made a landfall in Toronto on 23rd January, before returning to Europe to start the countdown to the 63rd edition of the Salone del Mobile.Milano, accompanied by the new communication campaign, Thought for Humans, devised by Dentsu Creative Italy, which entrusted the American photographer Bill Durgin with the task of making tangible the subtle relationship between the human body and matter, the starting point and the intersection of every experience with the world of design.