Summer 2024 design and architecture exhibitions

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salonemilano, Rhinoceros Gallery, Rome, Italy

Rhinoceros Gallery, Rome, Italy, design by Ronan Bouroullec

From big museums to small provincial towns: ten outstanding exhibitions to visit in Italy and abroad to take stock of the disciplines of design

There are Hans Ulrich Obrist and Salvatore Peluso, Fulvia Carnevale and Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli, Marco Sammicheli and Nicolas Bellavance-Lecompte: the intelligentsia of the world of design that appeals, attracts and intrigues, seems to have laid the table for a summer of inspirational exhibitions and performances. The encounters on show in Italy, Europe, and around the world design a very dense yet wide-ranging map. From Castelbuono to London, from Shanghai to Lido di Spina, culture is an experience to be shared not only in traditional institutional places, but also in small towns scattered across the country. House museums, themed clubs, galleries and public spaces are accessible and democratic stages of sharing, where people can meet, swap experiences and produce knowledge.

Salvatore Peluso, curator and independent journalist, reminds us of this with his precise and radical lunge into ecological practices, never disjoined from social issues. And we are reminded of this by Alessandra Covini and Giovanni Bellotti of Studio Ossidiana, with their installation at the Bruges Triennial, a space that lives and changes like a chimera. We are on the verge of a new utopia and the image of a legendary creature supplants the now obsolete concept of organism, a scientific term, tailored to viruses.

Do we really want to try to change the fate of the planet? A good way to do this is to embrace Claire Fontaine’s feminist commitment, support Marinella Senatore’s participatory activism, and practice intangibility as a form of educational experience. Let’s travel in July, we’ll have the opportunity to swap experiences in September. Enjoy the trip and happy holidays.

salonemilano, Bruges Triennial, Belgium — Bruges Triennial, Belgium

Bruges Triennial, Belgium

Among the protagonists of ‘Spaces of Possibility’, the fourth edition of the Triennial of the capital of West Flanders, the installation by Studio Ossidiana: Alessandra Covini and Giovanni Bellotti alight in the courtyard of the Hof Bladelin, a building from the 15th century, with their ‘Earthsea’ pavilion. “It is a living organism, a contemporary chimera made up of minerals, plants, animals, organic matter, fungi and bacteria”, a place for meetings and exchanges between people and other life forms, completely consistent with the concepts of sustainability and climate change on the discussion table of the event. “We find refuge within it as it grows, breathes, and changes over time, reacting to time and the actions of its human and non-human inhabitants.” Until the first of September.

Civic Museum, Castelbuono, Palermo

Sicily, a land of conquest, contemplates an acquisition of which to be proud. The three works by the feminist collective Claire Fontaine (which gives the title to the 60th Venice International Biennale of Visual Arts), in the ‘Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere’ series, have finally been acquired by the Civic Museum of the Municipality of the Metropolitan City. Consisting of a series of three neon sculpture-words in Italian, Arabic and Persian, the triptych is worth a trip: “I implore you, fellow artists, imagine cities that do not yet exist on the map,” said Pope Francis on a visit to the Venetian event, “cities where no human being is considered a foreigner.” That is why when we say ‘foreigners everywhere’, we are proposing ‘brothers everywhere’. Let’s get closer together.

salonemilano, SALT Beyoglu, Istanbul, Turkey — SALT Beyoglu, Istanbul, Turkey

SALT Beyoglu, Istanbul, Turkey

A tactile and sound scenography to materialize the toxicity of the air. Studio 2050+ is attempting to do this by staging ‘Notes on Air’ in the rooms of the Turkish Museum of Modern Art, a decidedly challenging story to give readings of the composition of the air. Nitrogen dioxide, ozone, carbon dioxide, particulate matter and sulfur dioxide are gaseous substances that enliven an unprecedented landscape of fabrics and embroidery to become visible. Colors and textures depict the concentration of polluting particles and particulates, finally making the intangible tangible: the planet is sick and what we breathe is killing us. Bravo Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli, well done.

Remo Brindisi Museum House, Lido di Spina, Ferrara

A domestic space filled with love, a place of character, a jewel of architecture: for lovers of design, the project and art, the Remo Brindisi Museum House is an unmissable destination. Built between 1968 and 1973 at the behest of the painter himself, the building was designed down to the smallest detail by Nanda Vigo: a manifesto space of ‘integration of the arts’, suspended between real and surreal. A spaceship open to conviviality and designed to preserve family affections and artworks. A democratic and radical dimension of living, where the disquiets of the time when it was created have landed and been preserved, and where Adrenalina chose to take the photos for its catalogue. The Debonademeo studio, fascinated by the features of the summer family residence and contemporary art museum open to all, has revealed a sacred space made in Italy to the general public. It is reached through a pine forest.

Rhinoceros Gallery, Rome, Italy

At the heart of the Italian capital, between the Foro Boario and the Circus Maximus, Rhinoceros Gallery redeems its role as a cultural crossroads. A showcase for intellectual exchanges, it is a center of innovation and creativity where art and design meet. Here, from 21 March, it is staging artworks and objects by Ronan Bouroullec for Galerie Kreo, the research laboratory founded in Paris in 1999. Together the pieces selected give a snapshot of the French designer’s multifaceted world, made up of colors and material explorations revealing his passion for movement and organic forms.

Power Station of Art (PSA), Shanghai, China

Marco Sammicheli goes China: the curator for Design, Fashion, Craftsmanship and Director of the Italian Design Museum of Triennale Milano flies to the other side of the world and, together with Gong Yan, Director of the PSA, dedicates his personal tribute to one of the most beloved studios in the history of contemporary design: ‘Impermanence – 40 Years of Estúdio Campana’ is the exhibition that we would all like to and should see. A mix of objects, projects, drawings and works epitomizing the history, trajectories and insights of the Campana Brothers’ practice less than two years after Fernando’s death. With the exhibit design by Humberto and graphics by Maru Widen, more than fifty pioneering pieces on display, representing and tracing the history of thoughts and actions that anticipated autarky and sustainability, themes that are now central to the future of the profession. Doing more with less, a great life lesson. Until 8 September.

Kunsthaus Stade, Lower Saxony, Germany

Marinella Senatore returns as the protagonist of summer 2024 and challenges rampant nationalism by parading through the streets of the German city. ‘Together we stand’, the famous performance by the School of Narrative Dance is a collective and participatory ritual, an invitation to fragile and marginalized people to take a stand and make themselves visible. The Italian artist, well known worldwide for the poetics of her illuminations, is one of the most attentive and authoritative activists of the movements committed to the issues of justice and climate change. ‘Together we resist’ is a tribute to the struggles for rights that belong to all and an invitation to take a stand, trying to experience solidarity and emancipation. Since 2012, more than seven million people around the world have peacefully joined together by participating in its community dance. Not to be missed, until 8 September.

Circolo del Design, Turin

The relationship between migration and climate change, the formation of sacrificial zones, the ecological costs of the construction industry, the accumulation of plastics in the environment, the reuse of construction waste, the loss of biodiversity, the care of the territory in metropolitan and territorial contexts, the exploitation of scarce natural resources: these are the themes embodied in the architecture and design projects chosen by Salvatore Peluso, an independent curator, journalist and educator for ‘Ecology is social, in practice’. The exhibition, organized around 10 collective design actions led by Italian and European designers to reflect on new ways of inhabiting the Planet, places design at the intersection of the environmental crisis and the most pressing contemporary political and social issues. Necessary. Until 16 December.

Lamia Bousnina Gallery, Tunisi, Tunisia

The cultural season opens with Carthagisme, the exhibition curated by Nicolas Bellavance-Lecompte, Lamia Bousnina Benayed, founder of the exhibition space. It’s a collaborative project that, through the work of six international designers together with as many Tunisian craftworkers, returns to the roots of local culture. Tunisia boasts a vibrant craft community, with nearly 350,000 artisans, predominantly women, playing a vital role in regional development, particularly in marginal areas. Carthage, the ancient capital, embodies this rich heritage. And the format, not unprecedented in the world of design, but well tested, explores more contemporary visions of North African creativity, honoring ancient traditional techniques. Among the protagonists involved are Elias and Yousef Anastas (Palestine), Louis Barthélemy (France) and Chris Wolston (United States). Spicy. Until 29 September.