Milan Design Week 2023 is preparing to open its doors and among the numerous initiatives of the Fuorisalone, among these the eighth edition of Tortona Rocks, whose main theme is “How do you take care of tomorrow? Design instructions”.
The event will take place from 17 to 23 April and will propose a multidisciplinary program that will focus on design as an interpretative key and solution to contemporary urgencies. The main topics will include technology, the circular economy and social issues, to stimulate reflection on the importance of a lifestyle that is attentive to the habitat in which we live.
The Fuorisalone in Zona Tortona will come alive with numerous events and exhibitions, including that of IKEA in collaboration with Archiproducts Milano and the project by Studio Pepe. Paola Navone will present a special design lottery, while CESVI will exhibit the photographic exhibition of Fabrizio Spucches. Furthermore, this year's edition will see the debut of a new project called ELSEWHERE, an urban foray that will transform the Giambellino district into an alternative place for design.
The question at the basis of this year's edition is “How do you take care of tomorrow? Design instructions”, or how each of us can contribute to redesigning a lifestyle that is more attentive to the needs of our environment and its continuous evolution. Tortona Rocks intends to involve visitors in a reflection on the challenges and risks of our age, stimulating both an individual and a collective vision, where "taking care" becomes a design act and a personal choice.
The goal of the event is also to address the urgency of taking care of tomorrow, today. Border and research territories often represent incubation grounds for new design practices, where design meets the more humanistic dimension, attributing centrality to man, the territory, the social, to re-establish the balance between the artificial and the natural, between tradition and innovation, between technology and empathy.
Tortona Rocks therefore promises to be an edition dedicated to reflection, innovation and awareness of a new way of thinking and acting, capable of shaping a more sustainable lifestyle that is attentive to our habitat.
Highlights of Tortona Rocks #8
Among the highlights of the program, we find the participation of IKEA with Assembling The Future Together, an exhibition celebrating the XNUMXth anniversary of the Swedish brand and its futuristic vision of home furnishing. The exhibition presents a selection of the most iconic products that have contributed to IKEA's success, together with some exclusive previews of proposals that will represent it in the future. A theme dear to the brand which over the years has been able to interpret the needs of people from all over the world by anticipating trends, to transform them into products and furnishing solutions capable of improving life within the home.
The American photographer Anne Leibovitz will be among the prominent guests of the exhibition to celebrate its collaboration with IKEA for the Life at Home Report, announced earlier this year. The IKEA exhibition will also offer moments of entertainment and leisure with an evening repertoire of musical performances dedicated to electronic sounds. The exhibition will take place in the Visconti Pavilion, in via Tortona, 27.
Archiproducts Milan proposes the project instead TERRA, signed by Studio Pepe, to experience interior design and the home with more awareness. Earth is the house we live in every day, and from this awareness a path of connections with the earth is born, in the name of comfort and relaxation, in which nature is the inspiration for the choice of colors and materials. Between reflections and artistic suggestions, a large suspended moon will give shape to a dreamlike space, imagining being at the center of the Universe, which will be animated by talks and insights. Terra is located at Opificio 31, in via Tortona, 31.
The New York media company The Slowdown presents instead Take It or Leave It, an upcycling exhibition curated by Daniel Rozensztroch. The exhibition features an eclectic assortment of hundreds of objects that the designer and architect Paola Navone has collected or designed over time and which will be part of a free raffle during Design Week. The selected pieces will range from antique metal spoons from India, to rare Alessi prototypes from Navone, up to fine German porcelain. The idea for the exhibition comes from a reflection on the role of objects and new productions in contemporary society, already submerged by products of all types. Take It or Leave It will take place in Giambellino, in an off-road urban foray into the neighbourhood.
IQOS will launch a collaboration with the architect Fabio Novembre, presenting an immersive space projected towards the future. Within the IQOS space, a work that looks to the future will be hosted, which will be presented through an installation created by Novembre Studio, to present the four patterns for IQOS ILUMA to the IQOS community. The immersive installation will be open to all interested visitors and celebrates Philip Morris Italia's path of transformation and innovation. The event will be held at the Opificio 31 in Via Tortona, 31.
But the novelty of the eighth edition is SOMEWHERE ELSE, a satellite project created to create new cultural connections between design and the city. Tortona Rocks, which emerges from the historic headquarters of Opificio 31, gives life to a project that will take shape annually, outlining new urban geographies. This year, the territorial digression will have the Giambellino district as its object, in collaboration with MilanoSecrets, an acclaimed address book that allows you to discover Milan through unusual addresses. The initiative features a mapping of clichés, from the anthropological laboratory of food to the bookshop, from the pharmacy to the historic wine bar and other situations. Here, design will enter to stimulate a new dialogue and stress design as a widespread and endemic Milanese value, bringing design even further into our lives.
