Superstudio Maxi born as a new experimental environment, which ones are the main goals that you expect from this venture?
Superstudio Maxi was born from the observation, pre-pandemic, of how much the needs of Milan Weeks, Milan City weekends, and the events, looking to unique, open, inclusive, easily accessible spaces and with the nearby Metro, have grown.
In addition to the desire to repeat the experience of the Tortona area, that is a peripheral area following the project of the Municipality of a city 15 minutes from everything, even in the suburbs.
The schedule of the “Passion Days” that we are building will bring creativity culture knowledge innovation also in Barona, an area of Milan already in turmoil for the new architectures under construction.
The big gold sculpture (9 meters!) by Flavio Lucchini at the entrance of the venue is a bit of a symbol of all this.
What is the guiding threat of the exhibitions for Superstudio Più 2021 and why?
In this special and painful edition of Milan Design Week, too late to be commercially attractive, and with all the limits placed on travel and events, we had to reinvent the format.
We then focused our attention on “areas” left in the shade by the large, spectacular and international installations of recent years.
I thought of making small thematic exhibitions, mainly of Italian products and projects, and entrusting them to various independent, well-known and competent curators.
There will be, among other projects, CULT & MUST, a “temporary museum” that historicizes the iconic products of recent years, SUPERCAMPUS, multifunction proposals for the new way of living, studying, working that emerged during the health emergency, both curated by Giulio Cappellini.
There will still be SMART-HOUSE, interactive experiences in the home driven by artificial intelligence. And, as always, a look at art, including a symbolic installation that alludes to the effort of the recovery: an elephant that flies tied to a snare by a child, by the artist Stefano Bombardieri, curated by Ettore Mocchetti.
With a surprise: little girl and elephant talk to visitors through their iPhones. And a preview: the opening of the “personal museum” of Flavio Lucchini, our artist-president, with a collection of hundreds of works that talk about fashion and design created in the last thirty years.
In terms of design expositions, what Milan could do more to maintain the Crown of design Capital?
Keep the dialogue between the Fair and what happens in the city high and lively. Making the Salone and Fuorisalone a unique event, The Milano Design Week, harmonized in strategies, policies, communication, objectives, timetables, rules, in order to create a “design system” that does not put the various players in competition but in synergy.
A dream that I have been cultivating since 2006, when I collaborated with the then Mayor Letizia Moratti, with whom we started the journey. Even though different constructive approaches have been made in the years, only now, after 15 years, something seems to be moving. I hope that the social drama experienced in the last two years and the danger of losing the primacy of design capital make it clear that united is better.
Which is the level of social responsibility that a significant exhibition such as Superdesign Show must consider at each event, how you find the right equilibrium with the commercial aspect?
An old proverb used to say “Advertising is the soul of commerce”. Today we would say “communication, visibility is the soul of the business”. All the more true in time of the internet, social media, digital communication, a thousand tools to make yourself known among thousands of competitors.
We immediately chose to focus on innovation, quality, research and the future. On a stimulating mix between great protagonists and young talents. Not so much on the single object to sell, but on what lies behind it, from heritage to extreme technology, and to make it understood.
We have also opted for a formula antithetical to trade fairs: loyalty to the claim “less fair and more museum” has always been our mission, asking companies to sacrifice the size of the logo and the quantity of products to enhance the company’s history, of his research, his leading projects, the designers and “staging them” in a spectacular, emotional, photogenic way. We also offer many opportunities to increase their communication, with an internal press office active all year round, with at-superstudiomagazine.com digital magazine updated daily and with a monthly paper edition, with the Superdesignshow.com site and all the other sites of the Superstudio group available. It follows that our events have exceptional press and media coverage and consequently the companies that most follow this philosophy benefit.
The result for companies is an increase in visibility, notoriety, prestige, and therefore business.
