“Salone del Mobile” Fair in Milan

CRISIS SHOP - SOLD OUT” 22-27 April, 10am-9pm, Milan Press Preview, Tuesday 21 April, 3pm-7pm Cocktails, Thursday 23 April, 7pm. c/o Showroom Seves glassblock How can a design project help us deal with the crisis that has hit contemporary society without taking away our smiles? The students of the RCA - the prestigious school of design in London - explain all in the exhibition that will be presented during the “Salone del Mobile” Fair, in the Seves glassblock’s showroom at Via Lodovico il Moro 25-27 in Milan.Inaugurated last April 2008, and the result of the colourful expressiveness of brothers Alessandro and Francesco Mendini, the Seves showroom exists and was conceived by its designers not only as a perfect showcase for the technical and aesthetic possibilities of glass block, but also as a location for meetings, training courses and designing, offering itself as an original location for exhibitions and events whose contents can be the most different. Seves glassblock has long been attentive to the world of young designers, as the protagonists of the “architecture of tomorrow”.

After the well-established associations with IED for “Material Technology” lessons and with the PoliDesign for “Hotel Experience design” courses, last year Seves realized a very positive partnership with the Politecnico in Milan.

 From the partnership the “Form and Mutation” workshop was born, a weekly course intended to provide the conceptual and technical tools and knowledge to young students to enable them to express their creativity with the glass block.

That is why the company did not want to pass over the opportunity to associate itself with the creative RCA students, whose department of Design is headed by the dynamic Ron Arad, and to host this exhibition, which deals with a such highly topical theme with great critical spirit and irony.

The concept of the exhibit, which is simple but effective, envisages the use of translucent latex fabrics hung in the space to delimit the different thematic areas: this is a changeable temporary exhibit that fits in perfectly with the architectural layout designed by the Mendinis, recalling its lively colours and accentuating the feeling of “temporariness” typical of every critical phase.

While the existing video room, with a large yellow canvas over it, will be used for projecting films and for lectures, with the critical contributions of Prof. Nikos Papastergiadis (Lecturer at the University of Melbourne), Deyan Sudjic (Director of the London Design Museum), Richard Wentworth (British Artist) and Æsa Sigurjónsdóttir (Icelandic Curator), the central area of the showroom will be used to present the students’ projects: chocolates that are 49%, 70% and 85% crisis, depending on the degree of alarm contained in the message inside, candles with suction pads to deal with any emergency situation, jewellery made of recycled plastic, multi-purpose bags with surprising capacities of containment, take-apart cutlery, LEGO® tables, to objects to be cuddled, to revive more intimate and less consumer-oriented relationships with what surrounds us…

The presentation of these objects will be illustrated through the graphic project by the Åbäke collective, following the exhibition devoted to Hussein Chalayan at the Design Museum in London, who will have the task of identifying the space devoted to the Crisis Shop inside the magical, bright Seves glassblock casket of glass blocks.

SEVES SHOWROOM

Area ex Richard Ginori,

Via Lodovico il Moro 25/27,

20143 Milan. 22-27 April, 10am-9pm.

For info: T. +39 02 89152102 - F. +39 02 89190293

Email: sevesglassblock.milano@seves.it