Superstudio’s Superdesign Show returns to celebrate Design Week 2022 and does so with an important, forward-looking theme entitled “Looking Ahead“.
This year’s edition confirms the creative direction of Gisella Borioli and Giulio Cappellini, who have made the Superdesign Show unmissable and prestigious since the first edition in 2000.
To find out more about what awaits us this year at Tortona 27, we interviewed Creative Director Gisella Borioli.
SUPERDESIGN SHOW finally reopens its doors to the public, after the postponement to September imposed by the pandemic: how are you preparing for this grand reopening?
With enthusiasm and curiosity. With the enthusiasm of the restart, with the hope of rediscovering the euphoric and vibrant atmosphere of past Design Weeks, of reconnecting with relationships, of seeing business and interest in design restart. With curiosity to see if the dark years have had an impact on research and design, if the much-vaunted sustainability really does make us take steps forward in protecting the environment or is it mainly window-dressing, in discovering what is new from the big brands but above all what new names of good and sure hope will appear on the furniture scene. Above all with the desire to perceive whether all the work we have done to prepare an edition of Superdesign that lives up to expectations will be appreciated as always.
Speaking of this edition’s theme, what can you tell us about “LOOKING AHEAD”?
Focusing on the future has always been one of our characteristics when selecting participating companies. Looking ahead is in our DNA. But this time we are doing it even more: geographically by looking at the countries of the East, including Ukraine, a guest with a small but significant presence, and the Far East, with many participants from evocative countries with multicultural collections such as Japan, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong. Anthropologically, focusing on the empowerment of women, still not very evident in this world, and enhancing them in all sectors: art, design, architecture. Whether they are established names or little-known young women. Scientifically: highlighting all the research and sustainable solutions that companies and designers have found to ensure a better world, with less pollution and less waste.
Among the many collaborations with the biggest design brands, what will be this year’s must-see events?
Haier Europe, with its high-performance robotic home, to be experienced in an interactive installation. Alcantara with a surprise event, both serious and ironic, on the theme of sustainability. Lexus with three engaging projects looking at the automotive of the future. Serralunga, together with Biohabitat, takes us to a botanical museum exhibition, a new edition of vases made with recycled plastic and without dyes by designers such as Zaha Hadid, Philippe Starck, Rodolfo Dordoni, Jean Marie Massaud, while an artist such as Milo Manara and an eclectic designer such as Fabio Novembre – with the start-up Affreschi&Affreschi – propose “frescoes-as-wallpaper”. Another space not to be missed is Hypernova, an explosive installation created for glo by Sara Ricciardi, a mix of art and design. And speaking of art, not to be missed is Carla Tolomeo’s exhibition of fabulous textile armchair-sculptures, installed in the new space at Superstudio Più, the FlavioLucchiniArt fashion-art museum, which echoes Maria Cristina Carlini’s sculpture ‘La Foresta’ in flayed wood, located at the entrance to Superstudio.
One of the central themes of the event is certainly sustainability: how can this concept concretely enter industrial production, which concerns the world of design?
We deliberately did not want to emphasise this topic with great special effects, which is no longer a choice but a duty that cannot be ignored. Apart from Alcantara, with its provocative event on the subject, sustainability in many interpretations and solutions is in every exhibition, every installation, every product, every material we present. It is a thread that runs through all the rooms and all the themes. Every visitor will be invited to ask, to inquire, to go deeper.
