THE THREAD OF MILAN
We look back at the annual design festival in Milan and, especially, at the Salone de Mobile Milano. The huge exhibition centre with its numerous halls of furniture and associated interior products is amplified by the Fuorisalone, a massive, almost indigestible myriad of external design events and installations. It’s the place to predict the imminent design future.
Image: Teotro Albers, The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation with AMO, Installation view. Image courtesy of Natasha Stanglmeye. Image above: OYUNA installation images at Salone de Mobile Milano. Image courtesy of OYUNA
This year textile figured unusually prominently, not just with new collections by corporations and independents alike, but intriguingly with textile inspired by art and/or making socially conscious points. This approach was encapsulated in Teatro Albers, the installation by The Albers Foundation in conjunction with AMO. As well as showing large scale room dividers based on Annie Albers pieces originally created for her solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1949, the show emphasised the experimental and process driven nature of Annie and Josef Albers’ work.
Image: Teatro Albers, Ambra Medda and Veronica Sommaruga. Image courtesy of Natasha Stanglmeyer.
To this end Laura de Cesare, a Pisa based weaver wove alpaca and linen Annie Albers-look fabrics, on site, based on Albers’ investigation of Colombian textiles. More intriguingly and in sympathy with their design belief that “experimentation is the object of education and that you can go anywhere from anywhere,” London based designer Marco Campardo created stools reverse painted inside cardboard moulds. “We wanted,” says co-curator Ambra Medda, “designers to reach back and take historically significant works as a point of departure for future design, forging new boundaries within the field and creating work relevant to our continuously shifting environments.”
Image: FuturLiberty, by Liberty Fabrics, www.libertyoflondon.com. Image courtesy of Christopher Horwood.
That was the approach taken, somewhat surprisingly, by Liberty of London. The company, famous for its floral dress fabrics, is seeking to re-establish its reputation as a producer of contemporary furnishing textiles in advance of the 150th anniversary of its founding. Working with renowned designer Federico Forquet they have trawled their archives to discover a series of textiles, ‘Jazz’ and ‘Tango,’ from the 60s, commissioned by their then design director, Bernard Nevill and inspired by the Futurists and Vorticist art movements. Nevill an art aficionado had created a series of geometric designs including one used for a Ziggy Stardust costume.
Image above: FuturLiberty, at Palazzo Moronda. Image courtesy of Lorenzo Palmieri and Electa.
In Milan, Liberty installed 2 shows of FuturLiberty, one at the Palazzo Morando and the other at the Museo del Novecento. The exhibitions centred on original Futurist and Vorticist art works by leading members of both movements, including Balla, Boccioni, Wyndham Lewis, David Bomberg and Dorothy Shakespear; the most extensive displays of Futurist and Vorticist art I have ever encountered. My personal favourite were works by Giacomo Balla, not only his paintings, but 2 suits (‘anti-neutral dress,’) in strong colours with oblique speed lines now in the Missoni Collection (and clearly an influence in their design collections too.)
Image: Print impression and Bernard Nevill designed fabrics, c.1996 Liberty archive. Image courtesy of Thames & Hudson.
The seriousness of the curation was echoed in the designs that came to fruition after 2 years of collaboration between Fouquet and the Liberty design team, which required much toing and froing to Fouquet ‘s Tuscan home, the garden of which according to Mary-Anne Dunkley the current design director, also provided inspiration. The 17 interior fabric designs, included woven, embroidered and printed textiles, 26 cushion designs, 5 throws and 19 fashion fabrics, all of which featured strong geometrics, abstractions, and rhythmic lines, echoing the original art works.
Image above: FuturLiberty, at Palazzo Moronda. Image courtesy of Lorenzo Palmieri and Electa.
Acclaimed designer, Faye Toogood also took original art works as a starting point. Her Esquisses Collection for Maison Matisse owned by the artist’s grandson, was based on Henri Matisse’s works in Chinese black ink on paper (1943). She used them, “to create my own library of shapes,” rather than a literal translation, designing throws, rugs and even furniture displayed alongside Matisse’s drawings.
The other strong textile theme was social awareness, typified by Atelier Luma’s large Felted Wool Pavilion that looked at how to diversify applications of the underutilised resource, wool. Luma, an exploratory studio based in Arles, has a long tradition of investigating woven textile; in Milan they experimented with carded and felted wool. The Pavilion showcased wool’s sound absorbing and aesthetic qualities, but inside contained a robotic arm, utilising customised robotic felting techniques that combined traditional felting with high tech tools, where the needle pulled the bottom colour up to the surface to create programmable motifs.
Image: OYUNA installation images at Salone de Mobile Milano. Image courtesy of OYUNA
A more traditional approach to social concerns was typified by OYUNA which featured an installation of sustainably produced cashmeres made by a specific community in Mongolia. “Our designs are created with the consideration and respect to the land and nomads who are custodians of the land our cashmere comes from,” explained founder, Oyuna Tserendorj. “Threats to Mongolian grasslands are constantly increasing as a result of climate change and overgrazing. Preservation of Mongolia and its nomadic culture is crucial for OYUNA.”
Image: OYUNA installation images at Salone de Mobile Milano. Image courtesy of OYUNA
Commercialisation of artisans was however also evident. In WEAVE, RESTORE, RENEW Loewe showed baskets, handbags and storage made from often discarded materials, The techniques were highlighted in a variety of chairs restyled by unnamed artisans, with leather weaving techniques, the Galician straw-weaving process Coroza, and the Korean technique of paper weaving known as Jiseung. Given Loewe’s support of craft, it was disappointing that the makers were not credited.
On the traditional commercial front, the concern with sustainability continued. Kvadrat worked with ‘star’ designers like Ronan Bouroullec and Muller van Van Severen to produce ‘post-consumer textiles’ i.e. re-used fabric, a popular theme. Bouroulllec popped up again with double sided rugs for Nanamarquina and Soumak alongside high pile knotting technique rugs by Matthew Hilton. Such highly textured rugs were a major feature, typified by Aimini’s re-edition of a 1970s design for Olivetti of rugs featuring a huge tiger, polar bear or lion. Textile really roared in Milan.
Look back at Salone de Mobile Milano HERE
Text by Corinne Julius