It's a fresh start that didn't go very smoothly. And yet in exactly one week the doors of the Milan trade fair will open for a supersalone. The Salone del Mobile had to be canceled twice due to corona. Now the largest furniture and interiors fair in the world, which usually takes place in April, is being rescheduled. It is certain that it will be smaller than usual - instead of two and a half thousand, there will be only 423 manufacturers, and they will not be presented in more than two dozen, but only in four halls. Because, according to the idea of curator Stefano Boeri and his team, there are no large-scale stands, rather they are built upwards. The exhibitors show their new products as if in shop windows, which - this is also new - anyone who likes can stroll by. With a large professional audience, especially from abroad,The organizers do not expect these pandemic times.
Peter-Philipp Schmitt
Editor in the section “Germany and the World”.
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It is a new beginning and many exhibition companies will look curiously to Milan.
Because it is also about the future of trade fairs in their old form.
Is it still appropriate for tens of thousands from all over the world to come together in one place just to look at some new furniture?
The past year and a half have also worked quite well digitally.
For months there was also a discussion behind the scenes about the purpose of this supersalone. After all, the novelties are usually presented in the spring. Next April, the next, the official Salone del Mobile is planned. So why this event in September? Apparently there was a dispute over the question. The President of the Salone, Claudio Luti, resigned. He was followed by the first woman on the post: Maria Porro will welcome the Italian President Sergio Mattarella to the exhibition grounds next Sunday and open the Supersalone with him.
It is a new beginning and more trade fairs will follow. You cannot - yet - do without them entirely. You don't just want to see furniture, you also want to experience it. It should come as no surprise that sustainability has become an even bigger issue in a year like this. Manufacturers and designers do their part - and have rediscovered one material above all: wood.