‘Erupting Beauty at Furniture Show’ by Alice Rawsthorn, The New York Times
The New York Times design critic Alice Rawsthorn reviews last week’s furniture fair in Milan:
MILAN — Little did I know when I began this column a week ago by suggesting that the most sensible question for anyone to ask at the Milan Furniture Fair — “Does the world need another chair?†— was that it would soon be ousted by something more urgent: “How can we get out of here?â€
Those dystopian clouds of volcanic dust stopped thousands of people from flying in or out of Milan at the worst possible time — the busiest week of the city’s year. No sooner had the first flights been grounded than the talk at the fair turned from furniture to who was or wasn’t stranded; whether so-and-so had managed to nab the last seat on that flight from Rome; and the going rate to be driven to Paris.
What a party pooper that volcano turned out to be, because until it erupted, things were going rather well (give or take the lingering effects of recession). The Milanese weather gods often greet the 300,000-plus people who flock to the fair with relentless rain, but this time they were kinder and the weather was glorious. The city was at its loveliest in the spring sunshine, with budding leaves and blossoms softening the gnarled stonework.
There were some great things to see. One Italian design grandee, Alessandro Mendini, co-curated a magical exhibition of his personal take on Italian design at La Triennale Design Museum. Some 700 objects ranging from a replica of Michelangelo’s “David†to corkscrews, espresso machines, pieces of pasta, original models of E.T. and a giant bottle of Campari were jumbled on plinths as if at a flea market.
Shamelessly kitschy and often puzzling, the results were also thoughtful, witty and poetic.
 Another maestro, Enzo Mari, achieved a similar effect on a smaller scale with a wonderful show of 60 paperweights he has collected over the years at Kaleidoscope, an indie publishing house. Chunks of concrete, wood and marble, bits of machinery, old ink bottles and crystal shards perched on musical scores, notes scrawled in Mr. Mari’s spidery handwriting and his drawings.
The young Dutch designer Maarten Baas scored the public relations coup of the week by introducing an iPhone app based on his Real Time project, an alternative clock for which actors “tell the time†by physically indicating the number of hours and minutes.
By the end of the opening day, the Milan streets were papered with fly posters advertising “The newest Maarten Baas for only 99 cents.â€
There was even a successful geographic addition to the fair in the industrial suburb of Lambrate, where lots of young designers showed. Some were a tad pretentious. (One urged us to rediscover the “sensual pleasure†of washing up. Excuse me?) But Design Academy Eindhoven, the hot Dutch design school, staged a compelling exhibition of its graduates’ conceptual projects — titled “?†(An apt title at a time when design is in flux.) Z33, the Belgian contemporary design gallery, put on a “pop-up†version of its current show, “Design by Performance.†And the IN Residence project in Turin presented the fruits of its workshops with intriguing pieces by Pieke Bergmans, Formafantasma, Julia Lohmann and other rising stars.
Back to business, which is, of course, what the Milan Furniture Fair is all about. The global recession has softened since last year’s fair, and the industry was, if not more confident, at least less nervous about the outcome this year. Thankfully they were right. The market is still considerably weaker than in its glory days before the credit crunch, but as Rolf Fehlbaum, chairman of Vitra, the Swiss furniture group, confirmed, there has been an improvement.
When the recession struck, there were fears that manufacturers would do what they had done in past downturns, and play it safe by commissioning conservative pieces from established designers, rather than experiment with new names. Happily this hasn’t happened, although the new names masked the fact that many companies introduced fewer new products than usual and made them less technically ambitious, thereby reducing development costs.
An exception was lighting, where advances in energy-efficient LED and OLED technology (apologies to techie readers, but to be super-simplistic, LED is a tiny, intense spot of light, and OLED a fine layer of light) are enabling manufacturers and designers to invent new types of products.
“We’re only just beginning to realize the potential of these technologies,†said Piero Gandini, president of Flos. “The results are already very exciting.â€
An intriguing development in furniture was the emergence of what we’ll call the superleggera (literally, “super-lightâ€) style of lithe, angular pieces that look like subtly technocratic takes on the 1950s work of Italian designers like Franco Albini, the Castiglioni brothers and Gio Ponti, one of whose chairs was named the Superleggera.
This was evident in the new chairs developed by Martino Gamper, Konstantin Grcic and Jerszy Seymour for Magis, as well as the elegant copper objects made by Aldo Bakker for Thomas Eyck. Among the most accomplished examples were the slender aluminum Central tables designed by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec for Magis and their Lighthouse light for Established & Sons. “We felt it was time for something gentler and quieter,†Ronan Bouroullec explained. “I heard a French perfumier talking about how 30 years ago, women wanted powerful scents to announce their entrance to a room, but now they prefer them to be subtler. I feel the same way about furniture. I’m so bored with the showoff stuff.â€
But enticing though those superleggera pieces shows are, the 2010 Milan Furniture Fair will be remembered for one thing — the after-effects of that volcano, and how everyone finally managed to get away.
For the original New York Times article click here
La Triennale Museum curated by Alessandron Mendini
iPhone Application by Maarten Baas (Poster)
OLED Light by Ingo Maurer
Central Table by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec for Magis