For its third edition Lake Como Design Fair is expanding and inaugurating a new broader format. After two years as an exhibition, the Lake Como Design Festival now comes into being, an immersive experience of the historic centre of Como and its lake.
On this first employment of the new format, the festival takes up a theme that will unfold with a series of events in the historic centre of the city of Como, involving the city and its lake. The new urban scale of the initiative means that the festival will be in a position to perform a public function, even though in itself a private venture linking up the diverse activities and realities of this area.
Lake Como Design Festival is an event conceived and produced by Wonderlake Como (1).
The Ridotto, the large foyer of the Teatro Sociale of Como, and heart of the previous fairs, will play host to the exhibition History Repeating. How designers look at history. An event that will be the major aspect of the changes introduced with the new format. Marco Sammicheli (2) will be the curator of an exhibition that will explore the different stories of modern and contemporary design as an archipelago of islands to be navigated around. The exhibition will show how designers and businesses look at the past as a richly nuanced project theme, where diverse interpretations arise, not only nostalgic in nature, but also embracing numerous different approaches such as reworking, research, provocation and affiliation.
On this third occasion of the event, the general public will be treated to an opening of one of the jewels in the city's crown: Palazzo Mantero. Inside the Palazzo, Lake Como Design Festival will present The Originals, at which a selection of the best international design galleries of the 20th century will be invited to reflect on the theme of icons and their interpretations, presenting an exhibition format in line with the theme of the exhibition at the Ridotto of the Teatro Sociale. The event will be a chance for visitors to buy unique and original pieces, and a source of inspiration for contemporary designers, as well as a great opportunity for the general public to discover Palazzo Mantero for the first time.
Even more itineraries are in the works to be: one dedicated to the outdoors, interpreted in the light of the Festival's, another one focused on contemporary designers and one more about the archives, them all will enable visitors to discover the historic courtyards and secret gardens of the city that will be opened especially for the Festival.
(2) Marco Sammicheli, born in Fano in 1979, is curator for the design, fashion and craft sector at Triennale Milano and Superintendent of the Italian Design Museum. He is a visiting lecturer at the Shenkar College of Engineering and Design in Tel Aviv. Editor of catalogues for galleries and museums, he is also a columnist for Wallpaper* and Il Sole 24 Ore.
(1) Lake Como Design Festival is part of a broader cultural enterprise promoted by the Wonderlake Como association which seeks to support and develop all the potential of the lake’s beauty and artistic and architectural heritage through cultural activities in the area. The cultural project aims to reach out to all of Italy and around the world, making known all the special qualities of an area that has always enjoyed its own strong identity. Wonderlake Como is engaged in publishing projects and in organising cultural events that bring to public attention those extraordinary spaces that are sometimes inaccessible to the general public, or those that have remained little known or that have been forgotten over time. It provides opportunities for local places to embrace international input and languages in fundamental exchanges of viewpoints so important for establishing new connections and gaining new perspectives.
A project by
- Associazione Wonderlake Como
- via Alessandro Volta 70
- 22100 Como, Italia
- P:I. 03735950135
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- info@lakecomodesignfestival.com
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