The 53rd edition Biennale Internazionale d’Arte exhibition, this year entitled Making Worlds (Fare Mondi), to be held at the Gardens, at the Arsenale as well as other sites in Venice, will open to the public from June 7 to November 22, 2009, and will bring together in one exhibition more than 90 artists from around the world to showcase new works of art expressing a myriad of varied and diverse creative languages.

Refin will loan some of their DesignTale Studio works to the Fondazione Teatro La Fenice for the opening events as well as throughout the duration of the exhibition, and create the Fenice Design On Stage event. The celebrated rooms of the Gran Teatro la Fenice in Venece will host the exhibition of Pareti d’Autore by DesignTaleStudio created for the Design On Stage events of last years.  The works and set-design created by Michele De Lucchi, Sandra Bermudez, Karim Rashid, Elio Fiorucci and Romina Power will be exhibited and the guests will be given informative literature on DesignTaleStudio creative laboratory.

The inauguration of the event will be on Saturday, June 6, and the work will be exhibited in the theatre until September. This event represents a unique opportunity to once again underline the creative drive guiding DesignTaleStudio, which will be present at the Temple of International Art, the Biennale in Venice, with a strong co-marketing event.

For those who would like to attend the opening of the event, an invitation card (which should be compiled and sent to us) is attached.

Krizia was the guest on the last day of Trascreativity at the Triennale in Milan. The fashion designer told us about the different aspects influencing her style, relating some anecdotes about her career and not holding anything back when she was asked to express her idea on hot design topics.

In this video, Krizia comments on her ceramic prototype created for DesignTaleStudio: a composition of six 60×120 cm ceramic slabs depicting a huge panther and a leopard.

The final event of Design On Stage was scheduled for Sunday 22, when we played host to Sandra Bermudez, the conceptual and feminist artist of Columbian descent, who has always had a close association with the world of fashion in Italy.
Sandra told us what being a feminist means to her and explained the relationship between her art and fashion. The visual theme of her DesignTaleStudio project is crushed paper; her porcelain stoneware slabs are created in such a way to look like cascades, from “extremely crushed” to smooth, and have dashed pink grouts cutting across the work, symbolic of the feminine presence.

[tags]Sandra Bermudez, art, feminism, Design On Stage, blogmilano[/tags]

On Saturday 21 Design On Stage at the Triennale should have seen the presence of Peter Halley who unfortunately had to call short his trip to Italy due to a sudden engagement. Satyendra Pakhalé, designer for, amongst others, Philips, Alessi, Cappellini and Moroso, accepted to stand in for Halley and spend the afternoon with us.

During his intervention, Pakhalé, who loves to call himself a “cultural nomad” touched upon various aspects associated with the cross-cultural relationship. According to the designer, it is pointless today to talk about a “western” culture rather than an “eastern” culture, but about a “human culture”, a mix of atmospheres and influences recalling many different places in the world, even faraway one from the other. Ceramic, a material as ancient as the world itself and at the same time technologically advanced, is the perfect symbol of his concept of a future that must be linked to tradition; and, in this sense, he is excited by today’s opportunities for architects to re-invent the “tile”.

[tags]Satyendra Pakhalé, design, India, video, Triennale, Design On Stage[/tags]

Yesterday, Karim Rashid came to visit us on the Design On Stage set. There was a lot of anticipation surrounding his awaiting, as he is one of the most recognisable and influential designer of popular contemporary culture; and, judging from the public participation, the expectations were more than fulfilled.

The live unscripted appearance of Rashid was principally centred around his vision of design as an expression of values of the time in which we live, and as a fundamental part of bring life to the future. His was a very profound chat, more a philosophical-anthropological one, rather than one on style. But, beyond trends and fashion, Rashid believes that, planning industrial goods means changing the every-day behaviour of people, society and the world. And that today is marked by an excessive anchorage in the archetypes of the past, and by the need, for designers of material objects, to fill the deep void and cultural aesthetics that separates them from the digital universe, characterised by the design of much more innovative products in line with today’s time.

Rashid’s very presence and his charm was testament to the fact that, today, he can be considered as an authentic popular icon. The watching public was made up of many students from around the world, who took part in the debate, often with very direct and provocative questioning, such as whether it should really be considered that glamorous to be one of the best designers in the world (Karim’s answer is at the end of the video, so we do not want to spoil the surprise for you…).

Yesterday was the turn of architect Michele De Lucchi, who has spent 3 decades as one of the protagonists of the design elite on a world-wide scale. Once again he captivated everyone present with his charisma and personality.

During the discussion, De Lucchi touched upon numerous interesting themes, often with “strong” and provocative statements. He spoke of the designer as a “builder of identity”, a fundamental role in today’s multi-cultural society, and for the need to have an experimental approach to planning even at the risk of harassing the constraints imposed by industry and the market. He confessed his passion for the “craftsmanship” of wood, paid homage to his two “Homeric masters” “Ettore” (Sottsass) and “Achille” (Castiglioni), two figures from a completely opposed intellectual flair for design.

Today, in the space dedicated to Design On Stage at the Triennale of Milano, Karim Rashid will be the guest. The meeting will be at 18.00 (and details will be on the blog tomorrow).

Yesterday the day at Design On Stage was dedicated to Elio Fiorucci, the fashion and all-round communication guru, and collaborator from the very outset of DesignTaleStudio. The meeting with Elio centred around the launch of “The Mouth”, the porcelain stoneware slab he created for DesignTaleStudio, pure synthesis of a concept that, from time and memorial, is based on sensuality and young and free spirit.

Despite more than 400 visitors in less just over 2 hours, the atmosphere was relaxed and pleasant, in keeping with the spirit of Design On Stage. A big part of this was, as can be seen from the video, the contribution of Fiorucci himself, who was always courteous and fascinating in his “chats on microphone” that saw him as the protagonist when talking to the watching journalists and members of the public.

Fiorucci’s spoke on a wide range of subjects, but always preaching his passion and love of life and his work. From the spirituality of art to ceramics to fashion. One poignant moment was when he spoke of his latest project, Love Therapy, placing its roots in the characteristic mood of his famed store in Corso Vittorio Emanuele, “a place where one was always certain that no harm could came of you”.

For us, who worked so hard to plan the event, the meeting with Fiorucci was a veritable injection of enthusiasm. What about you? Leave your comments here, and if you took any photos, please send them to us, we will publish them on the blog.

This afternoon’s meeting at the Triennale is with Michele De Lucchi (we will post it on the blog tomorrow).

Just one day before the beginning of Design On Stage, event curator and designer Laura Villani speaks about the exhibition space.

The Design on Stage 2007 event taking place at the Triennale Museum during the Salone del Mobile trade-fair in Milan will, within a space planned with works of art mounted into the Pavillon facade, present the majesty of a place in constant motion where, every day, new stars bring to life the stage, that is also part salon, part photographic set and part location for a design exhibition.

Pareti d’Autore has been planned by prominent figures of the international elite, emanating from different artistic environments such as architecture, design, art, fashion and music. The extraordinary artists who designed the Pareti d’Autore created by DesignTaleStudio are Sandra Bermudez (art), Michele De Lucchi (design), Elio Fiorucci (fashion), Peter Halley (art), Romina Power (music) and Karim Rashid (design) each of whom will be, in turn, the protagonist of an audience introducing his/her creative world and posing for the set of Claudio Porcarelli, the renowned photographer to the celebrities who will be present with his entourage to realize an exhibition in progress that will create the portrait of the creative world of 2007 present at the Salone and present, in a book, his collection of photographs giving a panoramic view of the portraits gathered.

The show-casing space has, therefore, many different functions at the same time: première for the presentation of the Pareti d’Autore collection, photographic set where the audience is the direct spectator of the shoot, art exhibition to show the artists’ collections and the key concepts lying behind them. A place where the different art expressions can live together and where everyone can interact as an author, spectator, visitor or simply inter-actor among the different artistic currents involved.

The furnishing elements themselves offer an innovative perspective of the ceramic cladding, making it a real design surface, brilliant and seductive like a pure gold case. A constant commitment to design and project planning that saw me working on many different fronts: from the planning of the collection and of the Pavillon, to the event presenting the authors and the photographic work in progress.

Following the events with Elio Fiorucci, Michele De Lucchi and Karim Rashid, on Saturday 21st Design On Stage will host the minimalist American artist Peter Halley, who designed an original slab for DesignTaleStudio. Below you can see a detail of his original drawing characterized by the geometrical game between “cells” and “prisons”, that, in this case, represents the layout for the different material effects on the slab surface.

As with other days of Design On Stage event, there will be a cocktail from 6 p.m. and Peter will meet the registered guests and will comment with them on his artistic concept and his original creation for DesignTaleStudio. An interesting and “tempting” aspect of Saturday event will be the presence of other leading figures among the audience attracted by the outstanding caliber of Halley: Alessandro Mendini, Elio Fiorucci, Karim Rashid and Sandra Bermudez.

In order to obtain a free invitation to the cocktail with Peter Halley on Saturday, April 21, please fill in the registration form.

[tags]Peter Halley, Design On Stage, Milano, Triennale, Fuorisalone, Salone del Mobile, design, Refin, DesignTaleStudio, blogmilano[/tags]

This is a detail of the original drawing for DesignTaleStudio designed by Karim Rashid, that will be presented this week during Design On Stage at the Triennale in Milan.

As you already know, Karim Rashid will be with us at the Triennale on Friday, April 20. From 6 p.m. on, Karim will share cocktails together with the registered guests, introduce his slab purposely created for DesignTaleStudio and speak about himself and his artistic career within the informal and friendly environment of Design On Stage. Of course, we will report on the day with interviews, pictures and videos in Designtalestudio.com blog, so stay tuned!

For those who haven’t already done it, it’s still possible to register to the cocktail with Karim Rashid on Friday, April 20. We would also like to communicate to the fans of the Egyptian-American designer that Karim himself will be present also on Saturday 21, among the audience attracted by Halley’s genius.

[tags]Karim Rashid, Design On Stage, Milano, Triennale, Fuorisalone, Salone del Mobile, design, Refin, DesignTaleStudio, blogmilano[/tags]