Reflections on Salone del Mobile 2005

By Cristina Morozzi - 8 January 2010

Prompted by too many discordant stimuli, my thoughts on the recent Milan “Salone” bob about like corks in water. In an attempt to give a semblance of order, I shall adopt the review method developed by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, the father of Futurism, in the period 1926-28 when he was the theatre critic for the journal “Impero”. Marinetti divided his articles into seven succinct chapters: author, intention, plot, new twists, execution, stage design, public (Vallecchi, Florence, 1990).
I shall follow this layout, adapting it to the world of design in the hope of ordering my still jumbled thoughts.
Authors (designers) were the undisputed stars of the Milan super show, courted and acclaimed like film stars on La Croisette by design-followers (specialists, journalists, connoisseurs and the simply inquisitive). The Golden Palm went to Marcel Wanders and Patricia Urquiola; the Silver to Naoto Fukasawa and Jean-Marie Massaud. Extremely popular also were Ron Arad, who presented with Moroso, Driade, and was the deus ex machina of the Royal College students’ Living Space installation at Internos.
Marcel Wanders and Patricia Urquiola are, however, responsible for the worrying turn towards decoration that the Salone has taken.
This intriguing Dutch designer started with Droog Design, the promoters, in theory if not in practice, of stark lines. His new-period design (Cappellini and Moooi) is far from these ideals, however, and now not dissimilar from classical decoration, once considered the antithesis of design. The omnipresent Patricia Urquiola (as well as designing for Moroso, including their booth, her products were also to be found at B&B, Kartell, Paola Lenti, Molteni and Foscarini) has the merit of putting women designers on the map, and introducing a warm autobiographical note. However, the work on show was nearer crochet than anything else. Tord Boontje, the other ingenious “embroidery” designer, a virtuoso with a laser cutter, declared that...