With an artwork named after the great genius, Mondadori Store continues the city of Milan’s 2019 commemorations of the 500^th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci.

Appropriately in the square that is the symbol of Milan, Piazza Duomo, an imposing luminous installation by Marco Lodola dominates the outside of the Mondadori Megastore LEO, which is the name of the artwork that Marco Lodola has dedicated to “Leonardo, an illuminated man”, features the face of the genius and with its universally recognised characteristics, his beard and, in an abstract manner, the powerful gaze which the artists expresses with luminous bands of coloured light that harmoniously intertwine symbolising the maestro’s infinite skills, the immensity of his work and the great significance of his discoveries.

The collaboration between Mondadori Store and the artist continues also in the collection “st’art. Art for everyone”, a project of the Mondadori Group’s bookshop chain the every month successfully promotes an exhibition of contemporary art.

The work inspired by Leonardo da Vinci leads on to a series of neon sculptures produced by Lodola and on display on the façade of the Mondadori Megastore in Piazza Duomo: from Eden (2015), a luminous dancer, and female symbol of an uncontaminated Eden, holding up a red apple, the colour of life and passion, to the celebrated head-butt by Zidane against Materazzi immortalised in a 3 metre-high installation in plexiglass and LED entitled Mio cugino (2016), in a clear reference to the popular Italian description of the French as “our cousins across the Alps”. And ending with LuminosaMente (2016), a large open book, symbol, symbolising reading, that for months has illuminated the centre of Milan.

Milan is inaugurating the first ”Ed Quarter”, an “experience room” store dedicated to Ed Sheeran!

To coincide with the release of his new album NO.6 COLLABORATIONS PROJECT, on Friday 12 July, the spaces of the Mondadori Megastore in Piazza Duomo in Milan will be transformed into a meeting place, with interactive activities, games musical experiences, as well as a store.

The event will start at 6 pm on 11 July with a extraordinary extended opening until midnight, to enable fans to but the album immediately, and will continue until Sunday 14 July.

Watch the Ed Sheeran video : https://www.instagram.com/p/BzfFZ0Nosbm/?igshid=1lc0ni6re1fns

Among the initiatives and surprises planned to enter the word of Ed Sheeran:

A special photo booth where visitors can take photos by entering the “I Don’t Care” video, official and exclusive merchandising and, only at this point of sale, an instawall where fans can leave a message for Ed.

But it is music that will be the big protagonist: Warner Music will give emerging artists the opportunity to perform on Ed Sheeran tracks on a specially created stage. To take part, aspiring performers will have to enrol, submitting their details and a short video before Wednesday 10 July  to: warnermusicitalyofficial@gmail.com

A number of luck applicants will be selected and will become protagonists of the Ed experience!

Plus, a karaoke to sing with your friends will be available, along with exclusive gadgets.

But that’s not all, from today, fans who pre-buy the album from Mondadori Megastores in Piazza Duomo and Via Marghera in Milan, Arese and Vimercate or on mondadoristore.it, will have priority access to the Milan Ed Quarter on Thursday 11 from 6 pm and to enjoy an exclusive preview of the NO.6 COLLABORATIONS PROJECT.

Today sees the opening – at the Mondadori Megastore in Piazza Duomo in Milan – of the first OD Caffè, a new meeting point for those in search of a moment of relaxation and conviviality in the heart of the city.

This further enhances the offer of Mondadori’s flagship store  in Piazza Duomo, the most extensive space dedicated to culture and leisure in the centre of Milan, an authentic reference point for fans of books, music. films. technology and events, and able to serve 2 million customers every year.

OD Caffè will be both a place to meet and relax, where the convivial atmosphere and range of food with a gourmet touch, in a colourful and flowery interior spread over two floors with a view of the cathedral, create the right mood to spend time with friends or read a good book or newspaper, before going back to the daily routine.

From breakfast to the mid-morning or afternoon break al break, a range of different coffee blends, aromatic teas, soft drinks and cakes; or for lunch or dinner, with tasty entrées and main courses; and then appetizers, for fans of cocktails and buffets rather than dinner. All conceived with attention to detail to offer a real gastronomic experience thanks to the variety of menus for every occasion. There will also be the chance to taste specialities in collaboration with the chefs of Terrazza Calabritto.

OD Store Group has won over the tastes of Italians with Italy’s largest chain of stores selling sweet and savoury products, with more than 50 stores in Milan and across the country.

The concept of OD Caffè was developed by the architect Franco Costa (Costagroup), and the technical project was curated by Studio Marsan.

OD Store is open every day, from Monday to Wednesday, from 7 am to 10 pm, and from Thursday to Sunday, from 7 am to 11 pm.

Monday 17 September will see the launch of “OFF”, a new series conceived and presented by Edoardo Sylos Labini and promoted by Mondadori Store, which will bring to its events area of the Mondadori Megastore in Piazza Duomo in Milan some of the most famous and popular personalities in Italy.

Giusy Versace, Roberta Bruzzone, Vittorio Sgarbi, Raul Cremona, Vladimir Luxuria and Carlo Cracco are just some of the protagonists involved in 8 events on the programme that starts next week: one event per month until April 2019 will animate a late afternoon in Milan with fascinating revelations about the personal and professional lives of famous faces from the world of the arts, sport and entertainment.

They will be welcomed by Edoardo Sylos Labini who, accompanied by the voice and guitar of singer-songwriter Daniele Stefani, will give a new form to his OFF interviews: the eclectic Roman artist will adopt the role of presenter in a “salon” made less formal and attractive by unseen images of the guests and continuous interaction with the audience, who will be able to interact live with their favourite personalities.

“For an artist, an interview is often like an audition,” said Edoardo Sylos Labini. “If there is no feeling with the interviewer this can create tension. And if you don’t feel relaxed sometimes you can end up saying things you didn’t mean or intend to say. By switching roles, I try to make the interviewee feel at home with a friend, in an intimate setting. This is how the OFF interviews were launched in my web magazine ilgiornaleOFF.it, revealing some of the most secret aspects of the lives and careers of the interviewees and it’s a great joy that we can no bring the format to the Mondadori Stores”.

“The initiative picks up and develops the format of Manzoni Cultura, which last year brought us together with Sylos Labini,” declared Francesco Riganti, marketing director of Mondadori Retail, “and foresees a series of new and exciting encounters with personalities for a range of areas, from sport to the arts, the media world and cooking. The backdrop for the events will be the elegant location of our Piazza Duomo megastore, which has now been a point of reference for culture in Milan for more than 10 years: an irreplaceable hub and meeting place for the entire city that brings people together, where the guests of ‘OFF’ will be able to talk about themselves in a spontaneous and unusual way, sharing feelings, anecdotes and interesting stories about their private and public lives.

The series will start on Monday 17 September at 7 pm with Giusy Versace, the paralympian athlete, winner of silver and bronze medals at the European Championships in Grosseto in 2016, and who in recent years has demonstrated an extraordinary capacity as a TV presenter and theatre actor.

The OFF programme at the Mondadori Megastore in Piazza Duomo will then continue on 17 October, again at 7 pm, with the philosopher and essayist Diego Fusaro, and on 7 November with the criminologist and psychologist Roberta Bruzzone. The last date for  2018, will be 3 December when the protagonist will be the art critic Vittorio Sgarbi. Then, on 11 January 2019, it will be the turn of journalist and TV presenter, Serena Bortone.

From news to magic, on 5 February the amazing Raul Cremona, will tell some incredible stories from the world of conjuring. On 8 March. meanwhile, Sylos Labini will be face-to-face with writer Nino Spirlì and Vladimir Luxuria, activist, dramatist and TV presenter, to talk about sexual identity and civil rights. The series will come to a close of 16 April 2019 with award-winning chef Carlo Cracco, supported by a female chef from the Elior Group who will reveal some secrets fro special occasions.

The Media Partner of the initiative is the web magazine IlGiornaleOff.it, the detailed online version of the Saturday supplement of Il Giornale, edited by Edoardo Sylos Labini. The official Sponsors of the series include: Artisti Annuario Internazionale di Arte Contemporanea, Elior, Felicia and Lineapelle.

The complete schedule of OFF series is available at the webstie: https://eventi.mondadoristore.it/it/

The Mondadori Megastore in Piazza Duomo, the largest space dedicated to culture and leisure in the heart of Milan, celebrates with the public it’s first 10 years with a calendar of events, from 19 April right through to the end of May.

For tens years an exceptional driver of cultural events and presentations in the city, the Mondadori Megastore in Piazza Duomo has in this time become an established point of meeting and entertainment for Milan with a varied offer ranging from meetings with authors, singers and protagonists from the world of entertainment to workshops and initiatives for children.

In the week from 19 to 23 April dedicated to the  new book fair Tempo di Libri, the Mondadori Megastore Duomo will also become one of the locations for Fuori Tempo di Libri, a series on events that will animate the city of Milan with book-related activities such as readings, literary cocktails and musical performances.

The inaugural event will take place on Wednesday 19 April, from 5.30 pm to 9 pm when the megastore will be animated by cosplayers and literary-themed games (Sherlock Holmes, Madame Bovary, Wonder Woman, Harry Potter), wine and chocolate to toast the store’s 10^th anniversary, free sweets for customers and the opening to the public of the 3^rd floor terrace, for those who wish to photograph Piazza Duomo from a privileged vantage point.

At 6.30 pm authors in conversation moderated by Alessandro Barbaglia, with the writers Paola Calvetti (Mondadori), Fabiana Giacomotti (Mondadori Electa), Marco Weiss (Frassinelli) and the B.Livers (Sperling&Kupfer).

The cosplayers of Harry Potter, Sherlock Holmes, Madame Bovary and Alice in Wonderland will also animate Sunday 23 April, from 5.30 to 9 pm.

An award ceremony will take place on Thursday 20 April at 6 pm for the first edition of the competition “6 romanzi in cerca di autore” (6 Novels in Search of an Author), organised by Kobo Writing Life, Mondadori Store and PassioneScrittore, and aimed at aspiring authors and self publishers.

At 6 pm on Friday 21 April the protagonists will be the singer Nada, presenting her new album La posa, recorded with Ferruccio Spinetti and Fausto Mesolella, and the writer Antonio Dikele Distefano, bookseller for a day.

On Saturday 22 April at 6.30 pm, another opportunity to hear authors in conversation moderated by Alessandro Barbaglia, with the writers Carolina Bocca (Mondadori Electa), Maurizio de Giovanni (Einaudi), Marcello Fois (Einaudi), Sabina Minardi (Piemme), Sara Rattaro (Sperling&Kupfer) and Michele Vaccari (Frassinelli) and finally, on Sunday 23 April at 4.30 pm, the actor and director Gabriele Lavia will meet the public and sign copies of the book Se vuoi essere contemporaneo leggi i classici (Piemme).

Not only the Mondadori Megastore Duomo, but also the Mondadori Megastores in Via Marghera and Via San Pietro all’Orto and the Rizzoli Galleria will host stories and authors during the week of Tempo di Libri.

At the Mondadori Megastore in Via Marghera, a series of aperitivi with authors will start on Wednesday 19 April at 7 pm 19 with Giulio Xhaet and his I sogni di Martino Sterio (Mondadori Electa), continuing on Thursday 20 April at 8 pm with Giacomo Mazzariol and Mio fratello rincorre i dinosauri (Einaudi), together with Alessandro Barbaglia.

On Friday 21 April at 5 pm, David De Juan Marcos will meet the public to present La migliore delle vite (HarperCollins) and at 7 pm 19 another aperitivo presented by Alessandro Barbaglia withSergio Bambaren, the author of Storia della piccola volpe che mi insegnò il perdono (Sperling&Kupfer).

And finally, on Saturday 22 April at 7 pm, a aperitivo with the authors Enrica Tesio (Mondadori) and Guido Catalano (Rizzoli) on the subject of ET Telefono Casa – Dialoghi d’amore del terzo tipo.

On Thursday 20 April at 7 pm, the  Mondadori Megastore in Via San Pietro all’Orto will host Leslie Lokko, author of La debuttante (Mondadori), in collaboration withDonna Moderna, and on Saturday 22 April at 6.30 pm, the poet Roberto Mussapi with La piuma del Simorgh (Mondadori).

At the Rizzoli Galleria on Wednesday 19 April at 6.30 pm, Andrea Salonia will present the book Domani, chiameranno domani (Mondadori) and on Thursday  20 April at 5.30 pm an event for children with a preview of the illustrated concert byLittle Pier, author of the album Lasciateci la fantasia.

Meanwhile, on Friday and Saturday authors will become booksellers for “È tempo di librai”: on 21 April from 6.30 to 7.30 pm, Roberto Perrone, and from 7.30 to 8.30 pm Marcello Simoni; and on 22 April from 7 to 8 pm Marco Malvaldi and from 8 to 9 pm Paola Calvetti.

Events marking the 10^th anniversary of the Mondadori Megastore Duomo will continue for the whole of April and May.

For more information and a complete list of events, please go to: www.eventi.mondadoristore.it

What is Carlo Cracco doing next to Linda Evangelista? And Gualtiero Marchesi alongside Charlotte Rampling?  In the collective imagination, little could be as distant as a chef and a model. Two antithetical worlds,  in opposition but… are they also incompatible? Not if the observation point is fame, notoriety, beauty. When food and its, now immortalised, creators are on the same plain as the image of a beautiful woman. With a keen and deep eye, and at the same time, with an irony that has always characterised him, Bob Krieger proposes his latest work: iCONS. Alongside familiar faces of timeless beauty from fashion and world cinema, which his lens captures with an unmistakable style, Krieger presents the new stars of Made in Italy, the “ambassadors of taste”, of an exquisitely Italian capacity to express the excellence of our food. iCONS is a fun, irreverent and, at the same time, current way of portraying authentic icons of style and passion.

“This show,” says Ferruccio De Bortoli in the preface of the volume iCONS (Electa), “brings together the  Krieger’s photographs of the fashion of the moment, cooking, with the fashion we are familiar with, and of which he is the high priest with a camera instead of scissors. The chefs and the models. A bold approach because the latter, in order to stay on catwalk, have to keep away from the kitchen. But it has within it, a socially useful message, and can be safely described as a small manifesto against anorexia… And in the work of the chefs – who not only satisfy our tastes but with maniacal precision oversee the aesthetics of their dishes – there is an artistic inclination that brings them closer to designers. Bob Krieger’s photographic wit captures the curious expressions of Cracco, Oldani and his colleagues, and offers us again the timeless charm of the most acclaimed models. Krieger has stopped time, with a click. The subjects portrayed give themselves up to him with a surprising abandon. But great photographers also have a hypnotic power.”

The exhibition will be presented, during a special evening,  on 15 November by the chairman of Mondadori Retail, Mario Resca, the inspiration behind “St-Art. Artist of the month. Today’s and tomorrow’s masters on show”, a cultural project designed and promoted by Mondadori Megastore in collaboration with Milo Goj’s Art Relation.  For over a year, at the Mondadori Megastore in Piazza Duomo 1 and Via Marghera 28, important young talent have alternated with established artists, on collections that aim to draw the public in to contemporary art and, thanks also to accessible prices, enable the general public to begin collecting.