Thursday 6 sees the beginning of the second edition of the MILANO DESIGN WEEKEND, the extraordinary event jointly organised by Mondadori and RCS to support companies in the furniture business, an Italian industrial sector well known for its excellence. A big event, that is also dedicated to Milan, a design capital, which after the huge success of the first edition, is back this year from 6 to 9 October; four non-stop days of shopping, as well as integrated features of design, art, architecture and music promoted by the city’s leading cultural institutions
“Diamoci del tu. Dialoghi fra arte e design” (On first name terms. A dialogue between art and design): is the theme selected for this year’s event.
An exciting occasion, open to everyone, which aims to spread a contagious desire to discover, learn and explore that will transform the city into an exemplary catalyser of creativity.

MILANO DESIGN WEEKEND has also obtained the patronage of the Culture, Expo, Fashion and Design Department of the City of Milan and the Architects’ Association of the city and province.
The event also has the support of some of the city’s most significant cultural institutions, including the Triennale Design Museum, the Museo del Novecento and the Civico Museo Archeologico circuit taking part in the event for the first time along with the Case Museo di Milano circuit. Also participating for the first time is the Conservatorio di Milano, Palazzo Mezzanotte – home of the Italian stock exchange, the Orto Botanico and the PAC Padiglione d’arte contemporaneo.

MILANO DESIGN WEEKEND is an event that brings together the worlds of production, distribution and media to create an extensive communication platform able to respond to the demands of increasingly well-informed and demanding consumers. It is also a unique initiative in Italy involving the joint participation of the Mondadori and RCS groups, with their large networks of titles dedicated to interiors, working together on a project in support of the market and distribution.
The event also provides a big boost to the growth of the culture of living, a perfect demonstration of a new way of thinking about publishing and communication.

With a full programme, the MILANO DESIGN WEEKEND draws together into a large network branded showrooms, multi-brand furniture shops, museum bookshops and department stores. Also involved are museums, architectural firms and the main bookstores in the city of the two big publishing groups.
All of these will remain open on Saturday 8 October until 10 pm during the NOTTE DEL DESIGN (Big Design Night) that will enliven the city with special events and initiatives.
An invasion of creativity that will take over and infest the city, making it even more lively.

THE THEME: Diamoci del Tu. Dialoghi tra arte e design.
The second edition of MILANO DESIGN WEEKEND is focused on the idea of greater familiarity, with the aim of making the relationship between the sales outlets for design and the final consumer warmer and more engaging.
During the whole period of the event, participating shops will become the locations for events aimed at creating a new type of dialogue with consumers, providing not only a selection of products but also a unique experience.
In fact, sales outlets will be asked to interpret, with dedicated layouts and activities, the theme that gives the title to this year’s edition that suggests an open, closer encounter between the city, design and art. A perfect symbol of a new desire to be more open to the world.

Triennale Design Museum
The Triennale Design Museum, a point of reference for the enhancement and promotion of design excellence in Italy and around the world, is a partner of the MILANO DESIGN WEEKEND with a series of proposals aimed at bringing the world of design to a wider audience.
From 6 to 9 October entrance will be free for the fourth edition of the Triennale Design Museum’s Le fabbriche dei sogni.
And for kids, on Saturday 8 and Sunday 9, the Triennale Design Museum will run its TDMKids project, aimed at children between the ages of 4 and 10.
The TDMKids teaching laboratories have been conceived to involve a number of designers in efforts to attract children to the beautiful, the useful and the world of materials with an approach related to the design methods used by individual designers. On this occasion the labs will be offered at the special price of €5 (rather than the standard €8) for each child, including a guided tour of the museum, laboratory activities (which will last 90’) + an educational materials kit with the book Frisello al Triennale Design Museum. Il mistero dei sette semi.
In addition, visitors who present the Design Card, with the full complement of stamps, at the booking desk will receive a coupon with a discount for admittance to the exhibition O’Clock. Design del tempo, tempo del design (€4 rather than €8) which will open on 11 October.
The offer will remain valid for the first two weeks of the exhibition.

Book stores
Electa and Skira, two of the world’s most prestigious art book publishers will participate in the event with special initiatives organised at the Mondadori Multicenter, the Skira Bookstores and the Libreria Rizzoli in the Galleria Vittorio Enamuele II. During the event Electa and Skira, will offer a selection of specially priced architecture, design and art titles.
The bookstores involved include the Mondadori Multicenter stores in Piazza Duomo, Via Marghera and Corso Vittorio Emanuele; the Electa Bookshop at the Museo del Novecento and the Skira bookstores at the Pinacoteca di Brera, the Castello Sforzesco, the Triennale, La Rinascente Design Supermarket, La Scala Shop, Palazzo Reale and the showroom at Palazzo Stampa.
 As well as the Rizzoli bookshop in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele.

On Saturday 8 October, the Mondadori Multicenter Duomo will host the pilot edition of BOXING DESIGN – Meetings/Clashes between Design, Culture and Innovation, a TV format filmed and broadcast by TeleLombardia edited by Dalia Gallico – president of ADI (the Italian industrial design association), university professor, the head and coordinator of all of the exhibitions in Milan in the various locations around the city and responsible for a number of foreign projects for the export of Italian design – in collaboration with InnovationFestival and TeleLombardia.
These innovative “meetings/clashes” are an opportunity to bring together the creators of iconic objects that are celebrated around the world with designers from the younger generation. The encounters, agile and combative, will revolve around a barrage of questions and answers in an attempt to explain the ideological and professional changes that over the years have made either continuous or interrupted the cultural line that has established Italian products around the world. The first “match” will feature the well-known designer Enzo Mari and the designer Paolo Ulian.

Info Point
Distribution of materials prior to the event will be made through Info Points: two in the centre of the city (one in Largo La Foppa) and at the Mondadori and RCS stands at the MADE EXPO, as well as at the Mondadori Multicenter stores in Piazza Duomo and Corso Vittorio Enamuele and the Rizzoli bookstore in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele.

Cult products

To mark the MILANO DESIGN WEEKEND, the sales outlets and companies involved will welcome visitors with a special surprise: a selection of products – including discontinued lines and limited editions – that will be available only for the four days of the event at a special 30% discount.

Competitions
Two competitions will also be launched during the MILANO DESIGN WEEKEND.

For the first, the public can vote, on the web site WWW.MILANO-DESIGNWEEKEND.IT, for their favourite CULT product. And a prize draw will be made from all of the voters with the prize of a weekend break for two in Helsinki.

For the second, the protagonist will be the Design Card, a sort of on and off line design passport that should be stamped at each location in the MILANO DESIGN WEEKEND circuit.
When visitors have accumulated ten stamps the card can be put into one of the urns located at the sales outlets, info points allowing them to take part in a fantastic prize draw for another weekend break for two in Dubai and Abu-Dhabi.
An obligatory stop to be able to take part in the draw is at the Triennale Design Museum.

Prizes will also be awarded to the producers of the three most voted cult products and an authoritative jury will select the best interpretation of the theme of the event in two categories: branded showrooms and multi-brand stores.

ART MILAN
In response to the success of the previous edition, a number of initiatives will be staged during the event – art, design, architecture and music – to attract and involve the entre city in support of the design system.

MUSEO DEL NOVECENTO
During the MILANO DESIGN WEEKEND, the Museo del Novecento – taking part for the first time in the event – will offer 300 free tickets. The visits – “A caccia di antichità nel Museo del Novecento. Una visita archeologica nell’arte contemporanea”, curated by Marcella Leone and Angela Pola; “Arte cinetica, uno sguardo al design”, curated by Paola Fenini and Chiara Mari; “Sasso, carta, forbici. La poetica dell’oggetto” curated by Giulia Tiraboschi; “Da Boccioni a Fontana. Viaggio attraverso la scultura del novecento” and “I protagonisti dell’Arte Povera al Museo del Novecento”, both curated by Francesco Poli – organised by Electa (booking essential), will offer a fascinating chronological journey, starting at the beginning of the twentieth century, through the most important movements and tendencies in Italian art.
Visitors will be accompanied by exceptional guides, such as critics and art historians.
Special guided tours for children – “Ma tu cosa vedi? Se in bambini incontrano l’Arte Povera”, curated by Paola Noè – will also be organised where children will have the chance to become “art critics”.
Plus, to open the event up to Milan’s foreign community or to visitors to the city for business or pleasure, a series of guided tours in English have also been organised.

CIVICO MUSEO ARCHEOLOGICO
The renovated Civico Museo Archeologico in Milan will participate for the first time at the MILANO DESIGN WEEKEND. New this year, are free tours (booking necessary, 60 tickets) organised by Electa, led by young archaeologists from the School of Specialization of the University of Milan, of the museum itself and the city’s Roman ruins. The aim is to offer the city, in a week already full of events dedicated to design, an opportunity to examine more closely the relationship between art and crafts that were closely linked in the ancient world and to rediscover the city’s little-known but well preserved archaeological monuments. There are two tours: “Milano da bere. Archaeologia di una coppa di vino”, curated by Federica Grossi and Giorgio Rossi, and “Immagine, potere, imitazione: mode di una capital dell’impero”, curated by Martha Balzar, Elena Belgiovine and Daniel Capuzzo.

CASE MUSEO TOUR
Also during the MILAN DESIGN WEEKEND some of the most fascinating museum houses the city will be open to the public: the Museo Bagatti Valsecchi, the Casa Boschi di Stefano, Villa Necchi Campiglio and the Museo Poldi Pezzoli. For the occasion, critics and art historians, architects and archaeologists will act as special “guides” to help visitors appreciate the works, explaining some of the architectural details, objects and stories of artists and works of art, and offering a range of unusual and original views of the city.
The numerous and varied visits include:
Villa Necchi: “Pranzo a Villa Necchi. Una dimora all’avanguardia”, curated by Daniela Tarabra; “Artigianato d’eccellenza a Villa Necchi”, curated by Silvia Tatozzi and “Lo specchio della borghesia illuminata della Milano anni ’30. Storia e Architettura di una villa urbana” curated by Clare Freyrie;
– At the Museo Poldi Pezzoli: “I fiori del Conte: la natura e i suoi simboli nelle collezioni del Museo Poldi Pezzoli,” curated by Lucy Impelluso, ” Nella fucina di Vulcano: l’armeria del Poldi Pezzoli,” curated by Daniela Tarabra and “L’abito non fa il monaco ma l’uomo si: moda e identità nei ritratti maschili del Poldi Pezzoli,” curated by Martha Alvarez;
– At the Museo Bagatti Valsecchi: ” Design medievale –comfort moderno a Casa Bagatti Valsecchi,” curated by Paola Fenini and ” Vero o falso? Capolavori originali e pezzi “in stile” nella casa di due fratelli collezionisti”, curated by Stefano Zuffi;
– at the Casa Boschi di Stefano: ” Tè a Casa Boschi. Il fascino discreto di un interno borghese” curated by Silvia Borghesi.

Visits, which are free, (more than 750 free tickets), are by appointment, will be managed by Electa.
There will also be special guided tours in Spanish for the Museo Poldi Pezzoli.

PIAZZA AFFARI
Participating for the first time in the MILAN DESIGN WEEKEND will be Palazzo Mezzanotte, the historic building in Piazza Affari that is home to the Milan stock market, where open auctions took place on the ground floor while the central hall was reserved for stock brokers trading securities. Electa will organise guided tours of the exhibitions “Le maioliche di Gio Ponti a Palazzo Mezzanotte,” curated by by Lorenza Rotti and ” Prima dei grattacieli: Milano e gli edifici della città romana,” curated by Antonio dell’Acqua and Eleanora Romanò (60 free tickets).

PAC Padiglione d’arte contemporanea
The PAC is also participating for the first time in the MILAN DESIGN WEEKEND, opening to the public, the exhibition “Silvio Wolf. Sulla soglia.” Seven different sections of the exhibition present a summary of thirty years of artistic activity. Silvio Wolf has designed a route that puts you at the centre of a visual and sensory experience: environmental installations, photographic works and video projections are designed as the stations of a journey that, from the beginning, involves the viewer with timeless images, where light is the primary expression of an art that amplifies perception and sensory stimuli, putting the viewer in a state that the artist calls “listening”.

ORTO BOTANICO
Another new feature of the 2011 MILAN DESIGN WEEKEND is the Orto Botanico, founded in 1774 for scientific and educational purposes at the behest of Maria Theresa of Austria, now a small green jewel set in the complex of the Museo Brera. Electa will organise a guided tour called “Passeggiando con Flora: l’orto botanico di Brera tra storia e mito”, curated by Lucia Impelluso. (60 free tickets).

THE MILAN MUSIC CONSERVATORY “G. VERDI”
The Conservatory – which is also taking part for the first time in the MILANO DESIGN WEEKEND – will be open to the public on Saturday 8 October at 9 pm for the final concert of the Festival named in honour of Nino Rota, and organised to coincide with the hundredth anniversary of the composer’s birth. The concert “Non solo Rota” (300 reserved seats) will feature music by Vaughan Williams, Darius Milhaud and Nino Rota played by the Orchestra Sinfonica del Conservatorio “G. Verdi” of Milan, conducted by Amedeo Monetti
Also on Saturday 8, in the morning, an exclusive concert “Improvvisazioni jazz a Villa Necchi”, will be organised in the “museum house” in Via Mozart featuring original compositions and improvisations by musicians from the conservatory (Massimiliano Milesi, saxophone, Roberto Frassini Moneta, double bass, Filippo Sala, drums). A meeting of art and music in an extraordinary location, excitingly brought to life by the young musicians of the city’s most prestigious school of music

A detailed programme of the visits is available on the web site www.milano-designweekend.it
Reservations for the guided tours and concerts can be made by email: milanodesignweekend@mondadori.it and by telephone (02 21563235 from Monday to Friday , from 5 to 6 pm).

To book guided tours of Villa Necchi please phone 02 76340121, from Tuesday to Sunday, between 10 am and 6 pm.

SECRET MILAN
A series of architectural and design visits to discover some of the city’s lesser-known locations, open exceptionally to the public during the event. These include an open day at architect’s and designer’s studios, to encounter the private places of Milan’s design professionals.

The following visits are part of the “Secret Milan” initiative:
A POSTWAR TOUR AMONG CULTIVATED PROFESSIONALISM
(organised by the Architects’ Association of the province of Milan)
Put together by Maria Vittoria Capitanucci and dedicated to the profession in Milan during the fifties and sixties, this initiative will concentrate on the architects to contributed to the wide spread of the culture of modernism, with visits to some of the residential buildings created by the architects of the so-called second generation of Lombard rationalism, including buildings by Giulio Minoletti, Luigi Ghò, Vito and Gustavo Latis.

THE VICO MAGISTRETTI TOUR
(organised by the Architects’ Association of the province of Milan)
Put together by Fulvio Irace and Federico Ferrari, this is a presentation of the work of the great Milanese architect and designer, demonstrating his desire to represent the city in buildings such as the Santa Maria Nascente church at QT8 and the Torre al Parco in Via Revere.
An architectural approach that moved away from sterile theoretical constructions to reach for an original “theory of praxis”. This tour will also take in the Piazza San Marco complex, the residential building in Via Conservatorio, the headquarters of the Fondazione Magistretti and the office building in Corso Europa.

The two tours (two for each itinerary, lasting around two hours) are on foot and tickets can be booked (a maximum of 30 people for each).
The cost is of €10 per person, or €15 for both. The tours will begin at the headquarters of the Ordine degli Architetti in Via Solferino 17 at 6 pm on Thursday 6, Friday 7 and Saturday 8 – after an aperitif – and at 11 am on Sunday 9, with a welcome coffee.

ARCHITECTS STUDY TOUR
A unique opportunity to discover the workplaces of some of the most important Italian and international architects and designers: some of Milan’s architectural and design studios will be open to show interested visitors how they operate.
Places are limited so booking is advised on the web site. www.milano-designweekend.it.
The studios involved are:
Cityedge Italian Partner of Studio Daniel Libeskind – Piazza San Carlo, 2
Michele De Lucchi – Via Varese, 15
Fragile – Via Ariosto, 28
Lucchese Design – Via Schiaffino, 25
Studio Gordon Guillaumier – Via Bramante, 29


MILANO DESIGN WEEKEND will be supported by an important communication campaign on Mondadori and RCS media. Creativity by the communication agency White Label.

The web site WWW.MILANO-DESIGNWEEKEND.IT has a full list of activities and other information about the event.

For material about the companies taking part in the MILANO DESIGN WEEKEND please refer to the Studio Roscio, the official press office for the event and the dedicated press room at:
http:// www.milano-designweekend-it/