Euroluce: The City of Lights
Salone del Mobile, 2023
The 2023 edition of Salone Del Mobile di Milano sees the return of the lighting biennial Euroluce, in its 31st edition. Inspired by the street plans of traditional Italian towns, the new exhibition layout reconceived by Lombardini22 studio, guarantees better connections between the four pavilions and simplifies the visitor path into a singular irregular loop. Euroluce presents itself as “the new city of light" with an irregular, free-forming, fluid ring-shaped path.
The City of Light’s central core is Aurore, a large plaza designed by Formafantasma that hosts talks, as well as immersive experiences. The studio also designed seven 'Costellazioni'. These architectural ‘intermezzos’ puncture the entire path and it is curated by Beppe Finessi. Formafantasma also designed the bookshop curated by Corraini Editori.
The City of Light’s central core is Aurore, a large plaza designed by Formafantasma that hosts talks, as well as immersive experiences. The studio also designed seven 'Costellazioni'. These architectural ‘intermezzos’ puncture the entire path and it is curated by Beppe Finessi. Formafantasma also designed the bookshop curated by Corraini Editori.
The 2023 Euroluce edition host a series of morning lectures and conversations with a selection of design and architecture professionals. Formafantasma designed this space around this brief while at the same time offering an immersive video and audio installation named ‘Aurore’.
The installation consists of a chromatically coherent sitting area, made of velvet upholstered furniture and a carpeted flooring, overtopped by seven large-format LED screens. These screens are mounted above the sitting area as if floating in space and display a film featuring seemingly abstract video compositions that only at moments reveal more clearly the filmed subjects. The film is accompanied by a voice over written by a long-term collaborator, philosopher Emanuele Coccia and explores the cosmological and existential dimensions of light. This film was produced in collaboration with C41.
After having addressed light as a natural phenomena and its engineering into a man-made tool, the film concludes by problematizing the misuse of design and engineering referring to the so-called Phoebus Cartel held in Geneva in 1925.
The Phoebus cartel founded by a selection of the most influential light bulb producers of the time, had the aim to control the worldwide incandescent lightbulb market by planning the obsolescence of products. By 1925 the cartel established a limit of 1,000 hours for a household bulb. This was a reduction from the 2,000 hours that had previously been common.
"What we hope is to offer a functional space for the lecture series and at the same time to provide a sufficiently complex vision of light so as to stimulate reflections on the possibilities and responsibilities that designing entails."
The Phoebus cartel founded by a selection of the most influential light bulb producers of the time, had the aim to control the worldwide incandescent lightbulb market by planning the obsolescence of products. By 1925 the cartel established a limit of 1,000 hours for a household bulb. This was a reduction from the 2,000 hours that had previously been common.
"What we hope is to offer a functional space for the lecture series and at the same time to provide a sufficiently complex vision of light so as to stimulate reflections on the possibilities and responsibilities that designing entails."
In response to the brief to create exhibition spaces for artwork and design pieces curated by Beppe Finessi, Formafantasma has developed a modular exhibition system made of wood called 'Costellazioni'. The structures, although different in their configurations, all derive from the repetition of a frame module. The attempt here is to work with a lightweight, reusable, and recyclable display system. The materials are all easily disassembled with visible joints. The design of the 'Costellazioni' aims to provide suitable spaces for the work displayed but also to create space for visitors to stop, and rest on the seating included within the structures.
Costellazioni
"Our aim when designing exhibition spaces is to provide simple and effective solutions that respect the content and the observer by adding as little as possible to what is eloquently expressed by the works themselves. Conceived as an oasis of wood, we hope the 'Costellazioni' can function as places for reflection."
Costellazioni
"Our aim when designing exhibition spaces is to provide simple and effective solutions that respect the content and the observer by adding as little as possible to what is eloquently expressed by the works themselves. Conceived as an oasis of wood, we hope the 'Costellazioni' can function as places for reflection."
The library design by Formafantasma attempts to move away from the typical stylistic features of the fairground bookstore to provide a more rigorous space that respects a selection of special publications curated by Corraini Editore. The space is conceived more as a library rather than a bookstore, providing space for the visitors to consult the books.
"We all love books and find great publications at fairs. What we would like to do is respect this desire and let books breathe in a space suitable for this purpose."
"We all love books and find great publications at fairs. What we would like to do is respect this desire and let books breathe in a space suitable for this purpose."
