take a seat – Milano Genius 2021

By Kevin Carrara

The Milano Design Week represents for Milano Genius 2019 an opportunity to strengthen institutional and cultural ties between the two twinned cities of Milan and Osaka. The project, produced by the Italian Cultural Institute in Osaka and coordinated by Asian Studies Group, allowed young and talented designers to exhibit their works, selected under different themes, located to three important partners:

Take a Seat in Superstudio Group.

Design and Planet in Asian Studies Group.

Cool Japan in Corte dei Miracoli.

The joint efforts of the organizers, the patronizing cities and the partners resulted in an important event on April 8. Last Monday, the figures who have invested more in Milano Genius 2019 met with the designers involved in the project at Palazzo Marino in Milan:

Paolo Cacciato, President of Asian Studies Group.

Yuji Amamiya, General Consul of Japan in Milan.

Silvia La Ferla, Chief of the International Relations and Cooperation Development office of the city of Milan.

Gisella Borioli, CEO of Superstudio Group.

Federico Filippo Fagotto, Director of Corte dei Miracoli.

The Meeting

Paolo Cacciato, as co-organizer of the event, summarized the project Milano Genius 2019 and the value that it represents for the two twinned Municipal Cities of Osaka and Milan. He emphasized the importance that ASG has always given to creativity and young talent: he has always tried his best in order to create opportunities to express such qualities. He also pointed out already planned events in Osaka of culinary, musical and artistic nature.

During the ceremony, the guests had the pleasure to hear a speech from Yuji Amamiya, the General Consul of Japan in Milan, in which he stated how much proud he is of the project:

It has been a great joy for me and this Consolate to learn that in occasion of the Milano Design Week there would have been hold an event like this one, capable of representing a starting point for youth Japanese artists and designers and for their international activities.

Silvia La Ferla pointed out the relevance of Milano Genius in order to enforce and strengthen the relation between Milan and Osaka and how cultural and creative exchange are the foundations for a greater mutual understanding necessary to create, together, projects and tools that benefit both realities. Then, the Municipality of Milan donated to each designer some images of Milan of past years, believing that the medieval beauty of the city will help them remember the wonderful collaboration that took place here.

Federico Filippo Fagotto talked about the importance that he gives to art and creativity. Furthermore, he spoke about his pride and joy regarding the wonderful collaboration that Corte dei Miracoli found working alongside Asian Studies Group, a long-standing collaboration that began with a casual meeting between him and Paolo Cacciato. A fortuitous event full of opportunities, personal growth and mutual benefit.

Last but not least, Gisella Borioli pointed out how she started her personal relation with Japan during Osaka Expo 1970 and how her personal passion could finally be applied in a creatively and valid project. Working with Japanese designers has allowed her to absorb part of their culture while encouraging new collaborations in the future.

At the end of the institutional speeches, certificates of participation in the Milano Genius 2019 project were delivered to every designer by the individual partners. The involvement of cultural partners, city institutions and young creative people is a winning formula that benefits and brings honor to all those involved.

Let us to introduce today the partner for Design Days in Osaka for that concerns one of the three calls for design, launched in collaboration with Osaka City as part of Milano Genius 2019 for specific project named Design Made in Osaka

Superstudio Group, with its two locations Superstudio Più and Superstudio 13, has been the initiator, since 2000, of the project that has brought design out of the institutional headquarter of the Exhibition, proposing other modalities to spread it, during the event of Design Week in April, in the Tortona District, to then being extended to the entire city. An actual urban phenomenon also imitated by other Milanese areas and studied as case

history in the entire world.

Superdesign attracts 130.000 visitors, professionals but also simple design lovers as well as Italian and foreign students, with the possibility to access free guided tours open to all citizens. The exclusive press office, located at the doorway of Superstudio Più, registers more than 2.000 journalists, over 40 partner headlines, and a press release on the event with more than 200 articles on our event.

TAKE A SEAT – DESIGN MADE IN OSAKA for MILANO GENIUS

Design Days in Osaka and Milan Design Week

With regard to the collaboration between Superstudio and Milano Genius on the project “Design made in Osaka” (with official presentation during the Design Days in Osaka on March 1 st ), we propose the theme “TAKE A SEAT” for the Call for Creativity and its related competition.

Superstudio will be responsible for the selection of the projects gathered by Asian Studies Group, co-organizer with IIC Osaka of Milano Genius, and it will freely host chairs and seats created in real scale (prototypes or elements already in production) at Superdesign Show, the big event of Superstudio during Milan Design Week (April 8 th -14 th ).

The exact number of seats hosted and the exact location of the exposition will be defined only following the selection made by the artistic direction of Superstudio.

WHY THE CHAIR

– The chair is the archetype of furniture

– The chair is needed not only to seat down

– Chairs are required to eat, to work, to study, to relax, to chat, to write, to fix, to experiment, to cook, to work with the computer, to teach, to confess, to cuddle, to lean against, etc….

– Every culture employs chairs

– The chair is history

– The chair is a cultural expression

– The chair speaks about aesthetics, usage, art, reason, madness, technology, tradition,

innovation, economy, status, taste, ethics, sustainability, sensibility, materials, progress, desires, dreams, etc…

– The chair talks about us

Why, considering all types of chairs existing in the world, have we asked designers in Osaka to take on chairs yet again?

Because we would like to invite participants to explore more deeply the object “chair”, also breaking the barriers of common sense and production to propose, if possible, prototypes coherent with the Japanese vision , cultural intersections, new technologies, common and possible uses of the chair.

We find it interesting how new generations concerning design, in a country that pays so much attention to aesthetics, ethics, traditions, future, human being, new technology and sustainability, could offer new interpretations to a product that has existed since forever.

Milano Genius

Milano Genius: Arte, Cultura e Innovazione is project that accentuates through the creative side, concerning Milan and its dynamism, an occasion of comparison, collaboration and development of creative topics between Italy and Asia.

Milano Genius is a cross cultural project ideated and created by Stefano Fossati (director of the Italian Institute of Culture Hong Kong, former director IIC Osaka) and Paolo Cacciato (director of Asian Studies Group) with the aim of promoting arts, culture, innovation and all manifestation of intellectual achievements as high value’s core contents for sharing of perspectives for mutual development, and to open cultural dialogue and cooperation between Italy and Asia.

Tag: take a seat

Milano Genius 2019: Organizers, Patronizing cities and Designers meet each other at Palazzo Marino.

The Meeting

Milan Design Week: Superstudio Group for Milano Genius, launches “Take a Seat” theme.