The Milan Design Week is the most important design event in the world. An event, not a trade fair, which is viewed through various districts of the city of Milan.
It all began in 1961 with the Salone Internazionale del Mobile. The appointment emerged from the borders of the fair on the streets of Milan. Companies open their showroom doors and welcome visitors more intrigued by unusual installations. The Salone del Mobile therefore exceeds its fair dimension and becomes Fuorisalone. A series of events that can influence the Salone del Mobile itself.
The eighties are the years of the boom. The Fuorisalone becomes a glamorous event and an international phenomenon. An expressive container for new ideas related to design. Ideas that detach from the usual rules and the usual schemes to bring the event even to those who are not part of the insiders or who is a simple customer.
The Fuorisalone thus becomes an important showcase for young designers who want to amaze with ever more organized installations involving parties. It will be only in 1990 that the Milan Design Week changes its schedule and from September it is organized in spring, thus becoming a fundamental appointment for Milan in the format that we know today.
The spontaneous nature of the Fuorisalone has contributed to the rebirth of internal quarters, arrived in the case of the Zona Tortona that in 2000 opened the doors to design becoming in a few years a fundamental reference point for the entire week enriched with appointments and parties.
The event has thus become something unique and difficult to replicate. A series of events around the city that break the rigid patterns of design to reflect the conception of freedom, to provoke and to amaze. The Fuorisalone has thus become the thermometer of new trends. By managing to blend design, creativity and fun together.
In recent years, however, the tendency to create an increasingly free place is bent over itself. The demonstration on the contrary has become something narrow. Where only a select few can enter the exhibitions and participate in parties. The events have turned into fake worldly events giving the illusion to the "lucky" participants to be in a privileged position. The language of events has become a real no longer responding to the real needs of viewers. The disruptive charge of the event is the bank and the real challenge of an entire movement will be to return to involve the public. Avoid that the most envied event in the world becomes a bored country festival.
