The programme for Salone del Mobile 2024 was announced in a press conference in Milan on 13 February. Now in its 62nd edition, the fair will return to the Rho grounds from 16-21 April 2024 and will include a programme enriching its design offering through a series of multicultural initiatives.
'Our ambition today is to capture new trends, involving and listening to communities near and far, identifying new approaches, experimenting with technologies,' says Salone del Mobile President, Maria Porro.
Salone del Mobile 2024: what's new this year
Among this year's new initiatives is a series of commissions that will take over spaces across the fair. Perhaps the most surprising and anticipated for this edition is the involvement of film director David Lynch, who paid homage to Salone and to the design of interior spaces through two 'Thinking Rooms', and imagined as the threshold to an immersive, meditative realm. Design and furniture have always played a crucial role in defining his characters, and at Salone, Lynch brings the same mystery and meditative stillness of his work. The project is curated by filmmaker and writer Antonio Monda, and created in collaboration with Piccolo Teatro di Milano who contributed to creating a theatrical staging of Lynch's vision.
'We chose to work with a master of cinema like David Lynch for his ability to lead us into another world, mysterious and alienating,' says Porro. 'Entering his Thinking Room will be like crossing into another world. And what are interior spaces if not research and creation of objects that complete a home, or even a room, to make us feel safe within our subconscious?'
On the occasion of Eurocucina, the fair commissioned a cultural programme in collaboration with leading global food publications, titled 'Everything you have ever wanted to know about food design in six performances', a series of installations and events that explore the role of food.
Elsewhere at the fair, the biannual bathroom display have inspired a project that reflects on the role of water in bathroom design, with an installation titled 'Under the Surface' and created by Accurat, Design Group Italia and design studio Salotto NY. Staged as a submerged island, the installation ponders on the impact of our daily water consumption and how contemporary bathroom design can transform our habits.
Milanese studio Formafantasma returns to the fair with the 'Drafting Futures' arena, a space to host the fair's talk programme. They also present a second instalment of the Corraini bookshop, this year as a mobile concept to bring to Salone an impressive selection of design, art and architecture titles.
25 years of Salone Satellite
This year also marks the 25th anniversary of SaloneSatellite's support of emerging designers, which will also be celebrated with a dedicated exhibition at Triennale in the city. Over at the fair, the work of 600 designers from 37 countries will be on display to discover, and the showcase will include design schools, including some making their Satellite debut, such as Saudi Arabia's Prince Sultan University, Belgrade Business and Arts Academy of Applied Studies, and Michael Graves College in the United States among others. A newly established collaboration between Cometa in Como and CMQ – the French Campus des Mètiers et Qualification – will also be launched by the fair this year, to offer further support to design's new generations.
'The ability to innovate, to anticipate trends and promote the beautiful and well-made, giving young people the space to express themselves has always been the added value of the Salone del Mobile, and this is also true of the 2024 edition,' says the Mayor of Milan, Giuseppe Sala. 'Few events are able to interpret and address the challenges of the contemporary world with the right mix of creativity and pragmatism like Salone del Mobile. An event that is not limited to being a showcase of excellence and avant-garde in furnishing and design, but pushes further, creating and nurturing extraordinary worlds both inside and outside the exhibition space that bring architects, designers, manufacturers and many companies that work and operate in this sector in Italy and abroad, and many, many visitors back to the city year after year.'
Salone del Mobile will take place from 16 to 21 April 2024 at Fiera Milano Rho
