The visit paid by Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni to Milan’s Salone del Mobile international furniture fair and to the Triennale di Milano design exhibition was mainly aimed at expressing the Foreign Ministry’s support to the different facets of Italian design, from the artistic to the business aspects, within the broader context of promoting Italy’s whole economic system. The Salone, now at its 55th edition, represents a great business opportunity which has generated an income of 221 million euros. It will run in Lombardy’s regional capital until next Sunday.
The Minister also announced an “Italian Design Day”, with events to be carried out throughout the world. The Italian Design Day will be inaugurated next year, concomitantly with the 56th edition of the Salone del Mobile, and will involve Italy’s diplomatic and consular network and the Italian Institutes of Culture throughout the world.
“Culture and the design sector’s supplier base are important for the image of Italy in the world. In large portions of the Planet there is a middle class emerging from poverty which looks at Italian design as desirable consumer product,” said Minister Gentiloni. He added: “This supply chain is a trump card that Italy is truly delighted to play.”
Also this year the Salone – with an exhibition space of 207,000 sq. m. and 2,310 exhibitors, 650 of which are designers at the Salone Satellite – is fully sold-out. With 30% of the exhibitors coming from abroad, the Salone confirms to be the source of ideas, creativity, innovation and technology for companies, businessmen and women and visitors by narrating the design trends inspired to the new styles of living.
This year the Triennale di Milano, which Minister Gentiloni is expected to visit today, aims to highlight the opportunities to strengthen the ties between industry, art and society, by conferring to Milan and to Italy the role of an avant-garde design think tank and laboratory for the ensuing industrial applications. The show include events disseminated throughout the whole municipal territory of Milan with the participation of 35 Countries – more than in the previous edition – including Algeria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cyprus, the Republic of Korea, Croatia, Germany, Haiti, Iran, Israel and Great Britain.
