i piani della memoria

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The Milan Furniture Fair 2012: Misiad (an acronym for Milanosiautoproducedesign) presents the first census of self-produced design in Milan. The exhibition is jointly organized with the Department of Culture of the City of Milan. Misiad, an association founded by Camillo Agnoletto, Laura Agnoletto, Cesare Castelli and Alessandro Mendini, aims to promote excellence in self-produced design and small-scale productions. With the curatorship of Alessandro Mendini, Misiad weighs in the substantiality

of this phenomenon in order to evaluate its dynamics and characteristics.

The exhibition is held in the Cattedrale della Fabbrica del Vapore.

Its lay-out is a single continuous floor, occupied in alphabetical order by the participants’ projects. Walkways allow visitors close-up access to all exhibits. The visual result is given by the sheer quantity of the work on display, which is highly varied in type and size. The large number of exhibitors (202) guarantees crowds of spectators and much discussion.

This census will constitute the basis for Misiad’s next steps: analysis of quality and context, establishment of a headquarters and information point, etcetera. The exhibition only displays the work of Misiad members.

The show is highly heterogeneous in commercial intent, manufacturing techniques, designers’ characteristics, concept types and craftsmanship.
Case Kit, three examples of self-produced housing, located at three different spots in the city.

A legacy that leaves you confused: missing pieces and mismatched items,

yet these items are still full of affection, Broken or chipped porcelain, but we don’t just want to “Abandon” them…The memories of family values remain trapped between a past full of nostalgia and a future of uncertainty.

Due to their broken state they no longer become completely usable but instead, become objects. With the “trays of memories”, all these objects rediscover a new life and relish their “second chance”: a uniform adhesive welcomes them and sometimes incorporates them but at other times they complete them. It fills the gaps and reinforces the objects’ unmistakable footprints.The service comes together well and metaphorically; the pieces find “dignity” and a use that, in a time before, seemed lost.

These “trays of memory”, can be built by everyone and can be made directly from the objects they love most. They crystallize a past so dear to us, reminding us of precious memories, “drunk in company”, “Memoirs of a coffee break in the family”, or perhaps that “historic quarrel” with subsequent and final conquest “promise of love”!

Ghigos Ideas in collaboration with Massimo Gangemi, Iain Greenwood and Stefano Locci.