To mark its 60th edition, Salone del Mobile.Milano has chosen an original approach for telling its own story and communicating its founding values to an international audience. From June 7 to June 12, 2022, La Scatola Magica (The Magic Box) will be on at Palazzo Reale’s Sala delle Cariatidi. In the stunning setting of the Sala delle Cariatidi, 11 authors will sum up the quality, innovation, creativity and especially the beauty of the Milanese trade fair in a multi-sensory experience.
Eleven words for eleven authors will include a site-specific audio-visual installation devoted to the 11 institutional values that have always made up its DNA – Emotion, Enterprise, Quality, Design, Networking, Communication, Culture, Young People, Ingenuity, Milan and Savoir Faire. An equal number of Italian filmmakers, including Francesca Archibugi, Pappi Corsicato, Davide Rampello, Wilma Labate, Bruno Bozzetto, Luca Lucini, Claudio Giovannesi, Gianni Canova, Donato Carrisi, Daniele Cipri and Stefano Mordini will bring the threads of the story together.
The installation will feature a monumental camera obscura – a 6m high, 24m deep parallelepiped – inspired by the visionary and imaginative world of pre-cinema optical devices, and play host to an actual 3-act spectacle. The concept and executive production are by Davide Rampello with his Rampello & Partners Creative Studio. According to Davide Rampello, Artistic Director and Creative Producer of the installation. “The idea was to blend the magic of film with that of the extraordinarily evocative power of the Salone’s values. Then we decided to turn the words into stories, brief films d’auteur interpreted by 11 leading Italian filmmakers and create an original anthology of creativity. For the immersive experience, we hit on the idea of a magic box in which people could be completely immersed in the images, which are the projection of our dreams. As for the theatrical part, a spectacle that will leave everyone breathless with admiration for the Sala delle Cariatidi at Palazzo Reale.”
On entering the camera obscura, visitors will feel as though they are in an extremely elegant art gallery. The 11 masterpieces on the walls of the room will be the metaphorical key to the narrative. When walls of the room go dark, the magic box will turn into a cinema in which 11 films d’auteur by 11 leading Italian filmmakers will be screened.
What: La Scatola Magica (The Magic Box)
Where: Sala delle Cariatidi, Palazzo Reale, 12 Piazza del Duomo, Milan
When: June 7-June 17, 2022
Entrance: Open to the public (free)
Timing: 10.30 am-7 pm
Project details
Creative and executive production: Rampello & Partners for the Salone del Mobile.Milano
Concept and artistic direction: Davide Rampello
Project manager: Tania Di Bernardo
Architectural project: Alessandro Colombo
Set design: Mekane
Light design: Marco Filibeck
Graphic design: Studio FM
Video: Punto Rec Studios
Image credits: Salone del Mobile.Milano