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BASE presents “We Will Design” at Design Week 2021

From 5 to 12 September 2021 BASE presents “We Will Design at Milan Design Week.

BASE presents “We Will Design”: an experimental itinerary that ranges from the microworld of a bedroom studio to the collective sphere of the neighbourhood and casts a panoramic gaze over Earth’s ecosystem to co-design a more sustainable future through design.

Setting off from the present to build a new future through design: this is the central theme of Design Week 2021 at BASE Milano, set to run from 5 to 12 September 2021, involving designers from all over the world, as well as universities, emerging brands and businesses, and international institutions.

BASE We will design - Analogique
‘PA*GA (‘Parlamento di Gaia’) by Analogique is a nomadic, shapeshifting device which allows people to enter into a closer relationship with the things of the world, as well as animals and plants – Image by Tiziano Demuro

The driving force behind the projects on display is experimentation and the willingness to explore new terrain in the search for innovative solutions that address the phase of worldwide re-examination we inevitably find ourselves in. The designs will venture into a range of areas on various scales–from the microworld of a bedroom studio to the collective sphere of the neighborhood–embracing an anthropological concept of design with the power to conceive new visions of cohabitation and joint construction, underpinned by the principles of sustainability.

Now more than ever before, design has become a lens through which to view our society, an essential tool for re-designing relationships and cohabitation for the future. This sparked the idea for the Italian edition ofReStart, the project from ACNE (the Deloitte family’s creative collective) in collaboration with BASE, which was set up to help small businesses get back on their feet in the wake of the pandemic through a connection with the art world.

BASE We will design - Parasite
PARASITE2.0 investigates the role of the urban habitat – Image by Tiziano Demuro

ACNE believes in the power of creativity and its potential impact on business – even for the smallest enterprises – and so, to mark the anniversary of its launch in Italy, the collective has decided to inject new energy into the neighbourhood where the Italian office is housed. The challenge? To bring together creativity, culture, and design in an initiative with real local impact, a new artistic experience dedicated to the Tortona community, offering the help it needs to get moving again.

ReStart will make its debut in Milan during the upcoming Design Week, involving a number of artistic collectives selected and coordinated by BASE and a wealth of talent: CESURA – the photography collective founded in 2008 and paying close attention to social concerns- which will describe the places and protagonists of the Tortona district through photographic research by Chiara Fossati and Francesco Bellina.

PARASITE2.0 – architecture collective established in 2010 by a group of students from Politecnico di Milano to investigate the role of the urban habitat – which will turn the windows of some of the neighborhood’s businesses into a theatre stage for the traders to tell their stories and engage in conversations about the area’s evolution with the public, and music innovation Hub, which will launch its neighbourhood Web Radiostation.

Find out more about BASE’s exhibition, don’t miss #MilanDesignWeek – From 5 to 12 September 2021 BASE presents “We Will Design”

BASE We will design - Ludosofici by Tiziano Demuro
Ludosofici will bring their project ‘Plastic Fighters’ which offers to recycle plastic bottle tops – Image by Tiziano Demuro

Each floor at BASE, located within the ex-Ansaldo complex, will house visions of the future and experimentation from young designers, universities, and emerging brands, alongside moments for debate and reflection with experts, exploring new modes of future living through design.

Throughout Design Week, the Temporary home project will see casaBASE transformed into a veritable haven of creativity, where BASE and IKEA Italia will open a dialogue with 5 Italian and international designers in a unique residence serving as home, workshop, and exhibition space. Here the designers will get to grips with the new challenges our society is facing, sharing research, trends, and design projects with the Fuorisalone public.

One of the guests is German fashion designer Anna-SophieDienemann, who, in collaboration with Goethe-Institut Mailand, will present wearable distancers that serve as a comment on social distancing and were designed during the pandemic, inspired by a pop-up tent; product designer Vicente Varella, supported by Superforma – as part of the European Centrinno project overseen by Nema and Milan City Council – explores the potential of digital manufacturing to give new life to waste material through a process based on the principles of Human Centred and Circular Design.

BASE We will design - Julien Gorrias
Julien Gorrias shows his experiments exploring the moulding of material and shape through movement, interaction, and emotion – Image by Cartacarbone

The designer Julien Gorrias, in collaboration with Institut Français Milano -Institut Français Paris, will show his experiments exploring the moulding of material and shape through movement, interaction, and emotion; Stardust Architects-a Bucharest-based architecture and design studio founded by Anca Cioarec and Brîndușa Tudor, in collaboration with the Romanian Institute of Culture and Humanistic Research in Venice, will present an art installation that looks at waste as a resource, and turns sheets and pieces of paper, collected around the districts of Bucharest and Tortona during the arti-in-residence into recycled urban textiles.

Lastly, design studio and workshop Miocugino, with creative guidance from retail designer Alberto Costa from IKEA Italia, offers up a vision of future modes of living together and sharing the domestic realm.

Throughout the week, the atelier rooms will open its doors to the public, who will have the chance to observe work processes and meet the resident community. Moreover, on Friday 10 September, the designers will meet up for an event, included in the public program, to share and discuss the themes explored and future scenarios. On the occasion of ‘We Will Design’ and of the Temporary Home project, IKEA Italia rethinks the terrace of BASE: a green space for winding down and sharing, an extension of casaBASE, and a new urban square that will welcome the public every day of the Design Week from 6.00 p.m.

BASE We will design - CC chairs
Matteo Guarnaccia presents ‘CCC (Cross CulturalChairs)’, a project analysing the socio-cultural sphere through the prism of the chair – Image by Cartacarbone

The first floor at BASE will once again become a showcase for research and experimentation as part of a design journey that goes beyond Design Week itself and engages with a range of disciplines outside the design world.

Numerous exhibition projects and installations will set up across the floor, including Matteo Guarnaccia, presenting ‘CCC (Cross CulturalChairs)’, a project analysing the socio-cultural sphere through the prism of the chair. The eight chairs to go on display at BASE are the outcome of collaborations with eight different designers and artisans from the eight most populated countries in the world.

Spazio META offers an innovative and useful example of ways to reuse production materials, repurposing them for a new life in order to boost awareness of the material wasted in event production; studio.traccia also offers reflections on the waste and rubbish generated by human consumption, this time blending food and design in their installation ‘TABULA[non]RASA’. IAAD, theInstitute of Applied Art and Design, will display an audio-visual installation entitled ‘States of Imagination’, celebrating the mind’s power of invention.

BASE We will design - Tabula nonRasa
studio.traccia offers reflections on the waste and rubbish generated by human consumption, this time blending food and design in their installation ‘TABULA[non]RASA’ – Image by Tiziano Demuro

Fresh from this year’s launch of the ‘Design for Children’ master’s course at its Faculty of Arts and Design, the University of Bolzanois creating a floor plan with “Drawing machines and books. unibz goes to BASE”, designed to help kids draw and stimulate their creativity, accompanied by a select display of relevant publication.

NID, the New Design Institute of Perugia will present ‘State of Nature’ and ‘Poliedro’, an installation project that uses Instagram filters to plunge the visitor into an immersive and interactive experience; the Ludosofici will bring their project ‘Plastic Fighters’to the ex-Ansaldocomplex, which, thanks to the Coesione Sociale 2019 gang, offers to recycle plastic bottle tops, which, in collaboration with designers and primary school students, are broken down and transformed into socially useful objects using a 3Dprinter.

The Cultural Association NOI Altri and NOI Liberia are coming with their bookshop, offering a special selection of design, illustration, and graphic art books, as well as presenting ‘ONIRISMI-Page Tsou solo exhibition’, the first Italian show dedicated to Page Tsou, the multi-award winning visual artist, star of the creative scene in Taiwan and founder of the AUSPICIOUS design studio; Parasite 2.0are set to present their latest project, ‘Antropofago Productions’, a curated collection of objects, fanzines, and sounds to spark reflections on overproduction and overconsumption.

BASE We will design - Spazio Meta
Spazio META offers an innovative and useful example of ways to reuse production materials, repurposing them for a new life – Image by Tiziano Demuro by Tiziano Demuro

“BARATTO”, an unconventional white cube will be installed on the first floor, acting as a pop-up pavilion where the pieces will be available for purchase–just like at an art gallery or the online Bandcamp store – or through bartering; lastly, the Sicilian collective Analogique will set up ‘PA*GA (‘Parlamento di Gaia’), a nomadic, shapeshifting device which allows people to enter into a closer relationship with the things of the world, as well as animals and plants.

PA-GA establishes dynamic environments which evolve over time through interaction and sets up a new dialogue on the future of Gaia, the planet we all inhabit; in collaboration with the Romanian Institute of Culture and Humanistic Research in Venice, the designer Dragos Moticafor the ASKIA brand presents ‘The way we are’, an art installation with an acoustic pod to reflect on the new workspaces and ever more hybrid spaces generated by the pandemic; with ‘Designing the proximity’ the Sistema Design del Politecnico di Milano brings together 30 projects by students from the School of Design and POLI.design which offer different interpretations of the term ‘closeness’.

A bunch of ideas that recreate a clear scenario of the future city, a theme which will be investigated throughout the daily events of the public program; finally, BASE presents to the public of the Design Week ‘Micro Collective’, a selection of projects gathered through the open call ‘We will design’ in a space that combines new solutions to contemporary challenges, among which, in particular, health and environment.

BASE We will design - Bounding Spaces
Anna-SophieDienemannwill present wearable distancers that serve as a comment on social distancing and were designed during the pandemic, inspired by a pop-up tent – Image by Cartacarbone

Throughout the Design Week there will also be opportunities for discussion and in-depth analysis of the themes of the various projects on display: every day, in the shadow of GAIA, Luke Jerramthe’s art installation dedicated to planet Earth inaugurated at the Farout festival, there will be events for the ‘We Will Design’public program.

From the collaboration between BASE and POLI.design comes the Public Program ‘Progettare la prossimità’: two debates each day, featuring experts in the field in conversation with teachers from the Department and School of Design at Politecnico di Milano, exploring different perspectives on a range of issues related to the concept of the 15-minute city, including neighbourhood facilities, evolving public spaces, and platforms and local economies to promote human-centered urban living.

Moreover, the public program embraces the synergies and collaborations of BASE, through in-depth studies with some designers of Temporary Home and Exhibit, a special edition of Wunderkit with Marti Guixèand a day together with the Divercity Festival to rethink design as a catalyst for decolonizing public space.

Every evening, starting at 8.00 pm, the musical event WE WILL DESIGN_MUSIC curated by PØGO Productions will animate the courtyard of the former Ansaldo with DJ sets, live music, and performances by 19 artists from the Milanese underground world.

Discover more about Milan Design Week, don’t miss Belgian designers highlight steel and sustainability at Milan Design Week.

BASE We will design - Miocugino and Ikea
Miocugino, with creative guidance from retail designer Alberto Costa from IKEA Italia, offers up a vision of future modes of living together and sharing the domestic realm – Image Courtesy of BASE
BASE We will design - Terraza Ikea
IKEA Italia rethinks the terrace of BASE, a green space for winding down and sharing – Image by Cartacarbone

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