Future visions for non-conventional design show EDIT Napoli

EDIT Napoli, launched six years ago by Domitilla Dardi and Emilia Petruccelli, defies traditional categorization. It’s neither a conventional fair nor a standard event, but a curated design experience that bridges emerging talents, design editors, nascent brands, and select high-end manufacturers. The main event is complemented by EDIT Cult, an exhibition program that showcases prominent brands within Naples’ most breathtaking historical spaces.

What makes EDIT Napoli remarkable is its involuntary yet clear demonstration of an alternative approach to global design fairs. It’s a platform that doesn’t just display products, but initiates conversations, challenges established narratives, and celebrates design as a dynamic, dialogic practice.

After another 2024 edition, we sat down with Domitilla Dardi to explore the event’s post-show reflections and future trajectories – a conversation that promises insights into not just an event, but a philosophy of design.

Can you tell us about the latest edition of EDIT?

Domitilla Dardi:

“We are extremely satisfied. There has been significant growth due to two key factors: first, the global environmental context – this was the first edition without pandemic restrictions or other major disruptions. Our compact scale allows us considerable flexibility and we managed to sustain the event even in 2020 and 2021, proving that having a direct community means making collective and reassuring decisions. With hundred exhibitors, this is achievable.

We are convinced about maintaining this scale. It’s the dimension where we were born, have grown, and will continue to operate. Growing larger would prevent us from maintaining a thoughtful selection. Our current scale allows us to maintain a quality level that makes both press and buyers recognize us as a place where you always find something remarkable. Our selection is built through dialogue. It’s common for proposals to arrive that then need refinement – we provide extensive consultation to reach the best standard for products in need of elaboration. You can only do this with a limited number of participants; otherwise, it becomes a large container where entry is determined purely by economic access.”

Is curatorial work a key aspect of making EDIT Napoli different from other design events?

Domitilla Dardi:

“It’s a challenging but stimulating process. We’ve seen initial proposals transform and become significant. The same applies to our Cult exhibitions. I have overall curatorial responsibility for the program. Sometimes projects arrive fully formed, seeking a location that will amplify their content. Other times, projects emerge through dialogue. How much can this approach grow? We’ll never have a standardized location catalog assigned by square meters. Obviously, we have a trained eye for spaces, in my case derived from curatorial experience.

Naples is infinite because it contains multiple cities, like a Russian nesting doll. I’ve been familiar with it since my doctoral studies in ’97, but each time a new layer reveals itself.

For next year, we’ve understood how revitalizing it can be to change locations. We’ve been at the Archivio di Stato for two years and want to move again. We’re ready to undertake a revitalization project in a more complex and peripheral neighborhood – not with the presumption of changing an entire Naples area, but by exploring something less obvious. The city has always been more supportive than we expected. Everybody understands that we enter their space with great respect and from the beginning, we’ve received proposals from the city itself. 

Much of our next location research is nurtured by a genuine desire for urban and cultural renewal – the beautiful, healthy, functioning aspects of the most fragile parts of the city. We’re ready to engage with more complex urban areas, working closely with local associations and long-standing community actors who truly understand these neighborhoods.”

How does a design event leave a mark in a neglected area of a city like Naples? 

Domitilla Dardi:

“I don’t think we’re pioneering a completely new approach, but we want to be incisive and to do that we need to rely on existing initiatives. We’ve encountered courageous cultural work organizations and explored potential intersections. Previously, we ventured with a “Made in Cloister” exhibit in a sensitive area like Forcella. It felt right to establish a presence there. It might sound amusing, but we typically move between convents. In that location, we couldn’t host a fair, but fortunately, Piet Hein Eek created something very beautiful – a dialogue between his work and the young talents that emerged over the years in his workshop, a kind of generational handover.

Naples differs from any other city I know – I don’t find similar strong, determined, and structured social initiatives elsewhere. We’re engaging with various organizations to understand how we can shift attention to those already working in complex urban areas. We’re joining forces, which is very different from simply occupying a city space.

If you’re small and isolated, you’ll always be a misunderstood hermit. If you’re small but meet and unite, you have more chances of creating a genuine network. The concept is to collaborate with those already engaged in urban regeneration. They’re requesting our involvement. Until now, we’ve said we weren’t mature enough. Now we are. I hope we can make this concrete in the next edition.

There’s something unique about Naples. It’s a vertical city that views the sea from a distance because it lacks a true maritime interface beyond its port. This bizarre vision is what we want to be experienced in the next EDIT Napoli.”

What’s the most challenging part of organizing EDIT?

Domitilla Dardi:

“Changing a mentality deeply rooted in traditional exhibition models. It works better now that exhibitors making substantial investments come to physically explore the spaces. For us, the container must be more than just beautiful – it must be a catalyst. We’re interested in finished products, but we need conversation to redeem the idea that we do not want to just place a beautiful product in an attractive container.

With companies like Alpi and Cassina, we’ve initiated dialogues to construct meaning. These are companies already capable of exhibiting, but our curatorial approach has led to a thoughtful selection of pieces representing a research project. Sometimes we succeed, like in these two cases, sometimes it’s too challenging and we prefer to renounce, even when that means renouncing valuable economic opportunities.”

What are the next steps for the future?

Domitilla Dardi:

“I want to reach more peripheral design cultures, like the post-modern and post-industrialized ones of the global south. We are doing research in India and Mexico right now and we hope to be able to concretize the presence of exhibitors and projects coming from these countries very soon”.