Mister Fuorisalone.it: «It all started from a degree thesis»

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Milan is the Fuorisalone, the Fuorisalone is Milan. But who invented it and who is behind this brand that embodies much of the success that the design week is gathering year after year, becoming its symbol? The story begins forty years ago. The events in the city center during the Salone del Mobile began underground and almost anonymously in what was the drinking Milan of the 1980s. But it is in the following decade that what was initially just a fashion trend became a real habit for many companies: the showroom even outside the pavilions of the Fair.

The numbers grow until the galaxy of initiatives becomes such a multifaceted and organizationally anarchic reality that it produces great creative chaos. The first management and marketing experience was that of via Tortona which became the general point of reference. But it was around the year 2000 that success was no longer just for the circle of professionals. Going around parties, events and showrooms becomes a popular passion.

«In those years – he says Paolo Casatiborn in 1977, by Studio Labo – io e Cristian Confalonieri we were young students at the design faculty of the Polytechnic of Milan. So passionate that we realized that in that period there was a lack of a tool that could, let’s say, historicize the event.” Casati describes that furniture week as «the great carnival of the city, a bit like the carnival for Rio de Janeiro». But after those seven days it all ended there, it was as if the experience was immediately removed.

Platform to create a memory and a path

The university, through a white paper, had posed the question of why Milan did not yet have a design museum, asking for contributions and ideas on a possible solution. «When asked – continues Casati – we responded that for us design was something alive that did not necessarily have to be enclosed in a physical museum. So the idea was to create a digital-only platform that could create a memory and a path of what was happening in the city.”

An intuition that became a degree thesis in 2002. «So we started with the digital domain Fuorisalone.it, a platform that could support companies on how to communicate, understand what they needed to do to participate, how to find a location and how to manage public space. Basically a service space for brands but also for visitors, in particular orientation on the content and proposals in the city.”