Welcome to the Triennale that looks to the future. In view of the hundredth anniversary of the first edition of the Biennial of decorative arts which gave life, since 1923, to the institution dedicated to design, architecture and contemporary culture, Triennale Milano unveils the 2023 exhibition agenda, illustrating the strategic plan Design the Future.
For the new year, 17 key projects have been identified which include, among the various activities, the expansion of the educational offer, the consolidation of international partnerships, the General States of Cultural Patronage, the reactivation of the Triennale Study Center, the creation of an Innovation Hub, an innovation pole capable of producing new lines of services for the cultural sector. Four macro objectives, linked to the involvement of the public, the strengthening of the Triennale’s reputation as a space for innovation, multidisciplinarity and openness, the valorisation of the Triennale as a place for experimentation and a more agile organizational model.
“Today – said Stefano Boeri, president of Triennale Milano – we are presenting for the first time in the history of the Triennale a document that defines its planning guidelines for the coming years. This choice reflects the vision of the Triennale as, above all, a common good, a reality that is part of a territory, of a time, that is an expression of a community. We would like the Triennale, strengthened by the hundred years of history it has behind it, to be the place where comparison becomes discovery, opportunity, enrichment”.
This anniversary will be highlighted by three major exhibition projects that retrace the history of the Triennale through design, architecture and art.
The Museum of Italian Design, directed by Marco Sammicheli, will be open again from 15 April with an itinerary that, starting from the foundation of the institution in 1923, arrives at the contemporary. With the opening of this museum that emphasizes the role of confrontation, hospitality, showcase and debate, the Triennale will also inaugurate the Design Platform, a new space intended to host temporary exhibitions and, during 2023, two projects curated by Marco Sammicheli: Text (April 15 – September 17) e Alberto Meda (October 2023 – January 2024). The first exhibition will present some works that highlight the common attitude of planners, stylists and designers towards the design of
text, interfaces and fabrics. The second project deals with some of the compositional and methodological characteristics of Meda, an Italian engineer, designer and planner who has been active for over 40 years.
Elba Cabin | Photo: © Federico Manusardi
We will have to wait until December 2023 to attend the inauguration of a new space for memory, thought and research where the Triennale archive will be exhibited and become accessible to the public in its entirety. This project of enhancement, sharing and interaction embraces a vast heritage, until now archived and preserved in the Palazzo dell’Arte, which is preparing to become a space for meeting and discussing, doing research, interacting with archives and collections supported by professionals from the Triennale archives. The latter will be exhibited in the extraordinary perspective from the entrance towards the spiral staircase, no longer visible for over 30 years.
Thus the institution born in 1923 in Monza as the Biennale of decorative arts looks to 2023 with a rich program of exhibitions, events, meetings, conferences, performances, concerts, developed by the curators of Triennale Milano Umberto Angelini, Nina Bassoli, Lorenza Bravetta , Damiano Gullì and Marco Sammicheli.
The Triennale exhibition program in 2023 will also give space to great protagonists of architecture and design. From 20 January to 2 April, Ettore Sottsass. The wordcurated by Marco Sammicheli with Barbara Radice and Iskra Grisogono of Studio Sottsass, will focus on the varied, constant and multiple use of the word that characterizes the production of the architect and designer, through a selection of drawings, objects, writings and works unedited.
Following this, from 27 January to 23 April, the urban planner Angelo Mangiarotti will dominate the scene, at the center of the retrospective Angelo Mangiarotti. When structures take shape curated by Fulvio Irace, one of the most complete and exhaustive retrospectives ever made on the figure of the Milanese architect, which traces over sixty years of activity through a selection of works, projects, documents and materials made available by the Angelo Mangiarotti Foundation.
A reflection on the value of infrastructures, examined from the dual point of view of those who built them and those who use them, will instead be at the center of the architecture exhibition Impact – Processing Landscape (from 1 February to 19 March), created in collaboration with Webuild.
In addition to presenting Diachronicles, the personal exhibition of the photographer Giulia Parlato (from 10 February to 26 March), winner of the Young Italian Photography Award | Luigi Ghirri 2022, conceived and promoted by the Municipality of Reggio Emilia, Triennale will launch a new international open call aimed at cultural collectives and organizations that deal with photography. The winners will be able to “live” in the Palazzo dell’Arte for two months and will be invited to work on the Triennale photographic archive.
The cultural partnership with Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemprain will instead find expression in the exhibition of the Australian aboriginal artist Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori (scheduled from 17 February to 14 May 2023) while the international collaboration with Jeu de Paume and LE BAL is linked to the exhibition Roll your eyeswhich will take place from May to September, dedicated to the relationship that, between the Sixties and the early Seventies, a part of the Italian avant-gardes had with photography, cinema and video.
Impact – Processing Landscape | Courtesy Triennale
Two focuses on the work of two Italian artists Lisa Ponti and Anna Franceschini, belonging to different generations, will be held respectively from 15 April to May and from May to June, while from May to September, the exhibition Triennial. Home sweet home curated by Nina Bassoli, it will offer some ideas on the idea of home and living, starting from the history of the Triennale and its International Exhibitions.
In the 2023 agenda signed by the Triennale there will also be space for the masters of photography, such as Gabriel Basil, to which the city of Milan is dedicating a tribute with two exhibitions, at the Triennale and at Palazzo Reale, scheduled from October 2023 to January 2024. If the exhibition itinerary at the Triennale brings together a wide selection of images of its city, the exhibition at Palazzo Reale will focus on the great commissions made by the photographer. The itinerary on contemporary Italian painting (from October 2023 to January 2024), curated by Damiano Gullì, will instead take up the tradition of mural painting of the historic International Exhibitions by tracing an excursus on the pictorial production of over one hundred artists active in Italy from the 1990s to today .
V Triennale of Milan, 1933, Hall of Ceremonies of the Palazzo dell’Arte | Photo: © Crimella
The appointments of the public program will not be missing, a calendar curated by Damiano Gullì, including meetings, dialogues, masterclasses and workshops, intended for different audiences. From 11 February to 11 May the scene will be all about the festival FOG Triennale Milano Performing Artscurated by Umberto Angelini, which will shine the spotlight on the most interesting artists and companies on the international performance scene.
At the Milan Arch Weekthe week dedicated to architecture to be held in May, this year the theme of the suburbs will be tackled, involving numerous city realities that participated in the call launched in September 2022, while from May to the end of September Triennale Estate will return, the summer programming of Triennale that will enliven the Giancarlo De Carlo Garden with talks, performances, projections, DJ sets.
