By Jeanne Tan /asdf 25-03-2010

The new design area Ventura Lambrate features an impressive debut line-up of exhibitors including Design Academy Eindhoven, Royal College of Arts (RCA) London, Maarten Baas and Niels van Eijk/Miriam van der Lubbe.

The Milan Furniture Fair has long not only been about the fair itself - Salone Internazionale del Mobile - but also about the hundreds of satellite events scattered throughout the city during that week. While the fair takes a more commercial focus, the city events lean towards a cultural perspective. Centering around Via Tortona and Porta Genova station, the area Zona Tortona has been the epicenter of these independent events as every year, design visitors pack its narrow streets much to the bewilderment of locals. In the beginning, the industrial area provided an alternative to presenting at the commercial fair attracting emerging designers with more cutting edge, independent presentations. However in recent years, the area has become more appealing to also established labels - who aren't even necessarily design related for that matter - who want to update their image and attract a design-focused, younger, trendier crowd. The whole area has become quite a tacky circus to be honest.

Driven by a more content focus, a new area aims to put some substance back into the city presentations. Initiated by Utrecht-based Organisation in Design, Ventura Lambrate features 22 presentations with a heavy Dutch focus. As the area is located slightly further from the city centre, there must be a good reason for visitors to trek out there. So who is on the Ventura Lambrate bandwagon?

Included are famed design institutions: Design Academy Eindhoven shows some of the questions being faced in design right now in the exhibition '?' - What is the role of designers today? What is the future role of a designer? What are we focusing on? Curators are Ilse Crawford and Anne Mieke Eggenkamp. Meanwhile Tord Bootje presents works by students and recent graduates of the Royal College of Art (RCA) London. ArtEZ joins forces with Collectie Arnhem, Weltevree and Coming Soon for the exhibition Made in Arnhem. Milan's Scuola Politecnica di Design shows selected masters' works.

Group shows include Gronicles#2 featuring Groningen-based designers Jack Brandsma, Lambert Kamps and Marcus Petstra, designers rENs, Designlabel Vij5, DeridderDesignstudio, studio Vraay, Reinier de Jong, David Derksen explore composition and attention for detail with their presentation in an Italian garage. Laiking Land featuring Ted Noten and Atelier NL looks at the design and manufacture of beautifully crafted kinetic objects, Geke Lensink and Jesse Visser will show independent and collaborative projects.

In two themed group shows, 13,798 Grams of Design exhibits international work which weigh 13,798 grams featuring Marcel Wanders and Sjoerd Jonkers. Residence/Design Dialogues, Ten Small Atlases looks at ten processes behind ten projects from designers including Pieke Bergmans, FormaFantasma, Jo Meesters and Studio Glithero. Zuiderzee museum presents'Soft' installations by Kiki van Eijk and a project inspired by the East India Company (VOC) by Joost van Bleiswijk. Kiki van Eijk's tableware will also be part of Total Table Design alongside the table setting of Scholten & Baijings.

Independent designers presenting include Maarten Baas who will surely be a big drawcard, Frederik Roije, Niels van Eijk/Miriam van der Lubbe who will be presenting a retrospective of their work from 1998-2010, and Aldo Bakker who will exhibit his Urushi series with  Particles Gallery.

And will the content of Ventura Lambrate live up to the promise? Find out in April as we will report live from the events with our daily Design.nl newsletters from the Milan Furniture Fair.

Main image: Bath cupboard, Anna van der Lei, photography: Rene van der Hulst
Image 1: Air Spheres, Richard Hutten, Plus Gallery
Image 2: Maarten Baas experiments
Image 3&4: Ten Small Atlases, Studio Glithero
Image 5: Niels van Eijk/Miriam van der Lubbe
Image 6: Reinier de Jong
Image 7: Kiki van Eijk, Zuiderzee museum

Add to favorites