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Fuorisalone 2026: the highlights of this year’s event
When design takes over the city
From April 20 to 26, Milan breathed to the rhythm of Fuorisalone del Mobile 2026, a parallel initiative to the Salone del Mobile in Rho, during which the city becomes a veritable experimental laboratory dedicated to design, where events, exhibitions and installations unfold. On every street corner, showrooms, institutional palaces and historic courtyards become the stages for a host of artists, architects, designers and brands from around the world, in a stimulating and electrifying fusion in service of creativity and innovation. Here, design is experienced in a unique way at the heart of the Lombard capital, which for one week becomes the world capital of design.
In this article, we present a selection of the highlights of the Fuorisalone, moments that caught our attention both in terms of the creativity summoned and the ideas brought to light: a subjective, resolutely Sloftian selection.
APARTAMENTO – Muller Van Severen
In Milan’s Ordet art center, Apartamento unveiled “Silhouettes: Celebrating 15 Years”, an exhibition featuring fifteen life-size candleholders by Belgian studio Muller Van Severen. Made from aluminum, these pieces offer abstract variations on recurring shapes and motifs in the duo’s work – sometimes already explored in their individual practices. The choice of the number, fifteen, is not without meaning: it marks the studio’s years of existence, celebrated for the occasion by the publication of a monograph, A Lot of Work. In parallel, a collection of Silhouettes candleholders, in a limited edition and more domestic format, was also launched.
In fact, function is always at the heart of their approach, and every formal decision must serve it.
Rosanne Van Severen
Muller Van Severen’s vocabulary is distinguished by its singularity, at the crossroads of sculpture, architecture and use. Function is always at the heart of their approach, and every formal decision must serve it.
Frederik Vercruysse
BACCARAT – Emmanuelle Luciani
In the Brera district, Baccarat presented “Crystal Crypt”, a project imagined by Emmanuelle Luciani — artist, art historian and curator — who sees crystal as a total experience. Immersion begins at the entrance: visitors are plunged into an entirely purplish science-fiction setting, a “vessel-cathedral” in Luciani’s words. Inside, revisited icons and haute cristallerie pieces unfurl like precious, almost magical artifacts — objects from elsewhere, with indeterminate powers.
Philippe Garcia
MIU MIU – “Politics of Desire
This year, the Circolo Filologico di Milano once again played host to the Miu Miu Literary Club, an initiative that falls outside the realm of design, but which unfolds in a choice setting. In the style of European literary salons, this event offers conversations and readings on the subject of female identity in contemporary society. The theme of this year’s event is “Politics of Desire”, opening up a field of reflection on sexuality, desire and consent, as well as on the female body as a political space and vector. Each year, the Literary Club takes two literary works as its starting point. This year, they are Mémoire de fille by Annie Ernaux and Changes: A Love Story by Ama Ata Aidoo. The former work, by the Nobel Prize for Literature laureate, analyzes the experiences and power dynamics that helped shape her identity; the latter, by a major figure in African literature and postcolonial feminism, explores contemporary African female identity. Miuccia Prada’s proposal compels by its necessity and its primordial character at a time when women’s rights can never be taken for granted.
© Miu Miu
For the occasion, the Circolo Filologico is adorned with a meticulous décor, combining lilac carpeting and numerous wooden elements: chromatically, the whole works perfectly. Touches of green, provided by banners reminiscent of Anglo-Saxon institutional ceremonial, complete the picture.
INTERNI – Snøhetta | VitrA
In the Cortile d’Onore at the Università degli Studi di Milano, “Ceramics Forged in Light” is presented. Designed by Norwegian architecture studio Snøhetta, in collaboration with VitrA, manufacturer of bathroom solutions, the installation is part of INTERNI MateriAE, the exhibition orchestrated by Italian design magazine Interni. Here, matter and its transformations are at the heart of the experience: ceramics, and more broadly clay, are given pride of place, in a space oscillating between primitive and futuristic. A peaceful exploration, where the senses are called upon for total immersion, in an environment where architecture and nature are one.
VitrA – Paolo Consaga
“Ceramics is one of the most enduring materials in human history, yet it never ceases to evolve. Ceramics Forged in Light opens up a dialogue between the elements, in which the material is revealed not as a fixed form, but as a living continuum. It constantly shapes, reconfigures and reinvents itself. The installation invites visitors to slow down and reconnect with the material’s origin, its sensory qualities and its future potential.”
– Anne-Rachel Schiffmann, Director of Interior Architecture at Snøhetta
USM | Snøhetta – Annabelle Schneider
In the gardens of the Luigi Rovati Foundation, an installation resulting from a collaboration between USM and Snøhetta makes its presence felt — occupying much of the space. It is composed of white, cloud-like fabrics, supported by USM Haller Modular Systems, which form the backbone. It’s as if the organic, milky softness of the fabric were entering into a dialogue with the metallic rigour of the modern world. Entitled “Renaissance of the Real”, the device is presented as a sensitive parenthesis to the digital world: slowing down through the experience of the senses, through soft lights, sound compositions, subtle fragrances, surfaces to be explored with the fingertips, and even warm towels offered to visitors on arrival, as a gesture of purification.
USM
“Renaissance du Réel is my response to an age when reality is increasingly dominated by speed and images. Rather than creating another product, this installation is an immersive experience — a place where the structural clarity of USM Haller houses a living environment that invites us to reconnect with our bodies and with others.”
– Annabelle Schneider, artist
MOSCAPARTNERS – Lina Ghotmeh
Lina Ghotmeh’s “Metamorphosis in Motion” is set in the courtyard of Palazzo Litta, a storied and iconic landmark of Milan. As part of the annual exhibition organized by MoscaPartners, the Lebanese architect has designed a pink labyrinth with graphic lines, which visitors are invited to walk through: a playful way of becoming one with the work. Conceived as an “archaeology of the future”, in the words of Lina Ghotmeh, the installation encourages human exchanges through a structure designed for encounters, including seats that invite, for example, conversation with the person sitting next to you. It also plays on the contrast with the baroque architecture of Palazzo Litta, provoking a visual clash between the 17th-century columns and its bubblegum shades.
Press
AESOP – Rodney Eggleston
In the courtyard of the Chiesa del Carmine, behind trompe-l’œil curtains, the journey imagined for “The Factory of Light” begins — an installation by Aesop and architect Rodney Eggleston, founder of March Studio. A four-stage journey through the manufacturing process of the brand’s new luminaires, unveiled for the first time at the Salone. Inside the church, we discover the Aposē lamp, a limited-edition hand-crafted creation available in three versions: a table lamp, a pendant lamp and a floor lamp. Made from solid brass and frosted mouth-blown glass, these pieces rest on a base composed of almost 10,000 recycled glass bottles, refracting an ochre, diffuse light. Beneath the wooden cherubs that overhang the stage, the ensemble creates an almost surreal setting.
Aesop – Ludovic Balay
