A glimpse inside the third edition of Lake Como Design Festival

The Lake Como Design Festival recently unveiled the primary exhibition of this year’s edition— History Repeating by designer Marco Sammicheli (b. 1979) as well as a site-specific installation project that will be a highlight of the festival. This year's event is scheduled to take place from October 5 to 10, 2021 in Como, Italy. For this edition, the festival is launching a new broader format. After two years as just an exhibition, the Lake Como Design Festival now expands into an immersive experience of the historic centre of Como and its lake. Speaking about this new format, the guest curator, Marco Sammicheli, states that “the urban scale of the initiative puts the festival in a position to carry out a public function despite being a private actor who federates various realities of the territory."

History Repeating by Sammicheli, the heart of this year’s design fair, will be hosted inside the Teatro Sociale di Como, a theatre designed by architect Giuseppe Cusi, and will be set up by the architects Stefano Larotonda and Niccolò Nessi. It will showcase the works of a number of leading international artists and designers such as Francesco Faccin, Riccardo Sarfatti, Gino Sarfatti, Marco Dessì, Valerio Sommella, Cristina Celestino, Chiara Andreatti, Pierre Paulin, Gio Ponti, Ettore Sottsass, Giulio Ridolfo, Ico Parisi, Ferruccio Laviani, Piero Portaluppi and Gatti Paolini Teodoro among others.

For the last many years, both Larotonda and Nessi have been working in cultural projects and research for the enhancement of the architectural and landscape heritage of Lariano and collaborate in the project of the Lake Como Design Festival.

“History Repeating is a collective exhibition divided into several sections and dedicated to the role of history and sources in some episodes of modern and contemporary design. The exhibition is a recognition of how much history is, on the one hand a commercial and creative lever, and on the other a dialectical rebound to innovation if it is not interpreted as a run-up to read the present," says Sammicheli, who is curator for the design, fashion and craft sector at Triennale Milano and Superintendent of the Italian Design Museum.

The Lake Como Design Festival 2021 will also exhibit site-specific installations by Larotonda and Nessi, which will function as thought-provoking backdrops of the festival’s exhibition spaces. Through forms and experiences, these installations will enhance the peculiarities of the exhibition spaces and highlight the works on display. This project will offer in each room a different emotional and spatial experience and will provide the opportunity for a new investigation.

Moreover, the festival will host a number of exhibitions at various locations in the city centre. The Academy of Music and Dance—Palazzo Valli Bruni will host an exhibition with the theme 20/21: A dialogue between the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This exhibit will include a selection of objects and accessories for sale, made by independent contemporary designers who were inspired by the last century. For this exhibition, the festival has collaborated with Catawiki, one of the most visited curated markets in Europe for collectibles, art and design. Furthermore, in the next few weeks, the festival will announce additional exhibitions at iconic locations in Como.

"As in previous years, the Lake Como Design Festival continues with its intent to make historic places accessible through design, with the aim of promoting and sharing the artistic and architectural heritage of this area,” concludes Lorenzo Butti, Founder of Wonderlake Como, Creator and Artistic Director of the Lake Como Design Festival.

For further information on the third edition of Lake Como Design Festival, check out the festival’s website