Fuorisalone Award 2023 winners reflect on our imagined collective future

As Milan slowly transitions to normalcy, post the hustle-bustle of the week-long Milan Design Week 2023, Fuorisalone has announced the winners of the Fuorisalone Award 2023. Building on the experience of the Milano Design Award, produced by Elita until 2018, Fuorisalone Award is a project of Fuorisalone.it. Now in its second edition, the awards aim to acknowledge the most memorable projects at Milan Design Week. In its debut, last year, Divided Layers installation by KOHLER x Daniel Arsham was titled the winner. This year, with the design world’s enthusiastic return to Milan for innovative interactions that address pressing needs of the current world, the projects and installations reflected on this new perspective with the winner of the Fuorisalone Award selected on the basis of direct voting by the public.

Apart from the main award, a technical committee of professionals listed the 'Special Mentions' under the categories of Interaction, Sustainability, Technology and Communication, promoting the most outstanding projects and events of the Fuorisalone that meet certain criteria and design features. The latest introduction to this edition of the Fuorisalone Award is the special mention by Salone del Mobile.Milano, created to distinguish the lighting project with the best public impact.

The Audience Award

Beyond the Surface by SolidNature

From the 20 most memorable installations or events of the 2023 edition, selected by the editorial staff of fuorisalone.it, people voted for their favourites and titled Beyond the Surface by SolidNature as the winner of the Fuorisalone Awards 2023. Celebrating its second year in Milan, Natural Stone brand SolidNature presented its first solo show as an immersive dreamscape. Designed by Ellen Van Loon and Giulio Margheri of OMA, the installation drew a parallel between the formation and quarrying of stone and the process of dreaming. Talking about Beyond the Surface, David Mahyari, CEO of SolidNature said, “Time is such an important factor within the narrative of this year's installation. We live in a fast-consuming world that demands instant gratification. We are used to attending instantly to our needs and desires. But when it comes to achieving our goals and dreams, this takes time. It is a matter of discipline, patience, lots of failures and lessons. The same can be said about working with stone. It takes thousands of years to create a piece of stone as it is. Where sand, trees, mud and other matter go through processes like pressure or even earthquakes to eventually become an outstanding piece of art." Anchored in the heart of the Brera Design District, the immersive installation is a journey, unfolded in seven different rooms—Confrontation Room, Revelation Room, Dedication Room, Patience Room, Reward Room and Paradise—starting with a monumental staircase guiding the visitor to the underground level.

Special Mentions - Interaction

Experiences Immobiles by Les Eaux Primordiales

Les Eaux Primordiales presented an olfactory and interactive installation in collaboration with DWA Design Studio and Natascia Fenoglio, titled Experiences Immobiles. In the scenic setting of Alcova, the two laboratory towers designed by DWA Design Studio and inspired by the aesthetics of industrial buildings in northern France, invited visitors to immerse themselves in their sensory world. Drawing from the childhood memories of the creator of Les Eaux Primordiales, Arnaud Poulain, the geometric shapes of the towers resemble factory chimneys. Furthermore, the wooden structure is placed on a carpet featuring the microcosmic visuals of Tania and Vincent.

Special Mentions - Sustainability

RE;COLLECTIVE MILAN by RE;CODE

Beyond the design dialogues of every design week, this year, fashion brands and houses also took an important stage in Milan. Winning the judges' points in the Sustainability category was RE;CODE’s RE;COLLECTIVE MILAN which displayed sustainability and upcycling by merging fashion and design. The Korean fashion brand RE;CODE, the Japanese design unit DEKASEGI and nine groups of designers from East Asia—Japan, Korea and China—came together for the exhibition, promoting the theme of ‘Upcycle.’ Under the slogan of 'create meaningful changes together,' the exhibition aimed at becoming a futuristic dream for sustainable design and sustainable fashion.

Special Mentions - Technology

Opposites United ArtworkExhibition by Kia

Kia's Opposites United Artworkexhibition presented the brand’s philosophy, which involves combining contrasting qualities and finding synergies between opposing concepts, illustrated in a series of art pieces. Drawing inspirations from the contrasts found in nature and humanity, the different immersive media art installations were displayed across seven exhibition halls, inviting visitors to experience Kia's design vision for a new era of sustainable mobility through video, sound, and sculpture. Opposites United was based on five key design pillars, each of which was illustrated in a dedicated space as part of the exhibition: Bold for Nature, Joy for Reason, Power to Progress, Technology for Life, and Tension for Serenity.

Special Mentions - Communication

Enlightenment | Ron Gilad + NEMO by NEMO lighting

NEMO Lighting's Enlightenment was a special project by Israel-born and New York-based designer Ron Gilad. Presented by Nemo at its events space Borgonuovo 19 at Brera Design District, the event narrated the paradoxical experience of light through and beyond objects. Similar to most of Gilad’s unseen works and installations, Enlightenment also brought forth a message to reinvent light as a medium, beyond its conventional uses. Extending a conversation between the light, object and performer, the light installation playfully deposes the general perception of light. 

In the run for the Fuorisalone Award were other projects such as GROHE SPA's Health Through Water, Shaped by water by Google designed by Ivy Ross and Lachlan Turczan,  La Macchina Impossible (The Impossible Machine) by San Lorenzo Yachts designed by Piero Lissoni, glo™ for art’s Dry Days, Tropical Nights by Agostino Iacurci, Vieni a Vedere by Gaetano Pesce for Bottega Veneta and More or Less by Maarten Baas in collaboration with the fashion brand G-Star RAW. Coming in second with the public’s vote was Loro Piana Interiors' Apacheta by Argentinian designer and artist Cristián Mohaded. Twelve towers made in Loro Piana interior fabrics rose from the ground as the contrasting landscapes of Argentina, inspired from Mohaded's dreamlike world. The third place was bestowed on Opposites United ArtworkExhibition by Kia and fourth on Meta-Physical | Eliseo H. Zubiri X JCP Universe by ONIRO Lab. JCP Universe’s Meta-Physical installation aimed to reflect on the boundaries between nature and artifice, reality and fiction.

The award for the winners of the Fuorisalone Award 2023 was designed by the Studiolabo team and produced by Pollodesign Factory, a Milan-based design and production company. "The 2022 edition saw the involvement of Mauro Martino, digital artist and artificial intelligence expert, who synthesised the complexity of the data extrapolated from the Fuorisalone.it platform during the pandemic in the award, realised using the 3D printing technique. From this year, the award for the winner of the Fuorisalone Award and Special Mentions changes its image: it is entirely revised in design and realised as a stylisation of the traditional pin that has characterised Fuorisalone.it activities for 20 years. A tribute to what has always represented the official map through which to orient oneself among installations, exhibitions, parties and discussion panels during the most important week for the design industry,” states the official press release.

STIR’s coverage of Milan Design Week 2023 showcases the best exhibitions, studios, designers, installations, brands, and special projects to look out for. Explore Euroluce 2023 and all the design districts—5Vie Art and Design, Brera Design District, Fuorisalone, Isola Design District, Tortona District, and Milano Design District—with us.