The name of this Salone Event includes the word “Bridge” as the intent is precisely to create a bridge between East and West.

Sarpi Bridge proposes to highlight the design, research, innovation and creativity of young talented Japanese, Chinese and Korean designers.

The Oriental Design Week project proposes ideas or products of Oriental design, creating synergies with the East in creative fields, design and production.

Below is an interview with Anna Maria Salinari, the exhibition curator.

Milan’s Sarpi district ( near Tortona) has a strong history of Chinese immigration, with its kind inhabitants, committed on the territory and collaborative, it’s definitely the most qualified area in Milan to have hosted this initiative and to determine its success.

The project developed unions between Japanese designers and an Italian product companies.

The creation of this association gave rise to various projects.

The designers involved were Sakura Adachi, Tomoko Azumi, Shinobu Ito, Kazuyo Komoda, Kuniko Maeda and Kaori Shiina, while companies were Promovetro Consortium Murano, Artistic Foundry Campagner, Jordan Viganò, John Dory, 1927, Riva 1920, BeD Living, Simone Cenedese, Shrimp & Poggi, Alessandro Mandruzzato, Ercole Moretti, NasonMoretti, Seguso Gianni, Glassware Signoretto Pino, Sergio Tiozzo.

.

The Fuorisalone Sarpi association is born by the art collective cultural Tomato Catch Up with the studio 2HB Architetti, Studio Akka and Shiina Nardi + Design.

Tomato Catch Up is the art collective cultural of the Insectida association.

Tomato Catch Up space stands out as a exhibition place multidisciplinary that proposes events about the theme of diversity and invites visitors to approach it positively.

Personalities and well-known international brands that, for various reasons pertain to the world of design and beyond, took part in the exhibition.

The aim of the initiative is to approach the visitors to the different cultures, supporting a sort of ethical concept.

The architects and designers participating in the project include:

Sakura Adachi, John Bennett, DDP study, Andrea Dichiara, Luciana Di Virgilio, Roberto Giacomucci, Giulio Iacchetti, Setsu Ito, Shinobu Ito, Motomi Kawakami, Yuki Kikutake, Kazuyo Komoda, Laudani & Romanelli, Jiyoun Lee, Armando Levis, Eliana Lorena, Kurokawa Masayuki, Tomoko Mizu, Riccardo Nardi, Lorenzo Palmeri, Aldo Petillo, Luca Scacchetti, Kaori Shiina, Brian Sironi and Gianni Veneziano.

Studio Akka is a contemporary art gallery that creates a bridge between Italy and Korea.

Its purpose is to promote emerging artists in visual arts and applied to both countries, through exhibitions, workshops and residency programs.

Insectida is a project where the insect is Insectida diversity and invites people to approach it positively and therefore also to different cultures. The most important designers on the international scene have created objects that refer to the charming aesthetics and the ability of evolution of the insect.

.

.

Japanese designers – Sakura Adachi, Tomoko Azumi, Shinobu Ito, Kuniko Maeda, Kazuyo Komoda, Kaori Shiina – worked with the Consortium of highly original Promovetro Murano