press launch with Clausio Luti ( l ) Marva Griffen Wilshire ( c ) Ricardo Bello Dias and Beppi Finessi ( r )

Major celebration for the SaloneSatellite, which turns 20 this April: an impeccable pedigree that earned it a career Compasso d’Oro in 2014, and a rich history: more than 10,000 young designers have participated in the 19 previous editions, many of whom have become internationally acclaimed –

Matali Crasset and Patrick Jouin (France), Harri Koskinen and Ilkka Suppanen (Finland), Tomoko Azumi and Nendo (Japan), Sean Yoo and Cory Grosser (USA), Front and Johan Lindstén (Sweden), Xavier Lust (Belgium), Daniel Rybakken (Norway), Satyendra Pakhalé (India), Federico Churba (Argentina), Lorenzo Damiani, Tommaso Nani, Cristina Celestino and Francesca Lanzavecchia (Italy), to name just a few – as well as 270 of the most prestigious international design schools.

The 20 years of SaloneSatellite was celebrated with 2 exhibitions at different locations –

1) “ Salone Satellite. 20 Years of New Creativity” – at Fabbrica Del Vapore

The 20th Salone Satellite birthday festivities continued in the city at the Fabbrica del Vapore, where a major exhibition, curated by Beppe Finessi and entitled Salone Satellite – 20 Years of New Creativity, presented an anthology of pieces from the Satellite’s history that have gone into production.

Salone Satellite. 20 Years of New Creativity is an attempt to rethink the entire history of the event, looking back at the work of all the designers who looked to Salone Satellite for advice and dialogue with the manufacturing and critical world, and for contact with other young designers engaged in thinking up new design ideas, in the domestic realm particularly, in different parts of the world.

concept design by Ricardo Bello Dias

A large exhibition curated by Beppe Finessi, designed by Ricardo Bello Dias with graphic design by Leonardo Sonnoli was held at the Fabbrica del Vapore –

An anthology of pieces presented during the twenty editions of SaloneSatellite as prototypes, which then went into production, marketed by prestigious, large-scale companies and other key manufacturers.

Beppi Finessi ( curator )

The exhibition is a sort of chapter two of the 2007 show Avverati. A Dream Come True, also curated by Finessi: a selection of several hundred products that were originally presented as prototypes during the 20 editions of the SaloneSatellite and then entered the marketplace in the catalogues of prestigious manufacturers, distributors and other important players in the design world.

Some of the projects from these 20 years have become successful products, others veritable icons of 21st-century design, yet others have won prestigious awards, and others still have entered the collections of the most important museums.

“Looking back on the 20 years of the SaloneSatellite”, says Finessi, “means encountering many of the key figures in the design of today, whose careers were launched and developed thanks to the Salone Satellite. And who found here their first opportunity to listen, and to be heard. It’s exciting to see the quality of their work again, but most impressive is their numbers: more than 100 designers who have established themselves and are now recognized for their creativity, personality and originality. So, reading the list of participants from these 20 years is like browsing an encyclopedia of the history of creativity in the third millennium.”

SaloneSatellite. 20 Years of New Creativity brings together more than 500 projects by as many designers, creators who have taken three consistent and diverse directions, corresponding to three different design methods and approaches.

These three great design fields have informed the exhibition concept, an arrangement in three acts, corresponding to the three aisles in the large Fabbrica del Vapore “Cathedral”, the deeply fascinating and historical building hosting the exhibition.

Teh catalogue tells the SaloneSatellite 20 years of history, the annual event since 1998, within the Salone del Mobile.

Milan, has forever changed the world of design, renewing it with the energy of the many young people who helped to bring out.

The book, written by Beppe Finessi, with graphic design by Leonardo Sonnoli, is structured as a credible dictionary of contemporary creativity, with 500 designers and over 1500 images showing the evolution of taste in the beginning of the Third Millennium.

“Among the international designers who are now the height of success, many have started about twenty years ago. And many of them made their debut in the Satellite.

Over the years, by Matali Crasset at Satyendra Pakhalé, by Ilkka Suppanen to Nendo, Raffaella Mangiarotti and Matteo Bazzicalupo of Deepdesign, all were selected and discovered the great patroness of design, Marva Griffin.

The idea was simple but revolutionary: to take advantage of the audience of journalists, dealers, curators and entrepreneurs who flock to the Salone del Mobile to give young talented designers a showcase that can define an entire career – and to give the world the ‘opportunities to enjoy their passion and imagination.

After twenty years, the Satellite is still traveling, discovering every year of new planets and new moons. All intensively habitable! ”

Paola Antonelli – Senior Curator, Architecture & Design Director, Research & Development The Museum of Modern Art, New York

designer matali crasset

2) “ SaloneSatellite 20 Years Collection “ – at the Rho Fairground

A special edition of bespoke pieces designed by international designers whose careers took off at SaloneSatellite

The first 20 years of the SaloneSatellite were also celebrated with a special edition of pieces commissioned expressly for the occasion to established international designers, whose common denominator is having started their career in the past editions of the SaloneSatellite.

Some of the pieces will be self-produced by the designers themselves, others will produced and marketed by companies exhibiting at the Salone del Mobile.Milano.

All pieces which formed the SaloneSatellite 20 Years Collection, were displayed in Pavilions 22-24 of the SaloneSatellite from 4th to 9th April.