Gallery Rossana Orlandi was opened in 2002 in a former tie Factory in the Zona Sant Ambrogio / Magenta neighborhood

Since then Rossana Orlandi has been forecasting new and upcoming designers and establishing the premise as one of the most revered platforms for avant-garde Design and Lifestyle

Every year Orlandi’s gallery attracts a convivial hustle and bustle of international press and well-heeled visitors who are interested in the latest work of the exhibitors.

Over the years the Rossana Orlandi Gallery has become an important space for the presentation of new emerging designers and, in the field of avant-garde design, has become one of the most renowned galleries.

To enter through the now legendary gate of Galleria Rossana Orlandi, especially when the Milan Salone is on, means finding yourself thrown in a world where both functional and aesthetic rules are subverted in the name of dynamic flows of energies and ideas reaching from any corner of the planet.

Galleria Rossana Orlandi has also revolutionized the way to present design art pieces, showing them always in real ambiances, displayed together with different kind of products to recreate real houses situations and, taking advantage of the structure of the gallery itself composed by different rooms on different floors, all winding around a blooming courtyard.

rossana orlandi ( centre) busy networking during the Salone

One of Europe’s most important design galleries, Rossana Orlandi is always a great spot for people – and talent – watching.

Rossana started her design activities focusing on the rising Dutch Design wave with designers such Piet Hein Eek, Maarten Baas and Nacho Carbonell the research has moved widely around the world creating a catalog which reflects the most innovative scenes from Europe to Asia to America.

The space is articulated in a non traditional way mixing together, showroom, a retail store, offices and a courtyard for events and meeting with no boundaries between the different activities.

About Rossana Orlandi

In 2002, after having worked more than 20 years in fashion as a spin yarn consultant for labels such Giorgio Armani and Donna Karan and for her family company, Rossana decided to transfer her passion for design as a private collector into an innovative gallery, a platform where to showcase her personal idea of design and lifestyle.

She has been working as a curator for several exhibitions in Italy and abroad  and she collaborated  also with the high end brands in fashion, luxury and lifestyle.

Her constant research worldwide has made her one of the most influential persons focussed on forecasting young and upcoming designers

Rossana Orlandi – Salone Line up for 2017

Sometimes the best surprises hit us from unexpected directions.

The exhibition space of Rossana Orlandi is not designed according to traditional canons, but presents designs of art mixed with each other atypical and coupled with products of a different nature, in order to recreate real-life situations.

This year’s line-up includes Hongjie Yang, Jorge Penadés and Fernando Mastrangelo, definite clues that materiality would play a big role among the presentations.

So, please, be curious and let yourself be seduced by Rossana Orlandi’s kaleidoscopic galaxy, while reviewing the snapshots below of some of the most exciting projects on display at Spazio Rossana Orlandi 2017.

RO Courtyard Exhibitions

Germans Ermics

Latvian-born, Amsterdam-based designer Germans Ermičs (1985) graduated from Design Academy Eindhoven.

Prior to the graduation in 2011 he completed an internship at Studio Robert Stadler in Paris. In September 2014 started his own studio in Amsterdam.

In his work Ermičs is exploring the subject of his fascination with glass and mirrors, experimenting and researching materials.

Colours take on enormous proportions in his works, to the point where the materials they’re applied to either seem more exciting than they ever have before, or disappear entirely in the viewer’s consciousness.

He often employs his graphic design background to add a new and fresh approach to design and enjoy experimenting perceptions of space

Jacopo Foggini

Jacopo Foggini was born in Turin and currently lives and works in Milan.

He explores art and design crossing the boundaries imposed by the conventions of those disciplines.

Jacopo joins really early the family business where he discovers the versatility of the methacrylate, an industrial material normally used in automotive design.

His first experimentation with this material date back to the beginning of the nineties, when he starts using a machine of his own invention that heats the methacrylate up to 200 degrees Celsius, producing a filament that he models with his hands to create luminous shapes, monumental works and mazes of threads in an elegant intertwining of colors.

On Entropy

On Entropy presented its marble lightness collection within the courtyard at Galleria Rossana Orlandi

It was centered around the luminosity of ‘Ray’; a pendant light which attracts a flock of marble birds. With its directional and elegant form, the free-floating marble light brings together the fluid volume of sweeping birds.

The installation explores the interplay between lightness and form, with the tactile nature of marble making it instinctive to touch.

Youth in Prison – Malawi

The evocative outdoor courtyard stages the Freedom Lamp, a lighting collection by YIPmade – acronym for Young In Prison Foundation, that in partnership with Dutch artist Joep van Lieshout offered former young prisoners from Malawi a chance to start a new life by creating unique design products.

Francesco Faccin

A family of plant containers designed by Francesco Faccin and manufactured by Peter Mabeo in Botswana through the use of recycled metal sheets.

Rooms

Benedetta Mori Ubaldini

Before moving to Milan in 2005 Benedetta Mori Ubaldini lived and was trained in London.

Benedetta works in many materials but is best known for her innovative and extraordinarily beautiful wire work.

Each piece starts life as industrially produced, rolled “chicken” wire which is gradually shaped by hand, twisting and joining the pieces together to give a seamless appearance.

“ What I love is to fill large spaces with narratives, creating three dimensional pictures and I like them to be evocative, symbolic and poetic. The sculptures I create in chicken wire have no internal structure at all, therefore the play between presence and absence becomes the magical element of the work and gives each piece the lightness of an apparition, a ghost-like quality like a trace from memory or images from a dream.”

RO Showroom Exhibitions

Orlandi Wall Drawings  ( ongoing permanent display )

The Rossana Orlandi Sales teams’ office

Unduo and Biancodichina

NLXL Lab3

NLXL’s 360 installation titled NLXL Lab3 was a fun kaleidoscope in which you can enter and make yourself a selfie and post onto instagram that will give you the chance to take part in the competition and win yards and meters of wall coverings.

The collection includes brand new designs by Bethan Gray, Thomas Eurlings, Anna Surie, Nacho Carbonell, Paola Navone, Nightshop, Piet Hein Eek and Mr & Mrs Vintage and a re-issue by Richard Hutten.

Bougoette Bags

Bougeotte is an Italian-based concept brand of quality goods, inspired by the aim of refreshing the pleasure of sophisticated materials for high-end distinguished market.

Along with maintaining a rich heritage, of tradition and excellence that only luxury can appeal to, Bougeotte collections are completely manufactured in selected Italian laboratories, where nearly eighty percent of their products are totally handmade, with exquisite craftsmanship and artisanal techniques of supreme quality.

Enrico Marone Cinzano

Enrico Marone Cinzano work is based on nature and its inherent balance which leads to beauty. His firm belief is that for a product to be effective it also has to look right, both inside and outside.

In a commodity-based world of globalized parameters and standardized technologies, quality and design become of paramount importance in conferring a DNA to differentiate a product.

The Wood Stealth Table is made from 200 year-old recovered larch wood beams coming straight from the dismantling of an old Alps’ chalet.

The Marble Stealth Table is a coffee table in recycled aluminum that is treated to withstand scratches and topped with a marble called Zebrino, carved in Tuscany and coming from a batch of leftover materials

Fernando Mastrangelo

Brooklyn based Fernando Mastrangelo (1978) uses atypically commonplace materials – such as salt, coffee, sand, glass and cement – to cast sculptural objects that inextricably entangle fine art and design disciplines

Amalgamating commodity materials and pure geometric form, the works are intriguingly contradictory; they are both rugged and refined, durable and delicate, formal and functional.

These free-standing and wall-hanging sculptural pieces resonate across a panoramic, multidisciplinary spectrum – spanning formal, social, historical, mathematical, and even religious subject matters.

Precisely because of their hybrid natures, each work shatters the potential for contextual singularity.

According to the same methods, Mastrangelo also makes material paintings.

Ochre

Ochre’s mesmerising Seed Cloud chandelier – a timeless design inspired by natural forms

moonlight murmuration chandelier

British designers Joanna Bibby and Harriet Maxwell Macdonald, who shared an aesthetic for the beauty of the understated, founded OCHRE in 1996.

Solenne de la Fouchardière became the third partner and fellow designer four years later.

Today, OCHRE is acclaimed internationally with showrooms in London and New York and continues to grow organically whilst staying true to its considered design roots.

It is the destination for those in search of discreet glamour – the hallmark of OCHRE.

AnotherView

ANOTHERVIEW is an ongoing project that takes place in between interior design and conceptual art.

It transforms your home into a nomadic place, where virtual window leads to unexpected landscapes or cities to suit however you feel like.

The team of ANOTHERVIEW is constantly collecting new and exclusive views around the world.

In a way each view tells a unique story about our time, people, society and the world.

The fifth work by another Video, is also worth a look: this video-art project shot on Feb. 22nd, 2017 in Venice shows 24h loop images of the Grand Canal as seen from Palazzo Pisani.

The 4K digital film embedded into a period window frame aims to engage technology’s most poetic dimension to deliver emotional suggestions of places at risk

The view from a window is an important element in every house that greatly influences our daily moods and unlike the color of our walls or choice of furniture, it cannot be changed.

Whatever you can see from your window, will always be there.

Another View transforms your home into a nomadic  place, where windows lead to unexpected landscapes or cities to suit however you feel like.

As a contrast to our fast moving and fragmented reality, Another View confronts the viewer to take a deep breath and enjoy the slow passing of time with its thousands of little tales of life that happen during 24 hours and to discover a new sense of perception of time and space from the perspective of your home

Imagine spending a day looking at the New York skyline from a private residence not accessible to the public, admiring the clouds gently rolling down Table Mountain in Cape Town, watching the wild animals of Namibia congregating around the watering hole or getting lost in the majestic grandness of the Canal Grande in Venice.

Nacho Carbonell

The design is conceptually sculpted with the pieces of Nacho Carbonell: its Fossil collection is a powerful primitive presence.

the Fossil consolle and cabinet combo by Nacho Carbonell, whose highly lyrical approach is able to turn furniture into perfectly living organisms, fantastic creatures made of pure wonder and amazement.

“ I like to see objects as living organisms, imagining them coming alive and being able to surprise you with their behaviour. I want to create objects with my hands, then I can give them my personality. I turn them into communicative objects that can arouse one’s sensations and imagination. In short, what I want to create are objects with a fictional or fantasy element, that allow you to escape everyday life.”

Nacho Carbonell graduated in 2003 at the Spanish university Cardenal Herrera C.E.U. and the 27 of January 2007 at the Design Academy Eindhoven,

Guglielmo Poletti

Italian designer Guglielmo Poletti, ( fresh out of the Design Academy Eindhoven ) presented 4 pieces – bench, stool, coffee table and console – as part of the Equilibrium collection

Guglielmo managed to create an harmonious, sophisticated balance between all material components

Karel van Laere

Slow Rise was part of the Salone Del Mobile at the Rossana Orlandi gallery.

After months of preparation I finally got permission to shoot my new work ‘Slow Rise’ at Taipei Main station.

Working with a great team of 6 alot of equipment and thousands of Taiwanese passengers is was a very busy day.

Im very pleased with the results. Mink Pinster ( DOP & Editor) and I will start editing soon.

” Now back in The Hague I will start working on my next new video project ‘SOSOLO’. —  Premiere end 2017”  …..  Karel van Laere

It is the contrast of the moment of resting and the movement within a modern city.

The people passing on the escalators will differ from each other in age and lifestyle. By staging some additional scenes I will add some alienation effects to the images, for example by introducing some strange characters.

I will also show the difference of the use that is made of the escalators, sometimes things are quiet, but when metros arrive, the escalators get packed with people.

The video will be shown without music, thus stressing the importance of the image. The onlookers are forced to watch the behaviour of the people in the video.

Karel van Laere makes both video art and live performances.

In his work, the central theme is made up of opposing human movement to mechanical movement. Using electric hoists Van Laere shows the helplessness of the human body.

From his work one can distil the ambition to amaze the viewer with new perspectives and different ways of seeing.

After graduating as a performer at the Maastricht Theatre Academy in 2012, Van Laere continued his education at the Taipei National University of the Arts in Taiwan.

Currently he works, from his studio in The Hague, on several new video works and live performances.

RO Showroom  –  The Gallery Space

Thomas Eyck

This year Thomas Eyck showed work by the Icelandic-German Studio Brynjar & Veronika who blurred the boundary between art and product design

The design duo developed, from the fascination for stones and minerals, a collection of handmade porcelain ‘stones’.

There are 53 different stones, but each of the glazes is unique. They are presented in wooden collection boxes.

At the presentation in Rossana Orlandi gallery the stones were beautiful in black gravel on a large table.

Thomas Eyck also presented ‘Fossils’ by Alegría van der Zande.

The Dutch artist has developed a technique for making prints of plants in leather.

Among other things, the moisture content in the plants, the thickness of plants and leather, the pressure and the temperature determine the result of these delicate ‘fossils’

Birkenstock Beds

Birkenstock launched a new collection of beds and sleeping systems with innovative and functional design language at the Rossana Orlandi Gallery with a design by Nick Vinson.

The new collection of beds and sleeping systems with the intention of extending the idea of ​​wellness to the world of lifestyle and design.

The new line of beds is made up of 6 models that combine design and comfort with the aim of providing superior sleep quality.

In terms of functionality, the optimal elasticity point of these systems allows them to adapt to the body and relieve pressure.

The deconstructed bed ” Iona” showcases the functionality and innovation of the unique and customisable slatted sections

The natural latex and granular cork support layer, specially designed by Birkenstock with special impact absorption capacity, are a distinctive feature of the entire range.

Like the traditional footwear sector, also for sleep systems, other natural materials such as high quality natural leather and wool felt are used.

Birkenstock CEO Oliver Reichert with Rossana Orlandi

Blooper lamp by Mette Schelde

RO Showroom  –  The 16th Courtyard Area Exhibitions

Se Collection Ensemble Apartment

Sé Ensemble brings together an eclectic mix of the brand’s three collections in four different rooms – a Salon, Lounge, Dining Room, and Dressing Room – along with several new pieces, including Nika Zupanc’s Stay Daybed and a marble dining table

Sé Ensemble was a charming domestic installation unfolding into four separate environments gathered together as an apartment dotted with plenty of precious details and finishes

All habitats share a common stylistic feel, although malleable according to each room’s main functionality: a mix of colours, textures, geometries and forms creating multiple layers of linguistic codes.

Incorporating the pieces into an apartment setting, it gave viewers a sense of how each design works within an actual space, as well as how the pieces work together.

The exhibit also unveiled the brand’s new partnerships, with rugs from French brand La Manufacture Cogolin, wallpapers by Brooklyn-based Calico Wallpaper and fabrics by Dedar

Scarlet Splendour

Suman Kanodia, Matteo Cibic, Rossana Orlandi and Ashish Bajoria

Scarlet Splendour by Indian siblings Ashish Bajoria and Suman Kanodia, presented a series of flamboyant furniture designed by Matteo Cibic, Dario Contessotto and Mirco Colussi, and Nika Zupanc.

Scarlet Splendour’s  collection is eclectic, intuitive and painstakingly detailed with form and colours sharing a sense of desire and pleasure creating a wildly ironic and contemporary touch.

The Villa Noir collection by Matteo Cibic is inspired by Indian handicraft of bone and horn inlay and translated into a contemporary fusion of modern polymers and pigments.

matteo cibi nesso table, cupboards and rugs

fools gold table and chair (l) mandala by matteo cibi ( r)

sofa, side chair and tables by dario contessotto and mario colussi

nika zupac with her “88 secrets collection”

RO Showroom  –  Basement Space Exhibits

Jorge Penades

Jorge Penadés continued his Structural Skin collection– a series of furniture pieces that utilize leftovers and off-cuts from the leather industry.

Pretziada

An interesting project promoted by Pretziada, the cutting-edge brand headed by Ivano Atzori and Kyre Chenven, focused on enhancing the value of Sardinia’s local traditions by injecting ancient crafting techniques in the design world.

On display, Heritage, an artisanal rug collection; Sisters, ceramic vases echoing the wedding gifts given to young Sardinian brides; Ceremony Fire Place Tools, indeed a fireplace tool line.

UUfie Architects

ying yang collection of marble puzzle piece tables

uufie architects with rossana orlandi salone milan 2017

We +

We+, a Tokyo-based firm run by Toshiya Hayashi and Hokuto Ando.

Their Drought chair was a highlight of the Rossnan Orlandi’s exhibition presentations

Floris Wubben

In continuation of his Pressed Vases, Floris Wubben presented ceramic tables.

The structured and rough surfaces of the ceramics feature a glossy finish, which gives a beautiful contrast.

Dangling Mirror by Alissa and Nienke

Dangling Mirror by dutch designers Alissa and Nienke is an interactive though analogue surface made of reflective stainless steel sheets.

The thinness makes it sensitive to air movement, creating an ever-changing pattern to move with an almost digital feel.

Like with the rippling of a water surface, every gust of wind evokes a play with reflection and see-through.

It exists out of hundreds of hanging squares, forming a minimalistic grid.

This surface is so sensitive to air flow that every body movement unchains a mesmerizing flowing pattern, resembling a water surface.

It lets you experience stimulates your senses and makes you curious!

alissa with her dangling mirror

Paper Eden Flower Bed

Wall Stitch

In the basement a highly effective stitched wall created by the duo WALL STITCH is a proposal of new signage design by KSDL a design & design engineering company who produce D3 TEXTURE® a 3D digital surface design technology and system.

This technology reproduces texture to give the quality of embroidery with hi-res 3D printing that can be attached to pretty much any surface.

WALL STITCH was exhibited at Tokyo Designers Week last year for this first time within the shipping containers area, we already have ideas buzzing around in our heads of uses for this technique within the commercial interior and event sectors.

Halo lights by Matthew McCormick, Vancouver Canada

primitive by Bosa ceramics

iris lamp by neo crafts

Damiano Spelta

Damiano Spelta’s work is conceived in an articulated artistic way, an art that first of all has to be an idea and consequently a functional piece, assemblages, design, airbrush paintings on surfaces of all kind, boat shells, helmets, cars and more.

His art is inspired by the ideology of Dadaism and can be considered as pertaining to Pop Art for its unholy irony.

His pieces illustrate a philosophy which is both snappy and benevolent, for a representation of a chaotic world seen with through the eyes of a child, but also expressing hedonistic pleasure that seems to pervade our daily lives.

Piet Hein Eek

On the upper level, Piet Hein Eek has once again installed his small, slightly informal headquarters bringing Dutch friends, collaborators and product to Milan.

Beam Cupboard N. 9 assembled with old wooden beams and featuring finely crafted drawers and doors.

Piet Hein Eek was born in Holland in 1967.

He graduated from the Academy for Industrial Design in Eindhovan in 1990.

While at the Academy, he gained attention for his exam project “Scrap Wood Cupboards”. He sold all of the cupboards and used the money to start his own design studio in 1992.

Piet Hein Eek has built his business around old materials, saving these discarded pieces of wood and working outside of the circuit of mass production.

His instantly recognizable work considers the tension between modernity and tradition, waste and sustainability.

watches produced by LEFFAmsterdam

chandeliers, made with glass from different epochs and styles, for the French company Veronese.

“Ever since I was little I was fascinated by the ruins because you can fantasize about the first and the after, and you are in that exact moment. I have always used what I had to do to create something new. “ ….  Piet Hein Eek

Thanks Rossana  –  we look forward to seeing you again next year  !!