The fourth edition of Lake Como Design Festival took place in Como from September 16th to 25th 2022. Again in this edition, the festival continued its journey to discover historical, unpublished or forgotten places, in order to promote and share the artistic and cultural heritage of the area, creating an original dialogue between history, architecture and design.
The Nobel Hall of the Casartelli Science Museum hosted a selection dedicated to contemporary design curated by the Festival together with Catawiki through an open call that gathered designers from around the world: A. Vetra, Anita Morvillo, atelier anna arpa, Duyi Han, Atelier Nuanda, Bhulls, Christian Schüle, Corpus Stu-dio, Erika Cross, Formepiane, Foro Studio, Francesco Nozzi, Næssi Studio x Studio F, Paolo Marasi Design Studio, Piovenefabi, Riikka Peltola, STUDIO TERRE, Wang Yichu, SACERAMICS di Sara Alawie, Stefano La-rotonda, StudioNotte, Sylvia Sánchez Montoya, Edizione Limitata.
The programme for the 2022 event included ERRANTI, art beyond the limits of the visible involving works that exist but that elude the gaze, a project for art and the local landscape curated by Francesca Alfano Miglietti (FAM); taking a route that winds its way through the Broletto but also through the festival venues and other places. It is a project whose discovery is the reward for a relentless search for the work and the place. The works are pictured as guides entrusted with the task of marking out the route and tracing the horizon. It has been an exhibition that is as a journey, like a lesson in storytelling, and a way of shifting the point of view. But above all, ERRANTI has been the theme that run through the works, because errant is the history of human beings, a history of movement and diversity and exchange, where we are each of us biological and cultural crossbreeding and crossroads.
Francesca Alfano Miglietti chose 20 important personalities from the world of art and design namely: Hanna Burkart, Franko B, Letizia Cariello (LETIA), Gianni Cinti, Cesare Fullone, Alessandro Guerriero, Stephan Hamel, Francesco Jodice, Roberto Kusterle, Enzo Mari, Antonio Marras, Sandro Mele, Bruno Munari, Andrea Nacciarriti, Daniela Novel-lo, Fabio Novembre, Marco Paganini, Lucia Pescador, Cesare Pietroiusti, and Franco Raggi, whose works suggest different attitudes, and different ways of living and thinking about the fluid relationship between identity, the local landscape and borders.
Design was also be at the forefront at Casa Bianca, a historic residence overlooking the first branch of Lake Como, thas as been opened to the general public for the first time on the occasion of this fourth year of the event. The villa hosted a selection of designers’ works in its rooms in cooperation the Galerie Philia, an international gallery of contemporary design and modern art with offices in New York, Geneva, Singapore and Mexico City.
Lorenzo Bini, Agustina Bottoni, Cara/Davide, Samuel Constantini, dAM Atelier, Piotr Dabrowa, Draga & Aurel, Eloa, Emelianova Studio, Imperfettolab, Pietro Franceschini, Karu Design, Jan Garnareck, Lupo Horiokami, Morghen Studio, Frederic Saulou, Scattered Disc Object have been the protagonists an unique installation.
"In Search of Lost Time" was the exhibition hosted within the beautiful setting of the 17th-century Villa Gallia, curated by Movimento Club with set design conceived by Greta Cevenini. The artists selected for this event were: Jordan Lee Flemming, Satomi Minoshima, Sarah Murphy, Oliver Cook, Intervallo, Juliana Maurer, Solene Bonnet, Auchkatz, Milena Kling, Gerlach & Heilig, Charlotte Anne Declerq, Stone Stackers, Montserrat Pina Benetts, Hayden Richer, Joseph Yang, Tim Vranken, Victor Hahner, Studio Zero, Chuch Estudio, LLOTLOOV, Panorammma, Mesut Ozturk, TIPSTUDIO, Min Park, Studio F, Arequipe, CELO, MILLIM, Federica Elmo, Dean Norton, Tellurico, Morgane Aveus, Neemesi, Sashaxsasha, Max Funkat, SECOLO.
Journalist Prashanth Cattaneo has been entrusted with the job of curating the meetings, which offers an invaluable opportunity for visitors to meet and get to know authors and experts in Italian design in three different evenings. The design talks came about with the intention of providing a place for dialogue on design through discussions with knowledgeable people from other disciplines in the conviction that true knowledge is only generated through the sharing of expertise, where culture is something always in the making and a reality that is built together. Studio Calvi Brambilla, Ivan Bargna, studio wok, Tommaso Melilli, Giulio Cappellini and Italo Rota, sharing their personal and work experience in Italy and beyond, have together illustrated the close links between design and other areas of human knowledge such as anthropology, gastronomy, literature and architecture.
During the fourth Lake Como Design Festival some of the most important rationalist works in the area have been firmly placed on the list of places to visit, namely the Casa del Fascio, the Monumento ai Caduti in Como and the Cattaneo Archive, housed inside Cesare Cattaneo's rationalist masterpiece in Cernobbio.
Through observation and analysis of the architecture, with the involvement of local professionals architects, visitors had the opportunity to gain a better understanding of the key points behind rationalist architecture, discover the new construction materials used, and learn about the inspiration that guided the masters of that time that straddled history and modernity. The main objective of the guided tours is to invest in the knowledge and awareness of a heritage that is unique to this place and to generate interest in the artistic and architectural heritage of the Lake Como area, both for the international and the local public.