Preview 2008 Furniture Show

Spain Playtime - Fresh air in Spanish Design

at the Tunnel of the Hotel NHOW, Via Tortona 35, Milan

A breath of fresh air sweeps through the Furniture Show in Milan.

 From 16 to 21 April the vibrant energy of Spanish contemporary design will be the protagonist of a major exhibition promoted by the Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade (ICEX), a body responsible for the internationalisation and promotion of Spanish businesses, in collaboration with the Economic and Commercial office of the Spanish Embassy in Milan, at the Tunnel of the Hotel NHOW at Via Tortona 35 in Milan.

 More than a simple overview of the nation’s companies and designers and the latest product innovations, “Spain Playtime” aims to transmit a complete image of Spanish design and enterprise, communicating the values that underpin them - effervescence, vivacity, quality, the fun aspect and the successful combination of tradition and modernity - all with a seductive and captivating language.

 This is why the thread running through the whole layout design - entrusted to Ana Mir and Emili Padrós of the Emiliana Design studio - is the theme of the “game”, the element typical of Spanish culture, understood as a joyful activity that contributes to the overall development of the human personality, and particularly of its capacity for creativity and fun.

 Playing with typologies and new uses for objects and spaces, rather than with forms, colours, textures, lights and materials, or with concepts and ideas, even in the most complex production processes, becomes the imperative driving the overall layout, but which is also clearly legible at the level of the individual products. The peculiarity of the Spanish design of recent years has  been that of accompanying the primary function of the object with those characteristics of joyfulness, spirit or poetry that are endemic in Spanish culture, made possible by the mental openness of the local industry, which has been able to see in the naiveté of some pieces that extra pinch of humanity that every industrial product should incorporate.

 The result is a strongly evocative itinerary, containing more than 50 products, to be seen, touched, tried out, all under one umbrella: a happy and cheerful mix of pieces by the companies and the best known designers, ideas by young designers and innovative and avant-garde proposals, suggesting new interpretations and meanings of Spanish design, which expresses all the sunny brightness of its  Mediterranean culture.

 Press preview: Tuesday 15 April 3pm-7pm

Cocktail: Friday 18 April from 7pm

Studio Emiliana.

Ana Mir and Emili Padrós were born in 1969 in Valencia and Barcelona, respectively.
Emiliana Design Studio (http://www.emilianadesign.com) as a creative and multi-talented pair, they designed for Nani Marquina, MetalarteCosmic, and many other famous manufacturers, as well as facilities like the BarcelonaContemporary Art Center. Flying Carpet, designed for Nani Marquina, won a number of prizes. They participated in the Gaudi Exhibition in the Gaudi Year (2002)and planned the concept of ArtIDisseny.