We Are Open! Centre for Creativity at Salone del Mobile in Milan

This spring, the Centre for Creativity will be presenting at Salone del Mobile, Europe’s largest furniture fair in Milan, with a selection of furniture that represents the recent, compelling production of Slovenian designers and independent furniture producers. The collection is a highly representative and relevant sampling of quality contemporary Slovenian design, and underlines a particular approach to cooperation and development between designers, manufacturers and companies.

Today, designers and related companies are the central focus of the Centre for Creativity, which operates at Museum of Architecture and Design, in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Some are already nationally established, but in many cases their brands and companies are still emerging on the larger international stage. The exhibition includes many products that have not yet been shown in Milan – designs that are innovative, display strong individual qualities, and communicate a certain animated spirit of both time and place.

All of this unfolds under the concept-title of We Are Open!, which draws inspiration from the language and culture of sales and marketing, advertising, consumerism, shops and shopping; and from the attitude behind the larger design and production efforts represented here. We’re open–100% open – to a wide range of inputs, approaches, traditions and sensibilities. Similarly, designs are not closed, but open to interpretation and variation, meant to be used, configured and reconfigured.

We Are Open! is dedicated to showcasing some of the freshest, smartest designs in the country. And it’s 100% SLO, which means it’s made only with high quality local ingredients. It’s design to enjoy, design to live by… design to buy for.

Slovenian design today is growing and evolving to fill, to bridge the gap between larger-scale industrial design production and individual, solo designers. This collection of designs and designers serves to bring these particular currents and developments to the fore. It’s all about designers bringing designs to life, from explorative handmade prototypes to established series production. This is just what the Centre for Creativity is all about: connecting designers, manufacturers, companies and institutions and – in the best-case scenario – clients.

We Are Open! is full of contrasts and contradictions: it’s design that floats and anchors, is complex and pragmatic, sensible and silly, seriously playful, loud and proud yet soft & subtle. It’s a nod to the past and the future both – a kind of retro-futuro designscape – which locates it in the very contemporary present. This could be interpreted as a respectful, admiring nod to our predecessors and our rich design tradition; a kind of celebration of their passion for colour and contrast, geometry and modularity. Folklore and handicraft inform and inspire hand-woven kilims, wooden kitchen utensils, richly-patterned glassware, even playful pet furniture. Looking forward, we see 3D-printed wood & plastic composite lamps, chairs made from recycled compressed felt and illuminated clouds made from repurposed airbags, thinly-sliced LED lamps and lighting schemes tapping into sophisticated, super-light carbon technologies.

We Are Open! will be exhibiting at the exciting Ventura Futures space in the fair’s Tortona zone, a highly animated area occupied by independent brands and studios over six magical spring days.