Raritas, showcasing collectibles as well as craftsmanship and quality

The 64th edition of the Salone del Mobile marks a transition that is as discreet as it is significant: at the heart of the most important international platform for industrial design, collectors' design makes its entrance, for the first time in a structured manner. In pavilions 9 and 11 of Rho Fiera, Salone Raritas is thus born, a project that intercepts and makes visible a transformation already taking place in the system.

On paper, the operation is ambitious: to bring together the trade fair model and the epicentre of the furniture industry with limited editions, antiques and high manufacturing. In fact, we are talking about an almost inevitable evolution. "We have been keeping our antennae straight for years and have realised that the design system has changed," explains Annalisa Rosso, editorial and cultural director, advisor of the Salone del Mobile. There used to be a clear dichotomy: on the one hand the collectible, the research, the freedom of language, and on the other the industrial, more closely linked to in-depth study. Today, the two poles have come so close that they almost overlap, even at the level of the design macro-system".

More and more companies are working on limited editions and customisation, while interior designers, architects and developers are looking for elements that define an identity, rare pieces that make a project unique. "The link with special objects, which carry with them a history and uniqueness, is universal. And it has become a design value'.

Under the curatorship of Annalisa Rosso, the exhibition project takes shape thanks to Formafantasma, who interprets Raritas as an environment that claims its own materiality and acts as a device capable of enhancing, without overpowering, the stories of the objects. The layout strikes a subtle balance between identity and openness, through a shared chromatic and material language that leaves room for personal and measured declinations. More than a section, Salone Raritas presents itself as an articulated curatorial platform, designed to weave the work of some 28 high-level exhibitors into a continuous narrative, capable of crossing different languages, eras and approaches. For this reason, Raritas ranges from the temple of international collectible design, the Milanese gallery Nilufar, to a special project by Sabine Marcelis, up to the historic Salviati kiln reinterpreted through the colourful and contemporary gaze of Draga & Aurel. The itinerary then crosses tropical modernism from the Brazilian Mercado Moderno, the iconic sculptures of Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne brought by the Parisian Galerie Mitterrand, the research of the visionary English Max Radford Gallery and the high-end antiques of the refined Brun Fine Art. Completing the picture is the dialogue between materials and technologies of Bianco67 with Parasite 2.0 and the new collaboration between Zaha Hadid Architects and Neutra, underlining an approach that unites different eras, languages and geographies in a single coherent narrative.

"We called it Ratitas precisely because there is not only collectible: there is antiques, there is craftsmanship. The lowest common denominator is uniqueness. Which also lies in the diversity of approaches: there are those who look at the historical, those who look at the modern, those who look at the 2000s," Rosso continues. "In a deliberately small section, we want to offer answers to very different projects: from the domestic and high-end residential to large hospitality projects up to maxi-sized contract. I am also thinking of architects and interior designers who already work with collectors: at the Salone they will now find an extra service".