Milan in April: 3. Joris' choice

Joris Laarman, together wih Anita Star, picks the most interesting projects from Salone del Mobile 2004 for Domus. Photography by Pino Guidolotti.

Thursday April 15th, 11am
The day starts with us meeting Pino Guidolotti, a classic Italian photographer with wild hair that's starting to grey. Because our French and Italian are just as poor as Pino's English we immediately understand that our hands or the design should do the talking today. The weather is nice and Milan is beautiful although most people we speak to say Milan's cultural life has been dead since the economic crisis. This crisis is tangible as we find later walking through the fair. The big companies don't do risky or inspiring products, which makes the overall impression rather flat. But also the art related conceptual players like Droog Design take it 'slow'. Nevertheless we feel some new promising energy on the horizon. Together with Pino we walk through the big fair building. It looks like sheiks from the Middle East do their furniture shopping here. All the stands are filled with white leather sofas done in zebra prints and decorative knobs. Somehow it fascinates us. Pino starts taking pictures. This is design and it sells in big numbers. We start at the Salone Satellite near the Fiera building. These big fa