Milan’s Salone del Mobile has announced its first-ever exhibition dedicated to unique and limited-edition design with Salone Raritas, which will debut as part of the furniture fair’s next edition.
Billed as a “fair within the fair”, the inaugural event will feature stands from a range of collectible design galleries in a modular set conceived by Italian studio Formafantasma.
It will mark the first time that this growing segment of the design industry receives a dedicated section at Salone del Mobile, which is the world’s most important furniture fair.
“Unique and research pieces, limited editions and high-end creative manufacturing are entering fully into the heart of the Salone for the first time,” said Salone del Mobile president Maria Porro.
Salone del Mobile’s editorial director Annalisa Rosso, who is curating Raritas’s inaugural edition, described the exhibition as “a new chapter for the collectible design segment”.
“Salone Raritas builds open channels of communication between realities that until very recently seemed far apart, allowing many of them a chance to meet for the first time,” she said.
The exhibition will feature one-offs and limited-edition pieces by contemporary makers alongside rare antiques and craft objects, presented by “galleries of excellence” from across the world.
“We’re finalising a strong first cohort and will share names very soon,” Porro told Dezeen.
The aim is to open this smaller-scale work up to the larger audience of developers, investors and clients that attends Salone del Mobile.
“Raritas is a direct interface between collectible design, antiques and high-end craftsmanship on the one hand, and the contemporary B2B market on the other,” Porro said.
“As projects compete on uniqueness, content and quality, one-of-a-kind and signature pieces have become strategic assets for brands, architects and investors. Salone Raritas reads this market shift and offers a curatorial platform that connects authorial design and high craftsmanship directly with the professional design system.”
Formafantasma‘s scenography for the exhibition will consist of modular islands instead of traditional stands, which participating galleries can customise using a predefined colour and material palette. A central lounge will provide a space for networking, meetings and negotiations.
“The modular, respectful design allows each gallery to express its own identity while maintaining a choral narrative, designed for both visitor memorability and for market effectiveness,” Formafantasma said.
“We imagined Salone Raritas as a legible and permeable architectural landscape, a lantern that puts light and rhythm at the service of the pieces.”
Fairs dedicated entirely to collectable design have conquered the globe in recent years, with new international editions announced seemingly every week. Design Miami is now hosting events in Basel, Seoul and Paris, while Brussels fair Collectible has launched in New York and Nomad is popping up in Abu Dhabi and the Hamptons.
Established furniture trade shows have taken note and started launching their own competitors, from the Curatio section at Maison&Objet in Paris to Design Shanghai’s Collectible Design & Art exhibition.
