Image Source: thedesignedit.com

Design Miami/Basel is one of the biggest annual design events that take place in Basel, Switzerland, as a parallel activity to the very important Art Basel every June. It’s also a “sister” event of Design Miami which takes place every October in Miami. The story of the event begins with the real estate developer Craig Robins and the design consultant Ambra Medda, who thought to juxtapose art and design at the same time, bringing together creators and audiences. The event hosts and employs each year more than 28.000 connoisseurs or non-connoisseurs, while more than 47 galleries and design studios participate. Zaha Hadid, Konstantin Grcic and others have been among the winners of the past years.

This year, in its 16th version (13/6-19/6), Design Miami/ Basel is titled The Golden Age: Rooted in the Past and curated by Maria Cristina Didero. It aims to celebrate and promote the collective effort of the studios as well as the individual effort of designers to incorporate ecological ways of thinking and producing, leaning towards the use of versatile and sustainable materials and practices. Like the previous year, the event will run concurrently in real and digital spaces and the same applies, of course, to buying and selling the objects. The fact that this sort of hybrid way of organising and running great art and design events is being maintained, reveals the impact of covid-related emergency solutions, which seem to have created a new space for communication, attracting additional visitors and buyers from all over the world.

The MICA gallery

The title of the exhibition The Golden Age: Rooted in the Past resulted exactly from that former issue, that is, how history teaches and creates conditions and how by deciphering those conditions one can envision and create. The theme of the event is historical research as a field of inspiration and expression today. Starting from the presentation of unpublished objects by famous designers, it becomes clear that the "golden age" of Design was never one. Stirring the past with the present, meaning contemporary design, it becomes obvious that, although there are references to emblematic figures such as Ponti, Le Corbusier, Sottsass, and Perriand, design is about something else, something contemporary and that is the ecological crisis. Research now turns to the materials and how they can write the history of tomorrow. Thus, the historical objects are exhibited in relation and in contrast to today's production, which is inspired by history but has a different role, one that is more practical than ever.

As mentioned in the event’s curatorial text, history has shown that every moment of crisis is a good opportunity for change, demonstrating the adjustment and redefinition of our way of thinking and acting during a creative process. This year’s Design Miami/ Basel aims to create an atmosphere of collaboration for envisioning and bringing change in the future through design and connecting with art and history, extending the future and leaving the smallest possible ecological footprint. To quote the curator herself, Golden Age is a state of mind.

Some of the objects that we will encounter this year:

Bouquet, 1950 circa, Jean Royère, Design Miami/Basel 2022, Galerie Chastel-Maréchal. Marina Gusina. courtesy of Galerie Chastel-Maréchal | Image Source: ad-italia.it/

Croismare Ecole de Verrerie by Jean Prouvé, 1948. Presented by Galerie Patrick Seguin, Paris | Image Source: shop.designmiami.com

Sonogonos, 2019i Pierre Charrié, Design Miami/Basel 2022 ,Galerie MICA x LAB. Courtesy of Galerie MICA | Image Source: ad-italia.it

For those who love to swivel or be on a wave, Pictured here: The Semo Swivel Armchair, presented by M E R V E K A H R A M A N | Image Source: mervekahraman.com

Design Miami/ Basel Curio program by Ukrainian-born designer Victoria Yakusha, who founded her design brand FAINA in 2014 after the Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine. Her mission is to express her homeland’s cultural heritage through the language of contemporary design. At the fair, Yakusha will present a 2.5-meter, handwoven tapestry intended to evoke Ukrainian soil. Image Source: instagram.com

Marie Piselli is a French visual artist who lives and works in Paris | Image Source: designmiami.com

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