SEPTEMBER 2021

For Milan Design Week September 2021’s edition Dimoregallery hosts FUTURE, the first-ever retrospective dedicated to architect and industrial designer Claudio Salocchi.

When Britt Moran and Emiliano Salci met Tommaso Salocchi – Claudio’s son – in 2019, the creatives discussed the importance of Salocchi’s modern and functional approach to design and architecture often enriched by the use of contemporary art. This is how the idea of the first-ever retrospective dedicated to the industrial designer came to life. Claudio Salocchi’s intense and prolific career as an independent designer spanned over three decades and was rewarded with numerous recognitions. A roster of Salocchi’s iconic designs is highlighted by Dimoregallery in the retrospective retracing the designer’s successes throughout a selection of his most significant pieces.

Taking inspiration from Casa Salocchi, the architect’s private home in Milan built in the 1970’s, an unprecedented example of modern and pure avantgarde design at the time, Dimore selected pieces by Salocchi that will be combined with the designer’s intimate decorative objects and some of Dimore’s personal things. Salocchi’s utopia of a modern and unconventional home translated into Free System, a collection of lighting and upholstered furniture manufactured by Skipper in the 1970’s. From the Free System serie, Dimoregallery presents a double bed upholstered in Alcantara showcased right next to a tall console Louis XV in gilded wood dating back to the mid-XVIII Century.
Also part of the exhibition, is the quintessential Paione sofa with its deep seats and is the pioneer of modular sofas. Completed in 1968 and designed for Sormani, this particular piece of furniture disrupted the lifestyle of the time, introducing a more convivial and informal way of experiencing the living room.

A selection of geometric floor lamps designed by Claudio Salocchi between the 1960’s and the 1970’s are showcased throughout the gallery space to illustrate his natural evolution to a more futuristic design discipline where functionality and clean forms merge perfectly. Salocchi’s creative experience with Lumenform brought to life several blown glass modular inventions that are featured in the FUTURE exhibition. The selection includes floor lamp Zea, the essential Fluo boasting an aluminum stem that contains a fluorescent tube and Tulpa, the metaphysic table lamp in marble, steel and plexiglass materials often selected by Salocchi.

ph. Silvia Rivoltella