The Program of “ill at ease”

April, 18 | 5VIE | Piazza Tomasi di Lampedusa, Milan

April, 19 | Ninfa | via dell'Aprica 16, Milan

April, 20 | Dynamicart Museum | via delle Erbe 2/A, Milan

April, 21 | NEW LOCATION FOR THE BAD WEATHER + SOUND SESSION & DJ SET: Dynamicart Museum | via delle Erbe 2/A, Milan

April, 22 | Pirelli HangarBicocca | via Chiese 2, Milan

On the occasion of the Salone del Mobile 2023’s Fuorisalone, Studio Leggero and the curators Luisa Ausenda and Caterina Taurelli Salimbeni present "ill at ease", the first edition of the itinerant happening involving some of the most renowned artists and designers on the international scene co-produced with the partners VALUART STUDIO, BOMBAY SAPPHIRE, Particle, ZERO, in collaboration with 5VIE, Pirelli HangarBicocca, Fondazione ICA, Ninfa and Dynamicart Museum. From April 18th to 22nd, “ill at ease” will take place in various squares and courtyards among the busiest of the Fuorisalone, joining the public instead of being reached by it and thus subverting the logic of one of the most decentralized events in the world.

Halfway between an extravagant living room and an art exhibition, "ill at ease" features design furniture and digital creations with which the public can interact within a new frame because it is site-specific to the squares and courtyards where it occurs. Artists include Ron Arad (Israel), Hermine Bourdin (France/Czechoslovakia), Khaled El Mays (Lebanon), Diango Hernández (Cuba) and Six N. Five (Argentina). Each of them stands out for having developed a unique experimental digital language with the common goal of disrupting the boundaries between art and design. Most of the designs in "ill at ease" are either unpublished or have never been exhibited in Milan, as well as the digital artworks on display which include work by AR (Augmented Reality) and VR (Virtual Reality).

From April 18th to the 22nd, every evening from 7 pm, "ill at ease" welcomes the audience in a different environment and with a dedicated partner, offering a unique experience in the company of Bombay Sapphire happy-hours. The journey of "ill at ease" will be inaugurated in the splendid Piazza Tomasi di Lampedusa, in the 5VIE Design District; on April 19th it will head on to Ninfa Labs, in via dell’Aprica 16; on April 20th and 21st, it will travel to the Dynamicart Museum, via delle Erbe 2/A, in the Brera District; finally, on April 22nd, it will be hosted by Pirelli HangarBicocca. Each appointment will be attended by one of the artists with whom a podcast will be created in a recording station set up on site. The latter will be available on all platforms connected to the initiative.

Thanks to the latest technology made available by Valuart Studio, main partner of the initiative, the digital art exhibition in “ill at ease” is constantly evolving. A 7-meter van with internal and external projectors is transformed into a device which, on the one hand, activates the relationship with the city by projecting the digital artworks onto the surrounding architecture, and on the other, welcomes visitors inside NoMa, the immersive Active Room created by Valuart. Reflecting on the idea of a decentralized, accessible and inclusive happening, "ill at ease" adopts Particle as its official app. The app, a very recently launched platform created to support and extend the use of cultural projects in time and space, increasing their accessibility, offers stories, curiosities, multimedia content and interactions on a digital level proposing a new way to interact with "ill at ease".

In addition to being an original experience for the Milan Design Week, "ill at ease" is also a collaborative platform that has activated two special productions in support of new generations of designers, artists and creatives. The first is a commission made possible by Bombay Sapphire: the lamp “La callipygian blue”, already digitally made by Hermine Bourdin and recently minted as NFT, will be produced by master Murano glassmakers. The second is a series of digital collages of the five locations of "ill at ease" (and a sixth, which includes all the others) created by the collective CityMaybe that will be exhibited inside the happening, as well as printed in the form of limited edition posters. Third special project of “ill at ease” is “Espacio”, a carpet by the Cuban artist Diango Hernández, produced especially for the occasion with a company from Brianza.

Presented by Studio Leggero, curated by Luisa Ausenda and Caterina Taurelli Salimbeni, "ill at ease" is a nomadic happening with a crossover on public performance. Recovering it in the form originally invented by Allan Kaprow, the happening is here understood as a scenic action without a predetermined matrix, which focuses not so much on the object as on the event, promoting the ephemeral and the changeable and freeing the public from the role of passive viewer. An open-air living room accessible to all is in fact a symbol as goliardic as it is political, reversing the relationship between public and private space and encouraging, in the spirit of Boetti's extravaganza, unexpected encounters, thorough sharing and passionate exchange. The experimental dimension of "ill at ease" is linked to the theme launched by Studiolabo for this edition of the Fuorisalone of "Laboratorio Futuro": the interaction between technology, design and art in the urban context offers a potential vision of community living, providing a space both for conviviality and networking, as well as for immersion, artistic contemplation and individual refuge from the daily frenzy.