DOPO?

“Fuori Contesto” is a collective exhibition that investigates the state of collectible design in Italy: it brings together eight independent designers and studios, which operate mainly by self-producing furniture or work in close contact with artisans.

The selection of professionals invited to the spaces of DOPO? moves in the opposite direction compared to an industrial context prone to digitalisation, optimization and extreme engineering of each phase of the production process. This is why the designers on display declare themselves "Fuori Contesto": they lean towards a rediscovery of manual skills, the contemporary interpretation of traditional techniques and methodologies, the reaffirmation of the uniqueness of the territories in which they operate. The designers on display often find themselves knocking, door by door, on shops and small businesses, doing a precious job of heritage innovation. Their work must necessarily be slow and experimental, and admit error, the unexpected and imperfection.

Having overcome the era of the "Great Masters" of design in the second half of the twentieth century, and of the audacious companies that gave them ample space for experimentation, today we see the emergence of a new design horizon: with a much more capillary distribution on the territory of research and projects, localized and if we want to be niche, but whose true value lies precisely in the plurality. This is why the exhibition avoids imposing a single theme on the participants but tries to highlight the differences.

The selection of designers is in some way self-generated, and arises spontaneously from the recognition of the elective affinities between the professionals themselves. These direct and indirect personal and professional contacts form a network slowly built over the years through exhibitions, meetings and conversations. 

“Fuori Contesto” is also a place for designers to meet and (self) recognize not only their design practices and attitudes, but also their condition as workers. From the sum of individual experiences and personal connections emerges a generational mindset, a common attitude, which the exhibition seeks to reveal (indeed, question).

“Fuori Contesto” is an exhibition in collaboration with 5VIE ART+DESIGN: considered an embassy of the district in the Corvetto district, it aims to create a link between the center and the suburbs of Milan.