24.4.2019–13.7.2019
Exhibition opening on April 23rd, 2019, from 6.30 pm to 8 pm

Download the catalogue here

“Keep Your Garden Alive” is a group exhibition with eighteen Finnish renowned and emerging artists and designers who are currently reshaping the contemporary Finnish art and design scene. The exhibition is curated by Lise Coirier, Pro Materia & Spazio Nobile Gallery, and Kati Laakso, Director of the Finnish Cultural Institute for the Benelux, in collaboration with Institut finlandais.

The exhibition suggests a narrative on how to observe what is fragile around us, and how to protect it. How to make your garden flourish in times of drastic environmental changes? Applied arts remind us of how the earth and the natural elements remain as the best source of innovation and creation. The use of design-led craftsmanship such as ceramics, glass, metal, and wood bring us back to our human roots and sense of our material culture. The notion of the garden stands as a symbol for living objects, and how we need to cherish them to pass it onto the next generations. The exhibition implies a metaphor for the inner and outer life as well as a real-life illustration of our mineral and organic man-made world.

With:

Kristina Riska
Sami Ruotsalainen
Teemu Salonen
Perttu Saksa
Kustaa Saksi
Caroline Slotte
Heikki Viinikainen
Man Yau
Inka Bell
Johanna Gullichsen
Antrei Hartikainen
Mari Isopahkala
Renata Jakowleff
Harri Koskinen
Veera Kulju
Tero Kuitunen
Laura Laine
Päivi Rintaniemi

Founded by Margherita Ratti, Lake Como Design Fair pushes the boundaries between fair and exhibition by bringing together design and architecture lovers through a unique event. After its successful debut, the fair will return for its second edition on September 20-22, 2019, now embracing two venues. A curated design selection will be presented at the Teatro Sociale Como and a new section – entirely dedicated to architecture – will be held at the Palazzo del Broletto. This year the focus is on colour. Designers and architects are invited to contribute to a reflection and investigation on the subject of colour with and through their submitted projects.

Margherita Ratti is a design advisor and curator and expert in communication and development strategies, with a reputation for always looking forward rather than back. Margherita (born and raised in Como) currently lives and works in Paris. Having studied architecture at the Politecnico di Milano and contemporary art at the Sorbonne, Margherita divides her time between design and architecture, initiating, developing and promoting new and future projects. Previously artistic director of the Galerie Italienne, specialised in the production of limited design editions, she also conceived LAN Architecture’s communication strategy and developed their cross-media projects. She has co-curated at MoMO Galerie with the artist and photographer Romaric Tisserand and since 2012 has collaborated with the engineering firm Bollinger+Grohmann in Paris. Margherita is the founder of It’s Great Design.

Lake Como Design Fair will run from 20 to 22 September 2019.