The intensity of Milan Design Week’s bustling crowds and showy spectacle can be disorienting, fatiguing, and maybe even a little detaching, even for seasoned veterans. This year, curator Federica Sala has brought together six Italian architecture studios to build Campo Base, a group of interventions conceived to foster intimacy and calm.
A “fabric placenta” made in collaboration with French wall coverings mainstay Élitis offers access to a labyrinth defined by an ASMR acoustic installation by artist Norma Jeane. Rooms open up: in one, Massimo Adario offers a portrait of a collector through the objects they might assemble; others, including those by Marcante-Testa and Giuliano Andrea dell’Uva, explore the contours and possibilities of emptiness itself. Some participants use the opportunity to reference fine art, like Hannes Peer’s invocation of artist ateliers as domestic spheres, or center artwork in their installation, as Eligostudio has in its using work by Lorenzo Vitturi in a tribute to the legendary Italian architect Renzo Mongiardino.
Studiopepe, finally, embraces entrants to its space in a project called Omphalos, the Greek word for navel—and, indeed, a little navel-gazing might be the perfect opportunity for self-care during the furor of Fuorisalone.
