How to stand out amid the nearly 2,000 presenters of contemporary design at Salone del Mobile? The debut of Salone Raritas offers one approach.
Tucked into Pavilions 9 through 11 of the imposing 16-building campus, the new and highly selective exhibition—curated by fair’s editorial and cultural director Annalisa Rosso with exhibition design by Formafantasma—arrived with a deceptively simple premise: to bring rare, outsider pieces (that is, collectibles, historic craft, and limited editions) into dialogue with the industry titans presenting elsewhere in the design fiar compound. The 28 exhibitors in Raritas represent 32 countries and the breadth of history: antiques, contemporary pieces, and craft objects.
For design house Zaza Maison, the new section offered a historic opportunity to represent Saudi Arabia at the fair. The contemporary furniture brand’s on-site offering—a selection of chrome sculptures and furniture that conjured windswept dunes and the Saudi shemagh (headscarf)—brought the Gulf to the center of the design world’s biggest annual gathering.
The range of exhibitors was evident in the varied moods represented across the section’s booths. Marseille gallery 13desserts emanated the energy of an apero—a warm, social gathering space adorned with playful pieces that invited an encounter. Elsewhere, Italian interior design gallery Serafini presented a contemplative array of meticulously carved tables and stools by Indian designer Karan Desai.
As a bonus, Milan-based ceramics gallery Officine Saffi Lab staged the assembly of one work live, on-site, with artisans adding the finishing touches to a ceramic panel work in real time.
The design of the exhibition space, courtesy of design duo Formafantasma, developed 34 hues—pinks, greens, dark blues, and oranges among them—inviting each gallery to select their preferred combination to adorn the walls of their booth. In keeping with Formafantasma‘s commitment to sustainability, the wooden dividers separating each booth have been designed for a second life—carefully stored and redeployed over the next three years of Salone Raritas. Even the hanging systems used to suspend the dividers were engineered to avoid drilling, ensuring the entire infrastructure can be reused with minimal waste and maximum efficiency.
As Salone del Mobile president Maria Porro put it, Salone Raritas is about intercepting “the growing demand for rare and iconic pieces from architects, developers, brands, and investors.” As evidenced by the packed exhibition space and reports of a warm reception from presenters, that demand was unmistakable—a signal of the market’s appetite for Raritas’s offerings.
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