Fuori Salotto: Artificio Brings Design Week to Lugano

Graziano Gianocca (Kiko) and Carlotta Rossi have launched Artificio, a temporary itinerant gallery in Lugano, Switzerland, timed to coincide with Milan's Salone del Mobile. The third edition opens April 7, 2017, and runs for three weeks, featuring around 40 designers and 26 shop windows along Via Nassa, from Spazio 1929 to LAC. Two public venues—the Limonaia di Villa Saroli and the Centro Scolastico per le Industrie Artistiche (CSIA)—also host works. The event, dubbed Fuori Salotto, aims to provide a platform for Swiss makers and foster cross-border exchange. Gianocca, a designer and LAC technician, won the Swiss Design Awards in 2008 and the Emerging Artist Grant of Australia in Melbourne, where he studied and taught. He and Rossi, an art historian, conceived Artificio to counter Ticino's perceived hostility to innovation. The 2017 edition adds photography with a show by Simone Cavadini and a collaboration with CSIA students on modular display units. Notable past participant Andrea Branzi lent credibility to the initiative.