in the space

We’ve had a chance to sit down and collect our thoughts now. The last few days have been enormously exciting, but also very tiring. Our space is setup in it’s first iteration, our projects have begun to take tangible forms and we are eager and prepared for the week ahead.

Now we have the internet as a more secure and permanent resource, we can keep a greater online presence. With that in mind, allow us to illuminate you on the journey that has taken us to this point.

The Salone Internazionale del Mobile is an enormous, elongated, glass-clad contemporary über-building: two endless walkways, enveloped by a crystal mesh of triangles and flanked on either side by two-dozen warehouse-sized convention centres. Our stall lies in the Salon Satelite, an eleven minute walk in from the metro-side entrance, in one of the two parallel penultimate halls.

The whole complex lies in an industrial estate at the end of Milan’s equivalent to London’s Central Line. The station we came out of, Rho Fiera, was a 40 minute ride north-west from the centre – Duomo, where we had just found our hotel. We had unpacked the clothes and toiletries from our bags at the hotel and grabbed a bite from a nearby pizzeria, having tentatively made our way across town via the underground (and getting fleeced by a lady who “helped” us buy our tickets) from the central station, which we had arrived at via a double-decker bus from the airport. The flight had arrived at 9.00am (local time), 1hr 30mins. after leaving London Stansted, where we had caught some sneaky zeds.

Before that, we had travelled through customs at 4.00 am, where mercifully we only had two rolls of gaffa tape confiscated, and were about 3-5kgs below our total baggage allowance (120kg between the six of us). We had got to the airport in a coach from London Victoria, and we had got to Victoria from Lewisham via the N136, sharing the journey with London’s Saturday-night party-goers on their way home.
We had left the house at 01:00am GMT on Sunday 19th April and arrived at the Salon Satelite at 16.30 local time the same day, exhausted.

We had done it with our exhibition on our backs: two printers, a badge cutter, four laptops, tape, materials, tools, and of course all the other things you take on a foreign excursion.

Since arriving we have spent the last two and a half days securing all the materials we need to construct our studio – the detritus from other stands: paint cans, cardboard, boards and crates.

Now we have the means, we can begin the real work – design that is informed by engagement, discourse, and opinion. We are stall B34 in the Salon Satelite. If you are in Milan, come over and meet with us.