The New Nomads Of The Lake Como Design Festival

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All the more reason we are delighted to present to you, dear reader, the fourth edition of the Lake Como Design Festival, curated this year by Lorenzo Butti and dedicated to the theme of neo-nomadism. For one week, from the 17th to the 25th of September, you are invited to explore as “neo-nomads” the most exciting names in Italian and international design and to discover the historic places, many of them unknown or overlooked, that make Como such an extraordinary hub of art and architecture.

As we continue to wander, imagining roads not yet traveled, we discover the Casartelli Science Museum, opened in 1917, with the Design Contemporary Selection dedicated to independent designers, editors and galleries selected by the festival in conjunction with Catawiki, which will host an online auction of the works. The journey into the heart of Como continues, stopping first at the charming historic lakeside residence known as Casa Bianca for its striking white marble cladding. The exhibition here was curated by Galeria Philia and features works by artists from Agustina Bottoni and Piotr Dabrowa to Karu Design and Morghen Studio. The next stop is “In Search of Lost Time” at the neoclassical Villa Gallia, a group exhibition of contemporary designers that pays tribute to Proust’s masterpiece.

With its magnitude of meaning, nomadism is a theme that captures our moment perfectly, and our nomad’s journey begins in the splendid setting of Palazzo del Broletto. Here, Francesca Alfano Miglietti, who lectures on the Theory and Methodology of the Contemporary at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, has conjured up the exhibit Erranti, l’arte oltre il limite del visibile (Erranti: Art Beyond the Confines of the Visible). Recounting the mysterious assonance between the words “errare”, to wander, and “errore”, an error, the exhibit features twenty artists from the world of art and design: among them, Bruno Munari, Antonio Marras, Franco Raggi – creator of the tent-temple – Letizia Carriello (LETIA), Marco Paganini, Roberto Kusterle and Sandro Mele. “These two words have the same root,” explains the curator. “And ‘error’ is closely linked to the ‘errare’ of the gallant knights of early literature. As they wandered around the globe, these knights were driven by a never-ending quest, faced with untold challenges, quests and feats in an unpredictable realm of error.”

In a city that shaped one of Italian architecture’s most extraordinary chapters, Como is a showplace for some of the Rationalism Era’s greatest protagonists, among them Giuseppe Terragni. Wonderlake Como is hosting guided tours of Rationalist Como every day during the Lake Como Design Festival, which are led by architects and scholars. Nothing so aptly captures our ancient and modern wanderings amidst the wonders of Lake Como than these closing words from Giuseppe Terragni himself: “Architecture is not simply construction or meeting our material needs; it aspires to so much more. Something that compels us as observers to pause and reflect, excited and moved by the harmony of proportions before us.” And it is the true nomads among us who know exactly where to stop and linger on this long and winding road.