The Milan Triennale in its XXII edition. The theme is the link between man and nature in its destructive forms

The XXII edition of the Milan Triennale kicked off on March 1 and will continue until September 1, 2019. This year the major international exhibition is titled Broken Nature: Design Takes on Human Survival and is curated by Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator of the Department of Architecture and Design and director of Research and Development at MoMA New York. The Triennale reaffirms its decision to give a new continuity to the International Exhibition, whose XXI edition was organized in 2016, after a 20-year hiatus. The exhibition consists of a thematic exhibition and 22 International Participations, covering all continents offering a diverse proposal in terms of themes, perspectives, contexts and provenances. In addition to Italy, participating this year are Algeria, Australia, Austria, China, Cuba, Finland, France, Germany, Haiti, Lebanon, Lithuania, Myanmar, the Netherlands, Poland, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Russia, Slovenia, Sri Lanka, the United States and Tunisia.

The thematic exhibition that gives the title to the XXII Milan Triennale aims to represent an in-depth investigation of the ties that unite humans to the natural environment and that over the years have been deeply compromised, if not completely destroyed. Broken Nature, through the analysis of different architecture and design projects, explores the concept of “restorative design” and highlights objects and strategies, at different scales, that reinterpret the relationship between humans and the context in which they live, including both social and natural ecosystems. That’s not all: in addition to the thematic exhibition, there will also be the installation The Great Animal Orchestra, created by Bernie Krause and United Visual Artists at the initiative of Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, and the special exhibition The Plant Nation, curated by Stefano Mancuso.

Broken Nature consists of four specially commissioned works by international designers: they are Formafantasma (Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin), Neri Oxman and her research group Mediated Matter Group at the MIT Media Lab, Sigil Collective (Khaled Malas, Salim Al-Kadi, Alfred Tarazi and Jana Traboulsi), a Beirut- and New York-based collective, and Accurat, a data-driven design research and innovation company based in Milan and New York (project led by Giorgia Lupi and Gabriele Rossi). These projects propose creative approaches that aim to correct humanity’s self-destructive course but also to think differently about our relationship with the environment and all species on the planet, including humans. In several cases, the works created are a continuation of a body of work begun earlier and are intended to encourage designers to consider their practice as a long-term endeavor. In addition to commissioned works, the thematic exhibition includes a selection of a hundred projects from the past three decades, examples of design, architecture and restorative art from around the world. Among them, Broken Nature hosts new installations and objects (such as Paola Bay and Armando Bruno’s Reliquaries, Dominique Chen’s Nuka-doko, and Google Brain’s Whale Song ) alongside milestones such as Pettie Petzer and Johan Jonker’sHippo Roller, Elemental’s Quinta Monroy residential project, Martino Gamper’s 100 Chairs in 100 Days, and Zach Lieberman’s (and others) low-cost Eyewriter, an open source eye-tracking system. These projects, which have played an essential role in the history and advancement of design, have in some cases exerted a memorable impact on society and the way human beings interact with the world around them. By including these projects in a st it dialogue and in a single space, the exhibition aims to reveal the potential of design as a catalyst for social and behavioral change.

The Triennale also presents the installation The Great Animal Orchestra, commissioned by the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in Paris and created by musician and bioacoustics expert Bernie Krause and the British collective United Visual Artists (UVA) on the occasion of the exhibition of the same name presented in 2016. The Great Animal Orchestra offers an immersion into the heart of nature’s sounds, offering a visual and aural reflection on the need to preserve the beauty of the animal world. The exhibition The Plant Nation, on the other hand, starts from the assumption that humanity, in order to avoid a catastrophic future, must look at plants in a new way, using them not only for what they have to offer, but for what they can teach us. Plants have existed on Earth much longer than humans, have become better adapted, and are likely to outlive our species. The Plant Nation reveals its nature through spectacular and fascinating imagery, a learning journey through an ’immersive experience and multimedia content.

“The XXII Milan Triennale,” says Triennale di Milano President Stefano Boeri, “poses a question that is as urgent as ever: how can we give back to the natural sphere what has been taken away from it in recent centuries, and particularly in recent decades? With this edition of the International Exhibition, the Triennale reaffirms its desire to take up the tradition of this event by connecting it to some of the great themes of our contemporaneity, opening up the reflection not only to the international design and architecture community, but also to all the citizens who will come to see it in the coming months.”

“Broken Nature,” says curator Paola Antonelli instead, “invites a deeper understanding of the multi-species, complex and interconnected systems in which we live; encourages us to take a long-term perspective; and suggests to visitors a series of concrete measures that can inspire habits and attitudes to reconstitute our connections to nature. Broken Nature celebrates the revolutionary power of imagination and inventiveness.”

Tickets to the Triennale cost 18 euros (full price). Reductions: 14 euros for students, under 26, over 65, “repower” visitors and the disabled. 13 euros for ATM employees and ATM subscribers. Free for journalists, young people under 16, friends of the Triennale, ICOM members, M-ID Card holders, Lombardy museum subscribers, accompanying groups, accompanying disabled person. For more information you can visit the Triennale di Milano website.

Pictured: the Italy section at the XXII Milan Triennale. Ph. Credit Gianluca Di Ioia

The Milan Triennale in its XXII edition. The theme is the link between man and nature in its destructive forms

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