Lake Como Design Festival 2023, across historic venues, shows the diverse roles design plays in shaping our world

Lake Como Design Festival 2023 harmonises contemporary design and sustainability through thematic exhibitions, interweaving innovation with heritage. This narrative bridges past and future, organic and groundbreaking, addressing climate change and resource scarcity.

The dialogue stretches across time, uniting heritage craftsmanship with futuristic innovation. An eloquent balance emerges between organic elements and innovative materials, confronting climate change and resource scarcity. Central to the festival this year is the process itself – an exploration of creation transcending conventional boundaries and the link to Naturalis Historia (Natural History) by Pliny the Elder.

Lake Como Design Festival 2023

The festival takes over historical places in Como, namely Villa Olmo, the former Orsoline San Carlo convent, Villa Salazar, Palazzo del Broletto and San Pietro in Atrio church. Objects showcased throughout the exhibitions echo the teachings of the Roman savant and urge us to revaluate our impact on nature and mend its delicate balance. 'The bi-millennium of Pliny the Elder’s birth gives us the opportunity to relate our activity to nature in its broadest sense and investigate the relationship between humans and natural in surprising and unexpected ways,' explains Lorenzo Butti, the festival’s creator and artistic director.

Resources take new forms, blending primal substances like clay with modern remnants – industrial waste, electronic fragments – reminding us of design's power to transform the mundane into the extraordinary. The festival presents an eclectic mix of design: functional sculptures, everyday pieces, and unique installations, recalling the diverse roles design plays in shaping our world.

Giovanna Massoni, the curator of this year’s event and contemporary design selection, in collaboration with online auction portal Catawiki, provides illuminating insight into the remarkable participants handpicked for the exhibition: 'The participants are designers, craftsmen, architects, scientists, nautical engineers, and artists,' she says. 'They are people of quite different backgrounds and ways of approaching design culture, technical research and manufacture. The common dominator, the narrative chorus, lies in understanding the object as the stage in a process of examination, and of that conjecture on its meaning that can and must evolve. In this sense, the object demands a suitable narrative to bring it back to a broader design, and to understand and value it.'

To name one among many, adding to the exceptional ensemble is Mexico's esteemed CGN Gallery. With meticulous curation by Massoni, CGN will showcase six remarkable pieces by accomplished designers, including Matali Crasset, Gabriel Rico, Carlos Torre Hütt, Edgar Orlaineta, and Todomuta Studio. Each of these carefully selected creations resonates with the essence of nature, engaging in a meaningful conversation with Pliny's legacy and the contemporary challenges we face. CGN's presence at the festival marks its debut on the international stage, encapsulating Mexico's avant-garde design spirit on a global scale.

This fifth edition of the festival also presents two exhibitions that will animate the historic centre of the city of Como, focused on nature and the animal world inspired by Pliny the Elder's Naturalis Historia. The first one is called 'The Other Animal', curated by Lorenzo Butti and Massimiliano Mondelli at Palazzo del Broletto; the second is titled 'Between Art and Nature', curated by Maddalena Scarzella, and shows 80 photographs from the collection of Fondazione Sozzani, at former Orsoline San Carlo convent. 

Amid the captivating panorama of Lake Como, the 2023 Design Festival captures more than artistic celebration; it hosts essential dialogues on sustainability, innovation, and the ever-evolving role of design.

Lake Como Design Festival runs until 24 September 2023

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