Milan Salone 2016: The art of retail

Now in its third year, the collaboration between La Rinascente and the Serpentine Galleries during Milan Salone del Mobile continues to push the boundaries of the retailer as educator and provocateur.

Eight storefront windows looking out over the historic Piazza Duomo were given over to kinetic montages by designer Hella Jongerius and theorist Louise Schouwenberg. The duo received much press in 2015 – not all of it positive – for their manifesto Beyond the New. This current project, A Search Behind Appearances, was conceived to take that thinking beyond a mere critical stance and show that it has practical applications.

Jongerius and Schouwenberg used hanging fabrics as a backdrop for light projections that were transformed depending on miniature kinetic letters and objects. In this way, each window provided numerous readings and provided a visceral experience of the complex and conflicting forces at work in the contemporary design world.