Teatromateria

MAST takes over Piazza Cittá di Lombardia for Milan Design Week 2023. Opening on April 18th, the exhibition, entitled Circolare – The Circular Village, promises to host the biggest collection of circular works on display at Fuorisalone.

In tune with Salone del Mobile’s sustainability mindset this year, Circolare presents creative practices for designing more responsibly through circularity. An extension to the No Space for Waste exhibition presented during Dutch Design Week 2022 in Eindhoven, the Milan show investigates the potential of a circular future with new works by MAST and the designers of the Isola community.

Spanning the piazza’s extensive 3,800 square meter surface, the scenography, designed by MAST with the collaboration of Fiction Factory, is made entirely from zero-waste materials recycled from partners such as Interface, The Good Plastic Company, Pyrasied Xtreme Acrylic and Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, to name but a few.

Other circular design highlights include a carpet made by MAST using left-over scraps from Interface and the central pavilion made with more than 80 recycled sheets from Winkelhouse Production and 60 acrylic plates from donations by Pyrasid Xtreme Acrylic, as well as a circular seating area made from 100% recycled and recyclable plastic from The Good Plastic Company. The podium upon which Isola designs will be showcased is built from repurposed structures from past Rijksmuseum exhibitions.

The main installation and focal point of the exhibition, the Teatromateria, puts the spotlight on individual materials to tell their stories. Built circularly using recycled materials, the installation zooms in on a cast of materials as they go from so-called waste to their leading role as the stars of the new show. Visitors are made to reimagine the makings of our physical world and to reconsider what defines a material’s beginning and end.