VENTURA Lambrate is dead, long live VENTURA
For eight years VENTURA Lambrate has highlighted the best of undiscovered, exciting and contemporary design at the pinnacle of design related events in the world: Milano Design Week. In 2018 VENTURA Lambrate, in the Lambrate area, will be no more. Instead the event will be succeeded by a new happening in a unique spot: VENTURA Future.
For Margriet Vollenberg, founder and curator of VENTURA Projects, VENTURA Lambrate has always been about giving center stage to designers who deserve to be noticed during the Salone de Mobile. “For a starting designer, an academy or an independent label there wasn't that much space in Milan – both literally and figuratively speaking – to showcase their work. I wanted to change this and by doing so I had to make sure that surroundings were both adequate and attractive, that there was room for very different exhibitors, that the price was right, and of course that there was a pull to the location.” VENTURA Lambrate is the living proof of the success of this formula. Visitors came by the hundreds and thousands to the 8 editions and VENTURA Lambrate is quoted to be 'the most interesting side event of Milano Design Week'. Moreover VENTURA projects has proven to be a great way for discovering emerging designers. For a full historic overview of Ventura Projects check our storybook.
What VENTURA has in common with designers is the fact that it recognises the need to improve, change and experiment.
In 2017 VENTURA Projects did so by opening the successful event VENTURA Centrale. In Milan's central station derelict warehouses were transformed into a magical and theatrical stage for design shows by big names like Lee Broom, Maarten Baas for Lensvelt, Panter&Tourron for IQOS and Luca Nichetto and Ben Gorham for Salviati. For Organisation in Design, the company behind VENTURA Projects, branching out the VENTURA portfolio is common practice. “VENTURA Projects has always had additions to the family: VENTURA New York, VENTURA Centrale, VENTURA X, and the upcoming VENTURA Dubai. We are always looking for new ways to create maximum exposure for designers we believe in.” Creating this maximum exposure means always being on the look-out for new possibilities. “What sets apart VENTURA Lambrate is the fact that it is a curated event - a guarantee for the high quality of the exhibition. This is what we offer to our visiting public; such as galleries owners, museum curators, buyers, collectors, labels directors and journalists. VENTURA projects is the perfect stepping stone and has proven to be an important part of the launch of many designers. We offer the benefits of our experience, our knowledge and our connections.”
“The success of VENTURA Lambrate also means that the area came into development and rental prices in the Lambrate area started going up. Besides this also other projects came into the area during the design week and it was no longer possible to guarantee a high quality of design curation. We knew that if we wanted to stick to our key principal – creating a platform for emerging talents in a setting that is attractive to the pallet of the most important visitors – we needed to keep our offer for designers attractive and coherent. We want the best audience, platform, atmosphere, for our carefully selected exhibitors and in the Lambrate area this is no longer possible for VENTURA.”
Ventura Future
For the 2018 Milan Design Week, Ventura Projects has found a new destination with FuturDome, a housing museum that nurtures emerging international talents and provides a home for pioneer creative thinkers. Once this liberty house was the meeting place of world renowned artists who were part of the Futurist Movement. During the forties, these last futurist artists met, worked and debated together, preparing next cultural currents. Ventura Future is now going to host in this very same place an innovative selection of designers who will grow a unique environment, where forms and methodologies can be experienced in an unexplored way following the long, revolutionary tradition of the original futurist spirit. “Of course a new location means a new way of presenting and exhibiting. However VENTURA will always be about offering a platform for emerging talents and independent labels. The fact that Organisation in Design offers one of the few curated design exhibitions will remain a crowd-puller wherever we are. VENTURA Projects is ready for a new adventure,” says Margriet Vollenberg.
Ventura Centrale
While VENTURA Future will see its 1st edition, we are proud to announce the 2nd edition of VENTURA Centrale. We will yet again open up this beautiful location, which was the hype of last year’s Milan Design Week, and look forward to presenting new and absolutely inspiring, creative projects there for the 2nd time. We shall transform the spaces again and show our visitors the endless possibilities that come with contemporary, visionary and high end design. We are already working hard to achieve this new and stunning project.
