Maria Cristina Didero is an Italian independent curator and freelance journalist. Just try to drop her an e-mail, and you will get a “sent from the jungle” – rather than a much well-worn “sent from my iPhone” – sign-off. Enough to understand the vital importance of the word “freedom” when it comes to every single thing she involves herself with.

Storytelling is definitely her best skill: she already performed successfully for nendo at the Design Museum Holon, and partnered up with Atelier Biagetti for three years in a row in celebration of the Milano Design Week, by delivering a special event-installation in three acts (and just as many years) telling a story of bravery and contemporary obsessions. Seen that, according to Maria Cristina Didero, design “is about people, not about chairs”, the Milanese kermesse must be all but a huge tangle of people and tales. We payed her a visit a few days before she took off for Chicago to launch her new book, Superdesign.Radical Design Italiano 1965-75, written together with Evan Snyderman, Deyan Sudjic and Catharine Rossi (published by The Monicelli Press).


1. Your first thought triggered by the words “Milano Design Week 2017”.

Three words: discovery, euphoria, project.

2. The most captivating design item you spotted this year.

The extraordinary set up by Tokujin Yoshioka for LG.

3. The most gorgeous site-specific installation.

Apart from the above mentioned, I loved the work of Luca Nichetto for Salviati

4. The most interesting person you bumped into.

Michael Anastassiades.

5. A bad disappointment.

Any chance this edition has attracted a smaller audience than the previous years? It is just a feeling, and maybe I am wrong… frankly, I hope so!

6. Any wishes for next year?

More outdoor site-specific installations scattered throughout the city, preferably in hardly known locations.

7. Describe your work in one sentence.

More than chairs, tables or lamps, I am actually into people’s approach to design items and their contextual origin. Anyway, design is way more than this.