If you’ve kept up to date with the latest news for this year’s Milan Design Week, then you know Ventura Projects will no longer be in the Lambrate zone for Fuorisalone. But don’t abandon the district just yet, Subalterno1 gallery is ready to reveal their most recent project for the international event and it might just be worth the trip alone.

With an “epistolary” collective exhibit under the name #Sendmethefuture, Subalterno1 is set to unveil their time twisting show at Milan Design Week. What really sets this Fuorisalone 2018 event apart is a project reflecting on the future with a means of the past — snail mail.

Sendmethefuture will exhibit the responses of 75 contemporary designers to a simple letter that curators Stefano Maffei and Marcello Pirovano sent to 100 creatives. Inside were instructions to participate in the exhibit.

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Courtesy Photo

On opening the envelope, designers caught the first (tongue in cheek) line: “if you’re reading these instructions, that means the Italian Post Office actually works”. Followed by precise instructions to send to Subalterno1, in Via Conte Rosso 22, their very own “piece of the future” via mail. A future that — and this is where the theme comes full circle — “arrives slowly”.

The instructions were incredibly detailed: “(1) We want you to tell us about the Utopia/Dystopia of our future — both near and far — from your point of view. (2) To begin to imagine such a future, use Page C (attached) for drafts, tests, or notes”. It continues: “(4) To express your vision of the future, you can use the techniques and means that most represent you — design sketches, drawings, illustrations, collage, assembly of other materials. (5) You can also work with three-dimensional developments by using the paper as a ‘construction’ material”. And finally: “consider the time to deliver your work through the Italian Post Office — around 7-10 working days”.

Many contemporary designers responded to the call to be featured at the Subalterno1 space during Fuorisalone 2018. To name a few: Antonio Aricò, Federica Biasi, Lanzavecchia+Wai, Moreno Ratti, Elena Salmistraro, Alessandro Zambelli, Massimiliano Adami, Diego Grandi, and Sara Ferrari.

With the collective exhibit, Sendmethefuture, Subalterno1 will collect a “kaleidoscope of utopias and dystopias”, confirming the space as a gem in the realm of independent Italian design research.

subalterno1.com