Maria Cristina Didero
Here is my Design Miami, a positive and revolutionary fair
“The title The Golden Age is full of optimism and a wish for a better future. Indeed a golden one”
It is a bit of a national pride, because it was the first Italian to lead Design Miami, the most prestigious design fair on the planet (which will open in a few days at the Convention Center in South Beach, just a few steps from the Ocean). I am talking about Maria Cristina Didero, consultant, journalist, author, curator. She graduated in Literature and Philosophy in Bologna, polyglot (she also speaks Russian fluently), passionate about dance, she is now considered one of the most authoritative design curators in the world.
She grew up in Rimini, on the Riviera Romagnola, she has been living in Milan for years with her husband and her two tiny daughters. In her full-bodied curriculum there are numerous consultancies for brands such as Vitra, Fritz Hansen, Lexus, Fendi, Louis Vuitton, an experience in the role of editor-at-large of Icon Design magazine and the curation of an infinite series of exhibitions. Two above all: The Space in Between at the Holon Design Museum, in Israel and SuperDesign, a project on radical Italian design, in New York. We met Maria Cristina in her Milan home a few days before leaving for Florida.
Design Miami will take place from November 29th to December 4th. What fair will it be?
It will be one of the most impressive editions. The pillars of the event have always been the Galleries, the Curios (exhibition platforms where designers, curators, gallery owners present ad hoc projects) and the Partners (from Fendi to Panerai, from Audi to, new this year, Orient Express). This year’s numbers are expected to be really important. In short, it seems that the title The Golden Age has stimulated everyone a bit.
Let’s choose one of the most interesting projects…
There are really a lot of them. But I choose the one signed by Kohler, the ceramic giant, who will create a real Hammam inside the Convention Center in collaboration with the Lebanese designer Nada Debs. Nada designed a Middle East-inspired tile inside Kohler’s Waste lab, the laboratory where everything is recycled. So it is a project that associates psychophysical well-being with sustainability.
Why did you choose to call this year’s edition The Golden Age?
It all started in September last year. We were seeing some light again after the dark of the pandemic and so we thought of an optimistic title. Almost a wish for the future. The basic idea is: thanks to innovation, technology and collaboration between human beings, we will be able to build a better tomorrow for everyone.
Vitra, Fendi, Vuitton: your CV is very prestigious. How do you become a design curator?
I do not know. Sometimes I smile when I see all these curator courses around. Everything I have learned in my career has been on the pitch. Despite having a degree in Literature and Philosophy in Bologna with a Trotskyist thesis entitled Phenomenology of the Great French Revolution in the study of the Bolshevik revolution.
What happens to Maria Cristina when she doesn’t think about design, does she think about the Revolution?
No! (Laughs). I think of the dreams of when I was a child who wanted to save the world. I think of everything I could have done if I hadn’t done what I do.
Is it true that you learned to speak Russian because you dreamed of dancing at the Bolshoi?
Yes, it is. I dreamed of dancing at the Bolshoi in Moscow or at the Mariinskij in St. Petersburg. But, fearing I was not so good, I had found a trick: by learning to speak Russian and to express myself I thought I could increase my chances. So I started studying Cyrillic. In the past I worked as an interpreter in prisons and courts. Then there was a wave of Russian tourists on the Adriatic Riviera and thanks to the translations I practically paid for university. Then life took me somewhere else but it was a very interesting period of my life. Almost poetic I would say.
What differentiates a design object from a work of art?
What cannot be explained… Design and art are two different worlds even if they both tell about our present. But design has a functional side that I love and feel very close, being a very pragmatic type.
But is there an object that you would call art?
Yes, it is Munari’s Chair for Very Brief Visits. The one that has an impractical seat that does not allow you to sit down. When I saw it for the first time, I thought: “Well, this isn’t design, it’s pure art!”.
What do you think of designers who call themselves artists?
I think it’s simply an ego problem. Keeping your feet firmly on the ground is always helpful in life.
In your opinion, has design become as glamorous as art?
Yes, I would say yes. In recent years the fashion brands, which are the ones that more than others manage to have great economic capacity, have looked a lot at design. The Miami fair testifies to this. This year there will be fashion houses like Fendi, like Louis Vuitton, like Bottega Veneta who will collaborate with Gaetano Pesce, like Dolce and Gabbana, that for the first time will present their very high jewelery at a fair.
Three young designers to bet on in the future…
I would say Sung Jang, the Israeli Erez Nevi Pana and Sabine Marcelis.
What do you think is the most harmonious form in nature?
The tree.
The tree in general or do you have one in mind in particular?
I have one in mind in particular and it is oak.
Are you a collector?
Yes. I mainly collect stools, plastic bottles and wool blankets. I have so many stools that when I got married my husband told me that more than one house we had to buy a cinema to put all those seats inside. Then I have hundreds of plastic bottles with the strangest shapes and with a refined graphic design. Finally, the blankets. We have a lot of them. Some by the author, others even made especially for us, others still recovered in travels around the world.
Your favourite piece?
It is a blanket signed by the Austrian design Arthur Arbesser. We got it three years ago and I love it.
We are almost at the end of the interview. It’s time to take stock: how was the experience at Design Miami?
It was the first time I found myself driving a fair, I’m usually used to working with museums. I must say it was a great experience. The Miami design creativity rate is sky-high. There is the best of galleries, there are companies that combine commercial and creativity. There is a really interesting list of talks that will involve stars like Gaetano Pesce, A$AP Rocky and Erykah Badu. I’m very satisfied.
What’s next the American fair?
On the occasion of the Salone del Mobile there will be a major exhibition tribute to Droog Design at the Milan Triennale, which turns thirty this year. I consider Droog one of the last movements of the 20th century. The Dutch collective had its debut in Milan in 1993 during a Fuorisalone and I remember perfectly that when they arrived on the scene they left the insiders totally stunned. Today, after thirty years, their irreverent objects, which at the time seemed only bizarre, have become icons of design. Works that are studied in textbooks alongside other legends such as Mendini’s Proust armchair. The Triennale project will be curated by me and Richard Hutten (who was part of Droog) and will have a very innovative narrative device. In the 90s there were no social media, there were no Limited Editions, the world was different …. But I cannot say more than this. The rest is top secret.
Interview : Germano D’Acquisto
Photos : Andrea Marcantonio
