On June 19, 2019, and on the occasion of the DESIGN MONTH by Archisearch, architects, designers, journalists, architecture, and cinema devotees, attended the very special presentation of the Milano Design Film Festival World Tour Greece at the new Depot6 showroom, in an old 1890 stone warehouse in Piraeus. Annie Markitanis, Director of MDFF World Tour Greece — Athens, and MDFF World Tour Partner for Greece & Cyprus, presented the MDFF and MDFF World Tour Greece format and concept, and the selected title of the programme for the first MDFF World Tour Athens edition: “Lights On: Projecting Our Contemporary Future”. Additionally, Archisearch was announced as a Media Partner of MDFF Athens 2020.
Moreover, Markitanis talked about the Guest Curatorhip that will accompany this virgin MDFF World Tour landing in Greece, with the presence of a prestigious name in the field of Design: Michael Anastassiades, the internationally renowned and award-winning designer, born in Cyprus and based in London.
The director made an open call to designers, design critics, architects, photographers, journalists, film producers, film directors, entrepreneurs, curators, students, cultural institutions and social initiatives, and design enthusiasts, highlighting the importance of creating a Greek MDFF community, through networking, a call for submissions, and an overall cultural and creative interchange, which will allow for a new way of communicating, addressing, and acquainting ourselves with our contemporary life and our related future inclination.
The presentation was concluded with the screening of two auteur films, which were selected for the unique way in which they relate to the selected title of the upcoming MDFF World Tour Athens 2020 edition: “Lights On: Projecting Our Contemporary Future”.
The first film presented was DeLightFul (Italy 2017), the film made by multi-award-winning Italian director Matteo Garrone for the 2017 Salone del Mobile.Milano. The founder explained how she was drawn by the film’s mystical and mesmerizing identity, where Light manifests itself as a “Midsummer’s Night Dream”, creating an idyllic setup for the overall storyline.
In DeLightFul, we witness the power, glam, and quality of the world of design and contemporary living “Made In Italy”. In a setting that contrives to be both natural and dreamlike, magical, and surreal, the film takes a look at the world of design and in contemporary life, with objects and people moving against a backdrop of fantastical atmospheres. The screening was enhanced with the presence of curator Simone Ciarmoli, who joined the stage and shared with the audience his experience and insights about this short film, that was formed as an integral part of the contemporary design exhibition DeLightFuL (Design, Light, Future, Living), curated by Ciarmoli—Queda for the 56th edition of the Salone del Mobile.Milano. The exhibition and the film share the same concept, the idea that contemporary domestic space is an expression of man’s primeval, authentic, and essential needs.
The second film, titled Sette Milliardi (Italy 2014) is narrated by Andrea Branzi, a design theoretician and designer renowned at a global level. In this short film directed by Max Rommel in 2014, Light as a language of our urban reality allows Andrea Branzi to reveal the thoughts he developed after working for four years on Dieci Modesti Consigli per una Nuova Carta d’Atene (10 Modest Principles for a New Athenian Manifesto), inviting us to reflect upon them and reach our own conclusions regarding the new condition of postmodern cities.
You can read more here:
www.archisearch.gr/design/milano-design-film-festival-athens-pre-launch-event-press/
www.salonemilano.it/en/highlights/highlights/summer-camp-in-greece-for-delightful
All photos by © Nikos Thomas for Archisearch.gr & Design Ambassador / Video by Stavros Symeonidis for Archisearch.gr & Design Ambassador
MDFF Greece—Athens 2020, Pre-launch Event
