On the occasion of Italian Design Day 2023 (IDD), the Italian Embassy to Kosovo and the University of Pristina will host a round table with students from the Faculties of Architecture and Engineering, as well as representatives of professionals from the sector. In dialogue around the topic of this year’s review – “The quality that lights up – The energy of design for the people and the environment” – there will be Matilde Cassani, architect, designer and lecturer at the “New Academy of Fine Arts” (NAFA) Milan, the city where she lives and works, and at the “Architectural Association School” (AA School) in London.
The appointment is set for Thursday March 16th at 4 pm, Faculty of Architecture in Pristina (Arkitekt Karl Gega Str., 1), “Modellarium” room. The Italian designer will interact with Ambassador Antonello De Riu, the Mayor of Pristina Përparim Rama, an architect himself, as well as the Dean of the this Faculty Violeta Nushi.
Ambassador De Riu explains: “The theme of the Italian Design Day, on which we will reflect together with the students of Architecture and Engineering and our testimonial from Milan, aims to address issues of strong impact for the future of the planet. Einstein stated that creativity is born of anguish as the day is born of the dark night. It is in the crisis that inventiveness, discoveries and great strategies. As such, Italian design, with its mental and productive energy, wants to help bringing light during times where shadows seem to prevail, and it does so with the characteristics that have always defined it: quality, understood not as luxury but as factor of innovation, sustainable and responsible development. Italian quality whose traces are increasingly found in Kosovo too, thanks to the contribution of the academy and the dynamism of numerous local entrepreneurs, especially in the interior design and furniture sectors”.
For Cassani, who has curated several exhibitions at “Triennale” of Milan, at “Biennale” of Venice and at the “Storefront for Art and Architecture” in New York, “the city is a continuous succession of internal spaces, built and furnished to host all rituals human and non-human”. She will present to Kosovar students her research about the interactions between culture and architecture, the aim of reducing complexity and, getting to the theme of the round table, “the energy at the basis of production process, which should be sustainable, innovative and combine functionality and well-being”.
Alongside the event hosted by the Faculty of Architecture, for the IDD-2023 a series of promotional activities of “Made in Italy” are scheduled till March 19th, organized by the Italian Trade Agency (ITA/ICE). Special exhibitions and discounts are ongoing in 25 store locations in different Kosovar cities (Pristina, Peja, Prizren, Podujevo) with customer oriented marketing activities to facilitate the launch of new Italian brands and products, especially in the local chains of large-scale distribution.
The Italian Design Day framework lastly involves the participation of the architect Simonetta Cenci, of the Genovese studio “Partner Ateliers Alfonso Femia”, in the Pristina for the international architecture conference SHARE. The presence of the architect Cenci is supported by the Italian Institute of Culture in Tirana.
The Italian Design Day is the annual theme-based review launched by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture. It consists of an extensive programme of promotional events around the world, created by the network of Embassies, Consulates, Italian Cultural Institutes and ICE Offices abroad: every year, specifically for this occasion, over one hundred testimonials become storytellers, presenting design and Italy’s outstanding creativity. The review has established itself as an effective tool in supporting the promotion of design and the internationalization of a strategic industrial sector for Italian exports, as well as boosting the educational-training component, favouring the interaction of the higher education system – composed of leading academies, universities and specialized institutes – with foreign creative communities to promote the training offer in Italy in areas of creative design and industries for new talents and professionals growth.
