The fair, scheduled to run from October 11th to 13th 2024, presents a preview of the projects from the EDIT CULT programme of disseminated exhibitions involving various symbolic locations in the city, from the Palazzo Reale to the Real Museo Mineralogico and the Ipogeo dei Cristallini.
The countdown has begun, with EDIT Napoli preparing to return to the Archivio di Stato di Napoli for its sixth edition, from October 11th to 13th 2024, announcing the first EDIT CULT projects and the main players behind them. This is an itinerary that will weave its way through the city, with a series of exhibitions and installations exploring design creativity and enhancing some of Naples’ most representative locations.
Every year, the curators bring historic sites into dialogue with contemporary projects, creating a choral narrative spread across the city. The goal is to create a programme with a different exhibition concept for design, tailored specifically for each individual show and arising from an ideal combination between architectural container/context and the works/products on display.
Cassina at Palazzo Reale
Among the first highlights of the sixth edition, EDIT Napoli announces a collaboration with Cassina, the historic company founded in Meda in 1927, which introduced an entirely new production logic in 1950s Italy, marking the shift from artisanal to serial production. As part of the EDIT CULT 2024 programme, Cassina will take centre stage at Palazzo Reale, with a tribute to the Neapolitan architect, designer and professor Filippo Alison, who in 1973 created the renowned Cassina iMaestri collection.
This project reissued furniture designed by the masters of Modernism, and had been launched by the company back in the mid-1960s. The Teatro di Corte, designed by architect Ferdinando Fuga in 1768, will raise the curtain on Alison’s research starting from the 1970s on the furniture of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, true milestones in the history of design. Central to the exhibit, the Hill House 1 chair and the Willow 1 armchair, iconic models from the Cassina iMaestri collection, will be featured to tell a story that connects the city of Naples to the world of international editorial design.
ALPI at Real Museo Mineralogico.
Highly anticipated is the exhibition featuring ALPI, a company at the forefront of engineered wood decorative surfaces, which will celebrate its 40 years in the design world at EDIT Napoli with a retrospective at the Real Museo Mineralogico. ALPI will showcase some of the special projects realised in collaboration with international designers, who were free to interpret wood according to their personal poetic. Among the exhibits will be the irregularly shaped wooden totems by Konstantin Grcic, the prisms by Angelo Mangiarotti and the three archaic forms designed by Alessandro Mendini. These pieces will engage with the crystalline forms of the natural minerals in the prestigious museum setting.
Allegra Hicks at Ipogeo dei Cristallini
Among those returning to EDIT Napoli is Allegra Hicks. Renowned for her works that blend art and craftsmanship, this year she will present a project inspired by Neapolitan legends. Her work will revolve around the myth of the siren Parthenope and the egg she laid before dying, which is said to be hidden in the foundations of Castel dell’Ovo. The piece will be on display at the Ipogeo dei Cristallini, an evocative venue and testament to Hellenistic painting and sculpture right in the heart of the Sanità-Vergini district. In a symbolism echoing the myth of the siren, Hicks’ work, much like the egg featured in the legend, will be placed in an underground location, prompting reflection on the fragility of beauty and its preservation.
Over the coming weeks, EDIT Napoli will be announcing the complete EDIT CULT 2024 programme and its main players.
11 — 13 October 2024: opening to the public
10 October 2024: press preview
Archivio di Stato di Napoli
Vico Monte della Pietà, 2
Curator and director EDIT Napoli: Emilia Petruccelli
Curator EDIT Napoli: Domitilla Dardi