Inaugurated today at the La Prima centre in Almaty, Spazio-D, a "concept room" dedicated to Italian design, created at the instigation of the Italian Embassy, the Italian Cultural Institute and the Ice Agency, and designed by architect Marco Poletti of Milan.
Spazio-D is an exhibition area dedicated to Italian design products. Companies book it and use it, in four-month shifts, to have their flagship products presented. Not a shop, but a place to discover new products, meet people, propose ideas.
"We conceived Spazio-D as an idea made of many ideas," said Ambassador Marco Alberti. "Here you do not buy or sell products; you meet companies that think them up, produce them and decide to present them to the Kazakh market. We offer insights into Italian design, organise net-working and co-working events, as well as themed seminars with local students, artists, designers and architects. Spazio-D is a showcase for Italian creativity and serves to co-create value. I am sure that many more will blossom from this idea'.
Spazio-D is located in an area adjacent to the IIC, to foster a visual interaction between the two environments but, above all, a continuous exchange of contacts and initiatives, in a logic of integrated promotion.
The strength and coherence of the culture-business nexus are increased by the fact that brands and products to be exhibited are chosen on the basis of five values: creativity, historicity, craftsmanship, quality, sustainability. Five 'filaments' of Italian DNA that unite culture and enterprise, Institute and Spazio-D, side by side.
"I am very happy with this project," said arch. Marco Poletti, creator and curator of the initiative. "Spazio-D completes my collaboration with the Italian institutions in Kazakhstan, but above all it brings the two countries closer together in a strategic sector such as design, creating new opportunities'.
Satisfaction also came from the Director of the Institute of Culture, Edoardo Crisafulli. "The birth of Spazio-D confirms the promotional strategy we have chosen. Not only events, that is, but also projects. This year we organised in Almaty "Italia Geniale!", a large exhibition dedicated to design proposed by our Ministry of Foreign Affairs. If that was the event, Spazio-D is the project, destined to last. In the meantime, a first initiative linked to Spazio-D has already been born. Thanks to the Fiandre company, a sculpture dedicated to Marco Polo, made of Italian ceramics, will be placed at the entrance of the building. This is a new way of celebrating the 'Day of the Contemporary' in Kazakhstan, an annual event of Amaci (the Association of Italian Contemporary Art Museums) supported by our Ministry'.
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