TRJ presents “TWENTY” at Milan Design Week 2022: Tom Dixon 20 years activity celebration
Salone del Mobile 2022 is upon us and TRJ, as the exclusive Tom Dixon agent in Italy, is thrilled to share the news about ‘TWENTY’ an unprecedented exhibition at Milan Design Week 2022.
Renowned British designer Tom Dixon commemorates 20 years of the global design empire he established in 2002. To mark the milestone, the brand will host ‘TWENTY’ an unprecedented exhibition in Milan to coincide with Salone. New and iconic collections will be shown for the first time in not just one but two locations: Palazzo Serbelloni (Corso Venezia, 16) and The Manzoni (Via Alessandro Manzoni 5), the brand’s hub in Milan.
Massimiliano Troja, founder of TRJ, says “I’m so proud to collaborate with Tom Dixon and distribute the British brand in Italy universally recognised as a trailblazing creative powerhouse across innovative products and high concept interiors. I’m looking forward to celebrating Tom and presenting to the Italian market this year product novelties.”
TWENTY, a free entry public exhibition celebrating 20 years of design and innovation will be hosted at Palazzo Serbelloni, a neoclassical palace where Sotheby’s – the world’s largest marketplace for art and luxury – has its Milan galleries and offices.
While The Manzoni is an experimental space, a theatrical backdrop for the best of Italian food and British design expressed in a restaurant, showroom and shop, Sotheby’s is the world’s premier destination for art and luxury.
Palazzo Serbelloni, Milan
The event will focus on innovation and materiality with 20 unseen creations on display. Visitors will be invited to explore a thoughtfully curated selection of designs: some inspired by Tom Dixon’s most recognised collections such as MIRROR BALL, MELT and FAT, some upgraded and some in embryonic experiment-mode, providing a reflective yet future-thinking overview of Tom’s prolific portfolio and journey to becoming one of Britain’s most celebrated designers.
Tom says: ‘You will find us tucked away in a historic palazzo in the centre of Milan where the British auction institution Sotheby’s has its Italian headquarters. There could not have been a better platform to show TWENTY objects that explain some of the history, some of the processes of manufacture but also some of the new developments that describe the future of the brand. All of this coincides with Sotheby’s first Italian design sale, where the central position of Milan as the global capital for creativity is reaffirmed.’
The Manzoni, Milan
Highlights at TWENTY will include a gigantic MELT Dichroic chandelier, a BIRD chair made of eelgrass from Denmark, a latex S-chair and giant mycelium sculptures.
MELT Dichroic Chandelier: Tom says, ‘We’ve all seen dichroic effects – maybe on cheap novelty sunglasses in Camden Market or on the surface of early roman glass in the British Museum, but I know that it’s a finish that has always fascinated me. The emergence of Modern Dichroic thin-film filters, which split white light into its component colours is the work of the engine of extreme innovation, NASA. So, when we looked at updating MELT – our most successful light, rather than offering a new shape, a new size, or a new colour, we decided to instead filter the light with a dichroic filter. The effect of the coated component is to channel the light of our powerful LED driver into constituent parts of the spectrum, giving the already crazed internal reflection an additional chromatic boost and an unexpected space-age aesthetic to this otherworldly lamp.’
MIRROR BALL Chandelier: ‘We have been challenging ourselves and our factories to reduce our impact on the environment, so this monumental vertical chandelier will be the first to display one of our oldest designs in a 100% recycled polycarbonate. The change in optical quality is imperceptible and is a demonstration of the opportunities now available in a rapidly changing landscape to try harder to find more credible alternatives to virgin material.’
Mycelium Sculptures: ‘These sculptures were developed from a packaging project we have been working on lately. Mycelium, also known as mushrooms, are a very fashionable material that everybody is looking into it at the moment. Our partners, Magic Mushroom, are growing very quickly as a company and are making more and more of this packaging made from mushrooms – which is very important to replace polystyrene in packaging. However, we wanted to demonstrate it in more permanent use and have created these ‘Scent Columns’. Mushroom as a material holds perfume really well and the scent is formulated for the skin, by our friends at International Flavors & Fragrances who we work with for our range of candles and diffusers.’