Before the pavilions even open their doors, the Salone del Mobile.Milano will already be in full swing - starting in the city itself, where design intersects with daily life, captures the footsteps of locals, and sparks the curiosity of visitors. 

Piazza Gae Aulenti, Milano Salone del Mobile.Milano 2025 “Thought for Humans.” / Dentsu Creative Italia

Milan becomes a canvas for a collective narrative of contemporary design, with 49 LED walls spanning from Central Station to Piazza Cadorna, 38 digital screens at Malpensa and Linate airports, 320 posters in metro stations, and 18 Welcome Project info points scattered throughout the city. But that’s just the beginning!

A rich programme of events and installations will bring design to life all over Milan: Vernissage, Design Kiosk, Robert Wilson’s Mother, Es Devlin’s Library of Light featuring a curated palimpsest of talks, graphic interventions around the city’s most iconic design landmarks, and over 100 exhibitor showrooms animated by special events. Together, these initiatives transform Milan into a sprawling, immersive design experience.

Vernissage - Via Dante, Milan / Salone del Mobile.Milano 2025 / Dentsu Creative Italia

VERNISSAGE: Open-air photographic exhibition

In collaboration with FLA Plus, FederlegnoArredo, the photo exhibition showcases Bill Durgin’s striking images that explore the bond between the human body and designed objects. The theme, Thought for Humans, is expressed through visuals that blend material and emotion, form and function.

The campaign extends across Milan with 49 LED walls, 38 airport screens, 1000 bus displays, 320 underground ads, and more - turning the city into an open-air gallery where design meets daily life.

Address: Via Dante,
Dates: 25th March – 15th April Open 24 hours



Design Kiosk - Piazza della Scala, Milan / Salone del Mobile.Milano 2025 / ©Andrea Mariani

DESIGN KIOSK

Curated by Corraini Edizioni and designed by DWA Studio, the pop-up bookstore is a meeting hub for creatives and visitors, hosting daily talks at 6:30pm with names like Federica Biasi, Aldo Cibic, and Olimpia Zagnoli. Here, guests can also find the official Salone capsule collection.

Address: Piazza della Scala

Dates: 1st – 13th April, 10:00 – 19:00

Robert Wilson. Mother - Museo della Pietà Rondanini, Castello Sforzesco / Salone del Mobile.Milano 2025 / ©Luciano Romano

MOTHER: Robert Wilson's installation

This immersive installations is a visionary tribute to Michelangelo's unfinished sculpture, set to music by Arvo Pärt.

Dates: from April 6th, open to the public.
Address: at the Museo della Pietà Rondanini – Castello Sforzesco

Piccolo Teatro Strehler / Milano Salone del Mobile.Milano 2025 “Thought for Humans.” / Dentsu Creative Italia

TALKS: Library of Light

The site-specific installation by British artist Es Devlin is a living structure, inhabited by over 2,000 volumes donated by Feltrinelli, becoming a performative library: a place to experience in silence or to experience through words. In the heart of the luminous bookshop, in fact, three evening meetings will give voice to thought, sparking crosscutting and multidisciplinary reflections.

Address: Pinacoteca di Brera – Cortile d’Onore



• Weaving Indian Art - Tuesday 8th April, at 19:00
  A talk that intermeshes aesthetics, culture and identity through textiles. Vinita Chaitanya, interior designer and founder of Prism, Urmila Chakraborty, writer and expert in Patachitra Folk Art, and Malika Verma, founder of the Border&Fall platform, will take the public on a journey through traditional tapestries, embroideries and motifs that become contemporary artistic expression. The Italian-Indian journalist Cristina Kiran Piotti will moderate the event, crafting a sensitive and profound account of how these practices, once confined to the field of craftsmanship, are now carving out their place in the world of art and design.

• C’era una volta il corpo - On Wednesday 9th April, at 19:00
  It will be the turn of the writer and intellectual Walter Siti, with C’era una volta il corpo (Once Upon a Time in the Body), an event curated by Feltrinelli that will touch on literature, philosophy and the human condition. A body that changes, that battles, that tells of the times we live in.

• Thought for Humans. - on Thursday, April 17th at 18:00
  The discussion will explore the role of the body in space, through the complementary lenses of art, theatre and museography. The artist and designer Matilde Cassani, the architect and museographer Luca Cipelletti and the set designer Margherita Palli will be led by the curator Annalisa Rosso. An investigation into the emotional and sensory value of physical experience, the way we live and inhabit places, and the centrality of the human being in contemporary design. 

Piazza Gae Aulenti, Milano Salone del Mobile.Milano 2025 “Thought for Humans.” / Dentsu Creative Italia

Other highlights include eight graphic installations around the city, celebrating iconic Milanese design elements, and over 100 showrooms participating in Fuorisalone. The Welcome Project will see over 100 design students guiding visitors across Milan, wearing distinctive jackets made in partnership with Ethicarei, reinforcing the fair’s commitment to sustainability, innovation and ethics.