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L' Anticamera dei Sogni

installation for Ikea

2020

THE LOBBY OF DREAMS: THE UNIQUE STYLE OF ELENA SALMISTRARO MEETS THE WORLD OF IKEA

 

The poetic setting planned by the designer and artist for the bedroom area of the IKEA store San Giuliano Milanese, is inspired by a young, creative and eccentric globetrotter.

Until the end of September, when walking through the bedrooms of the IKEA store of San Giuliano Milanese in search of inspiration, one may stumble upon a presentation that will hardly go unnoticed. For the first time IKEA Italia implements a setting of bed products through the glance of one of the most original names of the new generation of young Italian designers,  Elena Salmistraro: the mix of contemporaneity and powerful imagination is really disruptive. 

The concept is thought for a young creative person, who recently moved to hectic Milan to work in the field of graphic design. Passionate about art, fashion and cultures, she draws the inspiration for her creations from travelling and then she envelops them with imagination, colours and a strong symbolism. 

All her ironic and cheerful universe is in this room. No furniture element is left up to fate, instead it is presented in all its expressive power and ability to spark emotions in the viewer. This way, on the large central wall the face of a funny good “monster” takes life, with its eyes large like the generous  STOCKHOLM round mirrors: the SVENSHULT storage shelves work as a nose, EKHET storage units are the cheeks. Its seemingly friendly smile is a BESTA furniture with white drawers. Some kind of African totem? Maybe the features of a childhood memory? For sure the immediate sensation is to be thrown into an animated and imaginary world, in which - under a sky of a thousand round lamp clouds – a spacious bed of the DELAKTIG series, designed by Tom Dixon, with its ample proportions and integrated steel night stands, is dressed up with a soft duvet cover and pillows of different sizes, becoming the ideal spot to work as well.

As a matter of fact there is no desk, but a comfortable BINGSTA high-back armchair, to read, listen to music or daydream, imagining the next adventure in front of a frame which is covered with 50 HONEFOSS hexagonal mirrors, that outline the silhouette of an imaginary escape to the outside. A landscape that is not the reflection of what is inside, but rather left up to imagination.

The PAX wardrobe in dark wood, a great classic of the IKEA assortment, capable of continuously changing configuration by moving the drawers, shelves, hooks and rails, does not have any doors in this case, because there is no intention to hide, but - behind an ANNALOUISA ochre yellow curtain – it unveils the wardrobe which exudes eccentricity. Just like the main character, who keeps her luggage always ready for a last-minute departure, in name of unpredictability, eclecticism and curiosity towards faraway cultures and worlds.

The box of this imaginary world is neatly wrapped with geometric graphic designs, on the floor and walls, with colour gradients of orange, pink and blue, and dark contours with a super-energetic pop effect, which extends outside the room and invites visitors to enter. Rows of mesmerizing LED lamps create evocative and dramatic spot-lighting, as with the frame at the entrance, while a dark SYMFONISK diffuses music and a warm light in the whole room.

March - September 2020

Credits: Photo Viviana Bonafede - We Are Social

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