Club Unseen
Milano Design Week 2018
An unprecedented location hides one of the best kept secrets of the Salone, Club Unseen, the project-manifesto designed by Arianna Lelli Mami and Chiara Di Pinto, Creative Directors of Studiopepe, during Milan Design Week 2018.
After the success of The Visit (www.thevisit.info), the themed narrative of Studiopepe continues with a project that becomes a unique experiential itinerary of interior design, enhanced by the ritual of mixology that becomes performance and entertainment. The secret location winds through surprising rooms with installations created in collaboration with companies that represent cases of excellence in the field of Italian and international design, for which Studiopepe has developed exclusive and bespoke projects, presented for the first time, together with an original vision of historic pieces.
Concept
“Avant-garde atmospheres and cinema influences for immersion in a sophisticated creative imaginary”
Arianna Lelli Mami and Chiara Di Pinto.
Club Unseen tells its tale by comparison between the contemporary world and memory, sartorial craftsmanship and digital content, public and private, in a unique, surprising signature set piece where the different forms of contemporary social interaction, from personalisation to authenticity of experience, all the way to the bond with the city, are interpreted through the design of an exclusive place to be shared with others. In a moment like the FuoriSalone, increasingly connected and dense with input, the members of the Club can enjoy an exclusive and informal refuge in which to find a convivial dimension of discovery, away from the usual crowded itineraries, in keeping with the rules of proper hospitality.
Location
The location of the project is secret and is revealed to members only a short time prior to the event. A tattoo of the club logo is the key with which to enter this exclusive place. Club Unseen occupies the spaces of a former warehouse from the late 1800s that has remained intact, conserving its particular features. It is on the ground floor of an elegant old Milanese building, in the neighbourhood of Piazza Tricolore.
A Unique Experience
The presence of a butler ensures a perfect welcome for the members of the Club, inviting them to discover the rooms and the particular features of the project, in a place where they can feel at home, enjoying inedited drinks and moving freely through the spaces.
The Club accompanies the members through a narrative, room by room, in which all the elements – furnishings, facing materials, objects, colours and lighting – establish a dialogue like the ingredients of a well-mixed cocktail, creating an experience that happens on different levels.
A case of storytelling in which the personal, authorial approach of Studiopepe triggers emotions and actions, prompting reflection on modes of welcome and the concept of tailor- made entertaining, with the help of augmented reality to reveal otherwise invisible details and information.
Mixology
One of the central features of the Club is an installation on the preparation of cocktails, created to put the accent on the gestures of the mixologist. In this way, the bar becomes a stage at which to enact the art of “made by hand”, through a theatrical horizontal opening that frames the hands of the bartender and the phases of the preparation. The beverage service has been assigned to the knowledgeable vision of Andrea Vigna of Drink & Taste Milano.
Music
The last room in the Club is set up with a single maxi-size upholstered piece that occupies the whole area, a citation of the performances of the Radical Design movement of the 1970s; musical events happen on a small stage set up at the back of the room. Every evening Italian and international artists will take turns representing the indie music scene, all coordinated by SOFAR, an international group that organises secret gigs all over the world.
Augmented Reality
Augmented reality enters the project in an ironic, subtle way.
Aria is an app that makes it possible to experience the innovative technology of augmented reality, a lens of universal decoding to use in any context. It can be downloaded free from App Store and Play Store.
Simply by framing the illustrated targets of Club Unseen and the partners, you can access special animated content that narrates the pieces on view and their brands in a poetic way. Aria also lets visitors interact with the project in a dynamic way, generating videos that can be shared on all the social networks.
