Design Miami/ 2008
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Design Miami/ is proud to announce
that MIRAX Group, the leading Russian developer, will sponsor the prestigious Designer of the Year Dinner,
co-hosted by Sergey Polonsky
and Dmitry Lutsenko. This exclusive event brings together top design luminaries, celebrities, and taste-makers from around the globe, to honor the extraordinary talent and influence of our 2008 Designer of the Year Award winners. Past winners have included Zaha Hadid, Marc Newson,
and Tokujin Yoshioka.
Public Hours of Admission
December 3-6, 2008
11.00h–19.00h
Special Events / December 2, 2008
Press Preview / 13:00h-15:00h
Registration Required
Collectors Preview / 15:00h-18:00h
Invitation Only
Vernissage / 18:00h-22:00h
Invitation, Design Miami/ or
Art Basel VIP Card Only
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Inspired by the galvanizing effect of Art Basel Miami Beach, the founders of Design Miami/ set out to create a design fair unlike any other that came before. In 2005, Ambra Medda and Amy Lau saw the opportunity to create a nexus for the far-flung global community of cutting-edge design dealers, collectors, creatives, curators, and critics. They envisioned a new commercial and cultural forum that would capture the thriving general interest in design and elevate appreciation for limited-edition, experimental and historically significant design work, presented within an energetic, visually striking environment. No other design fair had ever attempted such a feat.
Initially naming their project Design.05, Medda and Lau secured vital support from Craig Robins, a prominent Miami developer and art collector, and Sam Keller, esteemed Director of Art Basel. Together this team attracted the participation of the world’s preeminent design galleries, including Barry Friedman Ltd, Galerie Kreo, |
and Galerie Patrick Seguin. These gallerists deal in the most significant works on the market and their collaboration ensured the high caliber of the show.
Design.05 premiered in the Miami Design District in December 2005 and was proclaimed an instant success. Immediately following the first show, the founders were urged by collectors and dealers alike to take the show to Switzerland for the next Art Basel. Changing the company’s name to suit the new plan for biannual events, Medda successfully launched Design Miami/ Basel in June 2006. Medda continues to direct the company, and Design Miami/ and Design Miami/ Basel are now permanently established to run parallel to Art Basel: Miami Beach in Miami, Florida in December and Basel,
Switzerland in June.
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From its inception, Design Miami/ was intended to be more than just a marketplace for high-end design, and to this end, Medda has put together a small but talented team to help her create the most vital design shows in the world. The company’s objective is to balance highly professional business activity with progressive cultural programming, and the team works to create exciting collaborations with designers and design institutions, to draw in the foremost design collectors and enthusiasts, and to construct the most provocative design showcase anyone has ever seen.
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From Then to Now
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Each Design Miami/ show includes
four components:
1. The Design Galleries must not only exhibit and sell valuable work, but also present their pieces in highly curated, beautiful installations, often designed by notable architects and designers. All work exhibited in the Design Gallery section of the show is vetted for authenticity and provenance.
2. The Satellite Exhibitions also consist of curated installations; however, these projects are typically organized by individual designers, museums, schools and other design establishments, selected by the Design Miami/ team to broaden the shows' content and to communicate key themes in contemporary design practice. Our Satellites include Design Performances, in which we invite designers to demonstrate their creative processes live on site.
3. The Design Talks bring together international luminaries to tackle current issues in design today, offering |
extraordinary opportunities to hear designers explain their work in
their own words.
4. In addition, Design Miami/ presents two Design Awards annually: Designer of the Year in Miami every December and Designer of the Future in Basel every June. These awards serve as markers of the current design culture by spotlighting both established and emerging designers, whose work pushes the boundaries of art and architecture and expands
our understanding of design.
Aspiring to provide visitors with disarming aesthetic experiences, Design Miami/ holds its events in venues, transforming them into exhibition spaces that enhance social and intellectual exchange. Design Miami/ 2007 utilized the Moore Furniture Company building, a historic landmark built in 1920s in the Miami Design District. Design Miami/ Basel 06 transformed the neo-Gothic Elizabethenkirche and the post-modern |
Foyer Theater Basel, and Design Miami/ Basel 07 and 08 revitalized the Markthalle Basel, the third largest dome in Europe, built as a produce market in the late 1920s but largely unused in the last decade. By choosing distinct architectural spaces, Design Miami highlights the relationship between architecture and design and raises the standard of what a design fair can be.
Continuously expanding and enriching its programming, Design Miami/ has not only satisfied the demand for a high-end limited-edition design fair, but also has broadened awareness of modern and contemporary design, fueled the market for collectible design, and provided an exciting yet accessible destination for art and design enthusiasts and
collectors alike.
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Ambra Medda
In less than three years, Ambra Medda has positioned Design Miami/ as the most prominent and substantive global forum for collecting, exhibiting, discussing and creating limited-edition design. With annual shows in Basel, Switzerland (June) and Miami, USA (December) Design Miami/ brings together the most influential designers, collectors, dealers, curators and critics from around the world. Each show explores both the commercial and creative sides of design by presenting preeminent galleries, cutting-edge Satellite Exhibitions and Design Performances , a series of Design Talks engaging industry luminaries, and both the Designers of the Future and Designer of the Year Awards.
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As Director of Design Miami, Medda has formed strong partnerships with the world’s most respected cultural organizations and educational institutions including the Vitra Design Museum, the Georges Pompidou Art & Culture Foundation, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, the Victoria & Albert Museum and ECAL (University of Art and Design Lausanne). Medda’s development of the Designer of the Year and Future Awards has allowed Design Miami/ to forge relationships with both established and emerging designers and collectives including Marc Newson, Zaha Hadid, Tokujin Yoshioka, FRONT, Established & Sons, Max Lamb, Martino Gamper, Julia Lohmann and Clemens Weisshaar & Reed Kram. In April of 2008, Medda published her first book, entitled Destination Design, a guidebook-styled account of the 50 most sought after design desitinations in the world.
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Raised in Europe, Medda spent her early years in Italy, Greece and the United Kingdom immersed in the artistic community. The daughter of a design gallerist, her education in the field came from the world’s most distinguished designers, artists, collectors and dealers. Her childhood home, a salon of sorts for the international design elite, also functioned as a showroom where Medda’s mother presented her refined yet eclectic vision, which encompassed both contemporary and historical design elements. Curating exhibitions and attending auctions, fairs and gallery openings throughout her childhood, Medda developed her passion for design and acquired an in-depth, first-hand knowledge of the field.
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Prior to founding Design Miami/, Medda organized exhibitions as an independent curator and worked at her mother’s esteemed London gallery, Themes & Variations. She organized shows with the cutting-edge contemporary art collective Stareleene, and co-curated a group exhibition for the Lower East Side Girl’s Club (NY), with works by Louise Bourgeois, Kiki Smith and Swoon.
Medda earned a joint degree in Chinese Language and Culture and Asian Art from the School of Oriental and African Studies at London University.
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