The Industrial chair district of Udine-Friuli Venezia Giulia (a unique manufacturing region of the world featuring 800 highly skilled small and medium companies, almost all of them operating within a range of 100 km2 and covering 30 percent of the global chair production) took part in the Milan event of Fuorisalone 2009 choosing a special location and a big stage: the Naviglio Grande canal.
The “Floating Chairs” consisted in a floating exhibition of chairs, over a 40 m long surface, representing the extraordinary manufacturing skills of Friulian chair manufacturers. The “Floating Chair” event – stemmed from a local marketing project developed and promoted by the Udine Chamber of Commerce in partnership with Promosedia, a consortium for the promotion and development of the Chair District, with the cooperation of Asdisedia, the Agency for District development, and
the support of Fondazione Crup (Cassa di risparmio di Udine e Pordenone) – interacted with the several Friulian companies (about 70) attending Salone del Mobile as well as with “Promosedia” collective group in order to tell a unique “story” to the world showing a production ranging from private use to contract; Vico Magistretti and Marco Zanuso as well as contemporary talents such as Jasper Morrison, Konstantin Grcic, Enrico Franzolini, Oscar Tusquet and Patricia Urquiola were just some of the participants.
The leading “actor” of the exhibition – developed by Fabio Di Bartolomei according to a concept by Luca Fois and Design Partners – was raw wood together with leather, plastics and metal. This has showed that the industry is able to enhance and promote new technologies as well as innovative materials.
