Expo: Vattani opens 'Italian Visionaries' event in London

(ANSA) - ROME, SEP 19 - Ambassador Mario Vattani, Commissioner General for Italy at Expo 2025 Osaka, opened the event "Italian Visionaries", an exclusive event of the London Design Festival 2024.
    Organized at the Italian Cultural Institute in London, the event, moderated by the writer and curator Priya Khanchandani, developed as a dialogue between two protagonists of contemporary Italian design and architecture: the architect Mario Cucinella, founder and Creative Director of MCA Mario Cucinella Architects, who designed the Italy Pavilion for Expo 2025 Osaka, and Maria Porro, President of the Salone del Mobile di Milano (Milan Furniture Show) and representative of Porro S. p.A..
    During his speech, Vattani underlined the importance of Italy's participation in the Universal Exhibition in Osaka and the role of the Italian Pavilion as a symbol of innovation and sustainability.
    "Design is the heart of Made in Italy, one of our excellences recognized throughout the world. In the Italian Pavilion, we will bring our know-how, creativity and ability to innovate to a global stage. We will also celebrate Italian design with a special edition of the International Compasso d'Oro, developing the central theme of Expo 2025, 'Designing the future society for our lives, through design'," said Vattani.
    The Italy Pavilion, Cucinella emphasized, "is highly sustainable: it is completely made of wood, can be dismantled piece by piece and each piece can be reused elsewhere in the world." "Sustainability is now a fundamental element at the Salone del Mobile," added Maria Porro, "and it is becoming more so every year. Every event within the Salone must be certified in terms of sustainability; for example, the use of cardboard has now been completely abolished. Moreover, in my company, we tend to limit the use of electricity as much as possible: for example, we encourage staff to start work early in the morning and finish in the early afternoon.
    "It is an honor to welcome Mario Cucinella, a very important architect of international fame, and Maria Porro, who represents the greatest design reality in the world, to London. And I am proud that in our Institute London 'gets to know' the Italy Pavilion in Osaka", concluded the director of the Italian Cultural Institute in London, Francesco Bongarrà.
    The event represented an important opportunity to reflect on the future of Made in Italy and its impact in the international context, with a particular focus on Expo 2025 Osaka.
    Expo 2025 will be held in Osaka from April 13 to October 13, 2025 under the theme "Designing the society of the future for our lives". Italy presents itself with a Pavilion designed by the architect Mario Cucinella whose slogan is "Art regenerates life". (ANSA).