Ospiti

Susanna Vallebona, communication designer, opened in 1981 the Esseblu studio through which she carries out consulting activities, develops projects for publishing and deals with Corporate and Brand Identity. With Giancarlo Iliprandi and Ino Chisesi he studied the coat of arms of the Province of Milan and designed the coordinated image program. In 2001 he started the publishing house Edizioni Esseblu, specialising in the publication of visual books. He is artistic director of the cultural association SBLU_spazioalbello, which opened in 2007 to give free rein to the passion for art, with which he promotes numerous initiatives including the multi-year project Non di solo pane, conceived on the occasion of Expo. Since 2016 he has organized the first international biennial Object Book, now in its fifth edition. An initiative for which he received the honorable mention of the Compasso d 'Oro in 2018, the DNA Paris Design Awards 2022, the Gold Stellar 2022, the IDA Design Awards Bronze Winner 2022 and the Design MasterPrize ’24. Establishes and launches the Digital Book Object Archive. Member of ADI (Association for Industrial Design) is a member of the ADI Lombardy Board of Directors. At ADI Design Museum he curated the exhibitions Il design che non ciè during the Triennale di Milano and Michele Provinciali and designed the identity of the initiatives Light Revolution, Design for food, Lombardy=design and Nice to meet You, which won the Design MasterPrize ’25.

BOOKSHOCK

from 22.10 to 8.11

Exhibition curated by Susanna Vallebona
10:30 – 19:45 ADI Design Museum The exhibition project BOOKSHOCK is part of the research path developed by Oggetto Libro during five editions and seventeen exhibitions held nationally, in which the dialogue between two now complementary worlds was explored: that of design and that of art. Within this context, the book is assumed as a critical and design device, whose nature exceeds the editorial dimension to configure itself as a complex form of expression. The exhibition presents artists’ books that show how the book can transform, taking unexpected forms. Made with heterogeneous materials and techniques, these works sit between object and sculpture. Design books reaffirm the book’s centrality as a tool of communication, design and cultural transmission. A section of hybrid books, made through technique in all its variations, brings artistic and design questions together. Some works revisit tradition with a contemporary poetic charge; others open new experimental paths and answer a younger generation’s desire for innovation. Finally — in absolute preview — the exhibition proposes, alongside the artifacts and printed copies, a selection of immaterial works generated by means of artificial intelligence, capable of surprising and redefining the very concept of a book. In this context, BOOKSHOCK is configured as a critical device: a place where the book, in its many forms, allows us to examine the conditions of contemporary cultural production and the forms of its transmission. The exhibition will be open until 8.11.2026 during the opening hours of ADI Design Museum.