The Embassy of Italy in Kuala Lumpur and Malaysia Italy Design Institute (MIDI) of University Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) have joined forces once again, with the support of the Italian Trade Agency, to celebrate the 5th edition of Italian Design Day, first established in 2017 as a yearly event to promote Italian Design abroad.
Due to the global pandemic, this will be the second time the event is held online via a webinar. This year’s theme ‘Project and Matter: new challenges for the sustainable restart of the Made in Italy’ will cover various topics including key strategies and initiatives to be implemented in the sector of design, seen as one of the drivers for economic recovery in a challenging environment.
The webinar will be streamed live on 8 July 2021 at 3.30pm on the Facebook page of The Embassy of Italy in Kuala Lumpur.
It will focus on the connection between design and sustainability to minimize waste, consume non-renewable resources and create healthier, more productive environments. The talk will be led by Prof. Silvia D’Ambrosio of Politecnico of Milan who is the ‘Ambassador of Design’ for this year’s edition, together with Prof. Luca Fois, also from Politecnico, who was the ‘Ambassador of Design’ in previous years. Guest speakers include Ar. Idr Dr. Tan Loke Mun, Principal of DrTanLM Architect, Director of ArchiCentre Sdn. Bhd, Founder and Director of DTLM Design Group; Idr Joe WH Chan, Honourary Treasurer of the Malaysia Institute of Interior Designers (MIID) and Principal, DesignTone Interior Practice; and Prof. Ts. Dr. Khairul Aidil Azlin of PEREKA, the Malaysian Association of Industrial Designers.
According to His Excellency Cristiano Maggipinto, Ambassador of Italy to Malaysia “The theme of the Italian Design Day 2021 acquires particular importance in consideration of the fact that this year is a crucial year for the defence of the environment, the fight against climate change and the promotion of authentically sustainable development: all themes that will be at the centre of the events of COP-26, which is co-chaired by the United Kingdom and Italy.
In particular, Italy will host the Pre-COP and the Youth4Climate meetings which will take place in Milan between the 28th of September and the 2nd of October, and will play an essential role in preparing the COP-26 meeting the following November in Glasgow”.
In conjunction with Italian Design Day, the 90-minutes recently produced Italian animated movie TRASH will be screened (in English) for free for the first 500 people from 9 to 15 July 2021 via https://www.mymovies.it/ondemand/iic/movie/8551-trash/.
The movie recounts the story of Slim, a damaged cardboard box who lives in a market with his friends. He tries to survive from cleaning machines and he soon loses hope, even from believing that a second chance exists in a mythical “Magic Pyramid”. In addition to the movie screening, there will also be TRASH!, a virtual exhibition dedicated to the themes of sustainability, environment protection and recycling and reusing waste materials. Visitors can walk through various ‘virtual rooms’ and over 200 works of drawings, storyboards and selection of video materials from the movie by requesting a password from kualalumpur.rsvp@esteri.it and visiting www.trashexhibition.it.
