ON THE OCCASION OF THE MILAN DESIGN WEEK 2024 KIA, IN COLLABORATION WITH ZERO, PRESENTS THE SECOND EDITION OF OPPOSITES UNITED: ONE-WEEK EXHIBITION AND A PROGRAM OF TALKS AND[...]

For the second consecutive year Kia is returning to host Opposites United during the Milano Design Week, to offer compasses to orient ourselves through the intricacies of modernity.

From the most sublime and specialized theories to the most common and trivial ones, it is evident that every experience we have can be traced back to a primary issue of opposing forces. This is how in the history of human interactions, whenever opposites have had occasion to meet, a particularly rich debate has emerged, a crucible of discourses with transformative potential, devoted to deciphering the present. Today, rather than finding the positive in the negative and vice versa, Opposites United aims to construct the encounter, to trace that state of stillness responsible for balance.

As suggested by this year's title, Intersections Beyond Boundaries, the event will be characterized by a continuous dialogue between installations, performances, and talks, each one inscribed in and exploring its own thematic horizon, with its own frictions and contradictions, throughout the duration of the event.

Kia Design today commits to shift the conversation beyond the realm of mobility, to refocus on human experience and connection: concepts that, along with the idea of a community in open dialogue, represent the beating heart of Kia's Design. It's a courageous vision, grounded in the ability to envision change, to transcend boundaries, and to expand areas and spaces of research and collaboration, where reality and virtuality are notions dependent on a horizon of common sense. Thus, the human meets the virtual and the individual encounters the collective, and in this way, the boundaries and limitations of opposites collapse, bringing forth fresh perspectives on our cultural relationships and their intersection.

Hosted in the setting of Museo della Permanente, for the entire duration of the event the audience will have the opportunity of experiencing installations by Anna Galtarossa, Riccardo Benassi, Sissel Toolas and Led Pulse. All of these serve to reflect on the opposite themes of individual and collective, human and digital, with the latter serving as a stage to host a series of daily performances by the likes of Percussionists of La Scala, Maya Shenfeld, CTM, XEXA and Jim C. Nedd with Hansel Castro and Carlos Russo.

Furthermore, each day will feature a talk aimed at exploring various discursive and disciplinary domains, including art, design, nature, technology, and music, hosted by prominent curators and researchers: philosopher Emanuele Coccia, art curator Andrea Lissoni, design curator Marco Sammicheli, anthropologist and author Andrea Staid, and music curator Sarah Miles. Each curator will lead a conversation between two guest speakers from a multitude of international backgrounds, including Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stépanian, Martino Gamper, Oliver Coates, Sissel Toolas, Beatrice Leanza, Stefano Mancuso, Mirko Borsche, Eva Franch i Gilabert, Béatrice Grenier, and Guillermo Trotti. Finally, on the last day, there will be a final symposium among the curators, accompanied by Carlo Antonelli and Kia's Executive Vice President and Chief Global Design Officer, Karim A. Habib.

Each talk will be followed, daily, by live musical performances featuring artists selected from the international scene, spanning various cultural and musical backgrounds, such as Moonchild Sannelly's Ghetto Future Funk and JASSS's techno-infused pop music, as well as SHERELLE + Flowdan's reinterpretation of London's Caribbean heritage or Oliver Coates's cello performance in ambient music. The concert series will contribute to delineating how artists from different parts of the world, through their diversity and in harmony with the environment, can contribute to developing new dialogical perspectives on their own culture.

Following one of the most important teachings derived from Plato's Allegory of the Cave, one of the oldest philosophical stories that places two seemingly opposing worlds at the core, Opposites United commits to making virtue of the idea of fellowship and collaboration. There always needs someone who raises doubt and initiates dialogues who has experienced things before others. Thus, some former guest speakers from the previous edition -including Emanuele Coccia, Andrea Lissoni, Marco Sammicheli, and Nicolas Becker- will return in the new role of talk curators and will participate in the installation program.

In this way, year after year, Opposites United emerges as a hub, a space for dialogue and confrontation open to the international community of artists, scholars, and prominent cultural figures, where every discourse, whether pertaining to entertainment or intellect, contributes to building a method of transdisciplinary research and expression, to discussing ways of orienting oneself in the contemporary cultural landscape.

Opposites United: Intersections Beyond Boundaries
April 15^th - 21^st 2024

Museo Della Permanente

V. Filippo Turati 34

PROGRAMME

For additional information regarding the event schedule
http://www.kiaoppositesunite.com/