Milan Design Week 2023: Take It Or Leave It by Paola Navone X The Slowdown

WORDS Cheri Morris PHOTOS Antonio Campanella

Milan Design Week 2023 saw Italian Architect and Designer Paola Navone collaborate with New York-based media company The Slowdown to give away hundreds of design gems collected or designed by Paola, including antique metal spoons from India, rare Alessi prototypes and fine German porcelain.

Known for her uninhibited taste for adventure and idiosyncratic interior and furniture designs, the giveaway of Paola’s collection of items followed suit. It was run through a free, by-reservation lottery run by The Slowdown and curated by Daniel Rozensztroch, former artistic director of the Paris concept store Merci.

After booking a timed reservation online, reservation holders entered to have a number pulled during their allotment. From there, they were chaperoned into the exhibition room to find the corresponding numbered object arranged within the exhibition. Once the object was identified, they were then faced with a choice: Take it or leave it?

Each taker was then photographed with the object they took (or empty-handed if they chose the latter), and explained briefly why they took or left the object. As for Paola’s reasoning: “So why do I want to do this? To be able to continue this crazy activity of acquiring things. At a certain point you are somehow surrounded by thousands of elements, thousands of objects, thousands of colours, thousands of samples… I wanted to be free to bring in new things and to make more space to have them!”

More than just a provocative exercise, Take It or Leave It is an effort in upcycling and reuse underpinned by a projective, climate-forward manifesto. The exhibition boldly considers: Rather than relying on virgin materials and energy-intensive processes, why not appreciate and honour the things we already have, and give them a new life?

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