Accademia di Como, IED Network at Lake Como Design Festival
Date
12 September 2026 - 20 September 2026
Time
Multiple
Fruition
In-person event
From 13 to 21 September, Accademia di Como will take part in the new edition of the Lake Como Design Festival together with IED – Istituto Europeo di Design, a network of which the Academy has been a member since 2010.
This year’s Festival explores the theme of “The Border”, offering an opportunity to reflect on the relationship between past, present and future: not as separate dimensions, but as territories that meet, overlap and transform one another.
Under the umbrella of “Future Memories”, the evocative title of IED’s fanzine, Accademia di Como explores this border through two complementary perspectives.
The first is represented by a series of Studio Visits to the Restoration Laboratories, where young students work every day on works from the past, applying techniques, knowledge and practices that ensure their preservation and transmission into the future. Here, heritage becomes a living material, and memory is built through care, knowledge and hands-on practice.
The second is the exhibition After Evidence: from forensic purpose to public resonance, a research project developed through the dialogue between IED and LABANOF–MUSA at the University of Milan. Working with visual and sound fragments, details and barely perceptible traces, the project gives a forensic image archive a new public presence, exploring how what remains can continue to generate meaning in the present.
The programme is completed by two public talks hosted at Accademia di Como:
Archivi-Vivi
13 September, 5:00 pm – Accademia di Como, Via Petrarca 9
A conversation on the archive as a living organism: a space capable of connecting cultural heritage, research and contemporary imagination. Speakers: Giovanna Castiglioni, vice president of the Achille Castiglioni Foundation and professor of History of Design and Exhibition Design at the Accademia di Como; Marco Marzini, designer and collaborator with the Achille Castiglioni Foundation and professor of Design and Exhibition Design at the Accademia di Como; and Giovanni Ottonello, academic director.
Consistere
19 September, 5:00 pm – Accademia di Como, Via Petrarca 9
A conversation exploring the relationship between forensic research and visual arts as a space for dialogue and transformation, where different forms of knowledge, expertise and sensitivity can meet. Speakers: Cristina Cattaneo, Director of LABANOF-MUSA, and Carlotta Cattaneo, Creative Director and Head of the School of Visual Arts at IED Milano.
Through restoration, archives, research and design, the programme invites us to reflect on a shared question: where is the border between what we have inherited, what we experience today, and what we choose to pass on to the future?
Free admission from Saturday 12 to Sunday 20 September, with entry every hour from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm and from 2:00 pm to 7:00 pm (last admission at 6:00 pm).
Where to find us
Our agenda
Filter by
Studio Visit
12 September - 20 September
From 10:00 AM to 19:00 PM UTC+1
Via Petrarca 9, Como
Como
Living Archives
13 September
From 17:00 PM to 18:00 PM UTC+1
Via Petrarca 9, Como
Como
To consist
19 September
From 17:00 PM to 18:00 PM UTC+1
Via Petrarca 9, Como
Como
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