In line with the concept of the XXI Triennale “21st Century. Design after Design” and the schedule of “Back to the Future” events organized by the city of Milan, this year the Festival sums up its message in the claim “Designing futures”. We want to transport you into an artistic, creative and innovative dimension; to let you meet new directors and artists who are looking towards the future and at the same time proud of their traditions which they reinterpret with originality.

We have borrowed the title from the latest edition of the LagosPhoto Festival, one of the most important photography festivals in Africa, which for us has selected more than 60 photos by African artists, on display at the Festival for the first time in Italy. The exhibition, entitled “Designing Africa 3.0”, leads us to reconsider the meaning of design today and of the future and its derivations within the context of the cinema.

In this perspective young Italian artists and creative have also been invited to send us their videos and take part in the #Italy2050 contest to imagine the multicultural Italy of tomorrow and the role of technology in a society in continuous change. As always we are also bringing many premieres of quality cinema to Milan with the films in competition, with the section of the same name, “Designing futures” dedicated to directors who deal with the revolutionary social and artistic movements in search of a new African identity. We are also delighted to bring the premieres of four absolute masters of Asian cinema in the Flash section, but it is still our conviction that the value of a festival today does not lie in the celebrities, but in its research and discovery activities, in opening up to what is new and emerging, all on a human scale which does not lose that “old-fashioned” taste for non-virtual encounters with films, photography, directors and artists.

Annamaria Gallone e Alessandra Speciale