Breakfast with Cattelan
Milan Design Week will include an immersive event titled “Breakfast with Maurizio Cattelan,” highlighting the week’s shift toward social, experiential programming. (nssmag.com)
Maurizio Cattelan will open Milan Design Week with a public breakfast-and-barter in Piazza del Duomo at 7 a.m. on Monday, April 20. (artnews.com) The event is organized with journalist Nicolas Ballario and Living Corriere della Sera, with Museo del Novecento and the City of Milan involved and Lavazza backing the coffee service. Participants are asked to bring one object to trade, as long as it can be held in the hands. (living.corriere.it) Living said some designers will also bring an “iconic” piece to exchange, and the event will run an Instagram livestream for people who do not make the 7 a.m. start. (living.corriere.it) The breakfast lands at the front edge of Fuorisalone, the citywide program that runs alongside Salone del Mobile from April 20 through April 26. Fuorisalone’s official site lists 939 events for the 2026 edition. (fuorisalone.it) That scale has pushed Milan Design Week beyond furniture launches and trade appointments into a citywide calendar of installations, talks, food events and branded experiences. Designboom’s 2026 guide highlights hotel takeovers, live conversations, workshops and “social encounters” as core parts of the week. (designboom.com) Cattelan’s format strips that trend down to a simple exchange: coffee, a square in the city center and an object passed from one stranger to another. Il Giornale dell’Arte described it as an open public action with no tickets or accreditation. (ilgiornaledellarte.com) The setup also echoes a similar dawn event Cattelan and Ballario staged in Piazza del Duomo for Milan Art Week in 2025. Corriere’s Living called this year’s edition a return, with barter replacing last year’s gathering. (living.corriere.it) Cattelan has spent decades turning ordinary objects and public gestures into art-world events, so a breakfast line in the square fits his usual method as much as it fits Design Week’s newer programming. On April 20, the first queue of the week may form not outside a showroom, but around coffee and whatever people decide is worth swapping. (artnews.com)
