Milan in a van at the V&A

The V&A’s new Contemporary Space opens with the design show “Milan in a van” (until 9 June). Curator Gareth Williams was sent on a special mission to the Milan Furniture Fair and asked to bring back the “hottest, newest and most influential in the design world”, but his entire selection had to fit in the space of a furniture removal van. Not exactly an easy task, since the fair is a huge international event where nearly 2,000 exhibitors present furniture and objects, ranging from prototypes to mass produced pieces. Leading design companies, big designers and innovative materials are the key themes and the idea of “freshly imported goods” is stressed by the use of red-painted removal boxes as display plinths. Among the many chairs selected is the shiny chaise-longue Spaghetti by Tom Dixon (above), which looks like cold squid-ink pasta but is actually an example of the designer’s research into new materials. The chair was made using Dixon’s fresh fat plastic machine, first seen extruding plastic and attended by whitecoated technicians in a window of a London department store last year, when Dixon was shortlisted for the £20,000 Perrier-Jouet Selfridges Design prize. There is also a surprisingly contemporary Swarovski pink chandelier and a video projection which gives a glimpse of some of the products that could not be physically included in the show. To recreate the fair’s commercial atmosphere, there are also magazines, flyers and glossy trade literature in the gallery. The final section of the show is dedicated to the Dutch designer Marcel Wander.