MARIA CRISTINA DIDERO, one of the most sought-
after design curators in the world, has a heartfelt
and generous take on e-mail etiquette – after all,
design to her is about people, not chairs.
As told to
RAB MESSINA
Portrait
ANTONIO CAMPANELLA7.30 a.m.
MARIA CRISTINA DIDERO: I know I’m
lucky to be able to wake up at this hour, but
I’m a total mess in the morning – I’m like
Garfield. I prefer writing in the evening in
my studio. If I have to ask my brain to do
something new – a creative challenge or
a curatorial project – then that’s the best
time for me.
The first thing I do is shout ‘Flavio!’
My husband is usually up before me, and we
have a little moment together over coffee
in the living room, discussing what we’re
going to be doing that day. My studio is at
home here in Milan, but he has to go to work
at a gallery – so I kick him out the door at
around 9.
9.15 a.m.
Before making a single phone or Skype call,
I take the time to answer my e-mails – every
single one. I have this philosophy: I will reply
to anybody who writes to me, whether I know
them or not, whether I’m interested or not.
I hate this Italian habit of not answering
e-mails – that’s just rude. Many designers ask
me to go over their portfolio or they want me
to suggest a material for a particular object.
If I can help, I’m always happy to – design is
about people, not about chairs.
12.30 p.m.
I tend to have business lunches with people
I’m working with, but if I’m at home, it’s a sim-
ple meal – without setting the table. Flavio’s
the one who always wants to have proper,
decent meals – he’s obsessed with food
because he’s lucky enough to be from Rome.
Curating
People
2.30 p.m.
Right now I’m working on my second show
at the Design Museum Holon. The first time
I collaborated with them was in 2016, for the
first-ever museum retrospective on Nendo.
Oki Sato had never worked with a curator
before, because he’s used to doing everything
by himself – but we managed to work with a
sense of amusement. And then, the Israeli are
very straightforward with their requests. Just
imagine the culture clash between the Israeli
and the Japanese without an Italian modera-
tor with a sense of humour! [Laughs] But we
had good fun. It was a beautiful show.
And in this new exhibition, The
Conversation Show, I actually have another
Israeli-Japanese team – that’s Boaz Cohen
and Sayaka Yamamoto, the designers behind
BCXSY, who are one of the five groups we
commissioned. I didn’t want to do a solo
show this time, but a thematic one – ‘con-
versation’ sums up my approach to design,
because it’s about correspondence and
reciprocity, and about how an environment
is conceived by more than one brain. As a
challenge, we asked them to represent this
specific union with a piece. It was interesting
to see how they all responded differently.
For example, Boaz and Sayaka came up with
a seesaw with movement sensors that can
only be experienced by two people at once.
Snarkitecture created a hall of mirrors that’s
all about how you can or can’t replicate your-
self. Mischer’Traxler fashioned a poetically
built machine, a pendulum that starts moving
when two or more people approach it. As
part of the conversation, we wanted this show
to be inclusive for the audience.5.00 p.m.
I’m very bad with Instagram. I only have one
photo of our donkeys – and I’m surprised
it has so many likes! They’re called Rihanna,
Shakira and Ali because we like listening to
pop music in the countryside. So while I’m in
the studio, researching things online, I am far
more active on Facebook, because I repost
other people’s things. So I don’t really stalk
designers on Instagram; instead, I usually
find out about their work by reading the
news online.
That has led me to work with some
fantastic people. This was my first time work-
ing with BCXSY and Studio Reddish, because
I had been following their work for a while.
I collaborated years ago with Mischer’Traxler
for a little show in Turin and I did a show in
Toronto with Zaven. And with Snarkitecture
I did a show at the National Building Museum
in Washington, called Fun House. Building
a replica of the White House two kilometres
away from the real one, and opening on the
fourth of July made me very proud. I think
it’s powerful. That show was nominated for
the Design Prize here in Milan – I didn’t win,
I came in second. [Laughs] But it’s funny,
because I was also nominated for a second
show: Erez Nevi Pana’s Vegan Design or The
Art of Reduction, which had no budget, espe-
cially when compared to the Snarkitecture
one. They were so different, but I feel like they
both belong to me. One is a bold statement
about how art and architecture can be con-
ceived in another way and become another
language, the other was about a different way
of living. They are distinct ways of telling
something relevant and important.8.30 p.m.
Flavio sets the table for dinner. Of course he
does. He travels a lot, so we don’t get to spend
time together that often. That’s why we talk a
lot when we are together at home. After the
meal, we’ll often go out to a bar close by to
have some negronis – he might be Roman and
I am from Rimini, but this is Milan, after all. ●The Conversation Show is open until 26 October at the
Design Museum HolonA DAY WITH 53