The location of the exhibition was as always, Gallery le bain, but we were also able to exhibit at Gallery MITATE for about a week. Gallery MITATE is in the same building as Gallery le bain.

The installation began on the 29th, the day before the opening.

Many boxes were brought into the patio this morning.

This was a joint exhibition, so the staff members from the Kurokawa office have helped us a lot more than usual. Mr. Tsubouchi who is at the right in this photo was in charge of the display layout.

We have displayed all the armless chairs, armchairs, lounge chairs, and tables that nextmaruni has produced in the past three years. Therefore, the number of furniture was overwhelming.

The exhibition was themed on “LIFE STYLE” by nextmaruni, but thanks to the joint exhibition with K, the layout and the displayed graphics were magnificent. They have helped us with their considerable efforts.

The preparation was almost done in this photo. In the front of the main gallery space is the dining tables and armless chairs, and all the armchairs were lined up along to the right.

At the Gallery MITATE, many accessory products including the GOM series from K were displayed. It is hidden in this photo, but in the far back of the gallery, nextmaruni’s dining table and armless chair were also displayed.

Time goes by so fast. I suddenly realized that it was dark outside. When it’s not in the summer, the sun sets so fast. Gallery le bain and Gallery MITATE is right near Roppongi.

They are almost at the final stage in this photo. The banner that is in the left hand corner is the same one we used at the Milan Salone this Spring. Along with the numerous furniture, this banner have made journeys from Japan to Italy, and then back from Italy to Japan. In this photo, they are adjusting it so it will hang beautifully into the gallery’s atmosphere. Mr. Chiba (right in the photo) is in charge of the sales of nextmaruni. He managed all the shipping and arrangements for nextmaruni.

Silk screen is being pasted on the walls of nextmaruni’s exhibition. The girl to the left in this photo is Ms. Yagi who is in charge of nextmaruni. She gave us better display ideas till the last minute. Thank you very much for your help.

Finally the banner is being set up.

Mr. Japan was amazed with this crane. He is one of the best engineer staff and designer in Maruni Wood Industry. Every work done by our hands help make this exhibition complete.

The banner has been put up beautifully.

A few details were added to the display and everything was complete. The flowers were arranged by the Kurokawa office. They have helped us create a stronger world of nextmaruni. Thank you very much.

On the next project report, I will report on the meetings during this exhibition, and I will also show you photos of the opening party.

He confirmed the comfort of his own designed lounge hair.

Meda was the judge for this year's Competition.
He was talking enthusiastically about the chosen grand prix winning chair.

At the reception party, there was a grand prix awarding ceremony.
The photo shows Alberto Meda (right) and the grand prix winner, Tetsu Sumii (left.)

Mr. Sumii came to Milan with his family.
He gave his speech about winning the prize with his daughter in his arms.

Shin Azumi also came to our party. He had other products of his own announced at several other exhibitions during this Milan Salone.
He and Sumii were talking passionately.
I think that they have somewhat a similar aura. Is it just me?

Sean Yoo, who was the first grand prix winner of the Competition of 2004,
also came to visit us. Sean Yoo sat on this year's winning chair, and while checking its comfort he talked with Sumii.
I wasn't able to take photos of everyone, but we had so many visits from designers and friends during the reception party; such as our producer, Masayuki Kurokawa, Tomoko Azumi, staff from Shigeru Uchida's design office and many others.

Many visitors from the public came to our gallery during the Salone exhibition, and they were examining our new lineup.

This is the photo that I like the most out of all the photos I've taken during this exhibition.
This photo shows the Sumii family taking their own photo sitting on his chair.

Looking at this happy-looking family, I thought that at the base of producing furniture, there is the life of the people who will be using them.
It was the moment when I realized again that the important thing is for the people to be happy using our furniture in their style of life.

This is the picture of the street below from the gallery window. Many boxes came out from the truck.
It was quite hard to carry them up through the narrow stairway to the gallery, which is on the third floor (second floor in Italy.)

So once they were in the gallery, we just kept on opening the boxes. It took us half of the day to just finish opening them.

For the exhibition, we wanted to have a SHOJI (Japanese traditional window with paper screen on a wooden frame) in one of windows. In the afternoon, we combined the wood parts for it. We brought them from Japan. (They were of course made by Maruni!)

They are sticking the Japanese paper onto the wood frame. The size of the paper is perfect.

In the afternoon, Harri Koskinen dropped by our gallery.
First, he checked his products.

Harri also designed a dining table besides the the theme for this year, which is the lounge chair and table.
He brought tableware to display on his dining table for the exhibition.
He lightly took the dishes out from the bag slinging over his shoulder.
He said that it was his new production from Arabia, which will be on sale soon in Finland. The dishes that he brought were prototypes.
They are such nice tableware in color and in shape. I wish they would also be on sale in Japan.

This panel shows all the designers’ names.

He nailed it onto one of the columns.

We finished all the installation in two days!
Lounge chairs and tables, which are the main theme products are set in the middle space of the gallery.

Two different dining tables are in the back space.
Our sub-theme is the “Lifestyle” so we wanted to show different living scenes, not only the chairs.
Each designer selected their tableware to display on their tables.

The armchairs presented last year are also being displayed.

Two more dining tables are shown in the opposite room.
*The gallery has two small rooms on each opposite ends extending from the main gallery space.

Fukasawa selected the dishes from MUJI as tableware for his table.
His table was from last year’s production, but we are displaying it again this year due to many requests from other countries.

Kanji Ueki selected the porcelain rectangle dish from IDEE, Japan.
His new dining table is two meters long. The white color of the dishes looked very attractive and beautiful on the strong presence of the wood.

The electric piano, Clavinova in the middle of the photo was lent to us by YAMAHA Company.
The sound of the piano was attracting and added spice to the white gallery space and the wooden chairs. It created an elegant atmosphere.
We would like to thank YAMAHA.
* YAMAHA also exhibited at the Zona Tortona during this same period.

At the first day of the exhibition, Kanji Ueki who couldn’t come to Milano this year sent us flowers.
We would like to appreciate him for his warm thoughtfulness.

Shigeru Uchida was also having an exhibition by himself at a gallery not so far from ours. He visited us in between his hard schedule and sat down on his designed armchair. He kindly looked this way as I took this photo.

Lastly, Tamotsu Yagi directed all graphics on the leaflet and the banner again for this year. We would like to give thanks to Yagi and Haitani of Yagi Design office, and photographer Yoneo Kawabe who takes the photos for us every year.

Many people visited the gallery from the first day.
We will report you on the outcome of visits from the other designers and how the reception party went on our next report.