Detour at Milan Design Week 2024
The legendary power of creativity on paper
Moleskine and the Moleskine Foundation present DETOUR, a travelling exhibition of Authors’ Notebooks at the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana and Alcova
The Moleskine Foundation – a non-profit organization that pursues the mission ‘Creativity For Social Change’ and whose aim is to inspire, encourage and connect young people to transform themselves and their communities through creativity – has the largest collection of artist’s notebooks of our time: over 1,600 unique works, created by artists who have contributed to raising awareness of creativity as a tool for social change, through initiatives that unleash creative and critical thinking in young people from underserved backgrounds.
Created in 2006, Detour, is much more than a simple art exhibition: it is an experience, which transports the visitor into the heart of the creative process, from the mind of the artist to the page of the notebook. It is a project dedicated to culture and shared creativity and offers a broad view of human creativity through decorated, hacked notebooks, transformed into sculptures or graphic novels, filled with notes, sketches, paintings and drawings.
“Detour is a celebration of diversity and human creativity,” says Daniela Riccardi, CEO of Moleskine. “Each notebook tells a unique story, reflecting the background and vision of the artist who created it. We are thrilled to bring this extraordinary exhibition to Milan, a city that perfectly embodies the spirit of innovation and creativity.”
Moleskine will present Detour at Alcova – a platform for creative design in its seventh edition – in the setting of Villa Bagatti Valsecchi in Varedo.
The exhibition – with the contribution of contemporary artists and designers – is aimed at the young and dynamic public of the FuoriSalone. With a total of 33 selected works, including some previously unseen pieces, it will offer an overview of contemporary creativity in the field of design.
photo: Raffaele Bellezza
About Moleskine
Moleskine® was created as a brand in 1997, bringing back to life the nameless black notebooks used by writers and artists like Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway and Bruce Chatwin that had long gone out of print. Today, the Moleskine brand encompasses a family of objects that enhance productivity and creativity including notebooks, diaries, and planners, journals, bags, writing instruments, reading accessories, publishing and digital tools. The Moleskine brand is a worldwide presence thanks to over 50 Moleskine Stores. The home office in Milan, Italy includes wholly owned subsidiaries, Moleskine America, Inc. (established in 2008), Moleskine Germany (2013), Moleskine APAC Ltd (2018) which includes Japan, and Moleskine China. (2019)
About Moleskine Foundation
The Moleskine Foundation is a non-profit organization that pursues a mission of “Creativity for Social Change.” A central belief is that creativity is key to producing positive change in society and driving our collective future. Its focus is to inspire, empower and connect young people to transform themselves and their communities. To do so, the Foundation implements a set of unconventional educational programs that unlock the creative potential and develop changemaking attitude in youth. The Foundation enables collaborative processes to generate spaces where criticality and imagination can occur. It is done through the development of a global platform of cultural and creative partner organizations operating in the field of creativity for social transformation. While sharing the core brand values around creativity and culture, The Moleskine Foundation operates in complete independence from the Moleskine Company from an organizational and operational standpoint. The brand’s financial contribution sustains the Foundation, allowing 100% of the attracted resources to go straight to social impact.
