Euroluce 2007: never was there such a unique return!

This year marks the twenty-fourth edition of the International Lighting Exhibition. After the unqualified success of the 2005 edition, Euroluce returns with even more new items and ideas, beginning with its debut in the New Milan Fairgrounds in Rho.

Euroluce is opening its doors from 18 to 23 April with a completely new look, making its debut in the new Rho Exhibition Space, coupled as always by the Salone Internazionale del Mobile, the International Furnishing Accessories Exhibition and the SaloneSatellite.

Having established itself as a strategic event for the lighting technology sector, Euroluce is the only “unique” international exhibition in this category in 2007. It is unique first of all for the superior quality of the new exhibition complex, the most technologically avant-garde in Europe. Since its debut last year, the Rho Exhibition Space has underscored the importance of its new and greater visibility and easier accessibility, achieved thanks to the extremely user-friendly layout which enables visitors to explore every part of the exhibition with the utmost comfort and ease.

It is also unique for its generous, approximately 50,000 square meters (+27% compared with 2005) of exhibition space, split into 6 halls. This year Euroluce is offering a large product assortment, capable of satisfying the curiosity of an increasingly broad range of visitors – more than 190,000 are expected – casting aside the now out-dated distinction between merely decorative and lighting technology products. For the first time, Euroluce is providing a 360° view of the lighting system, running the gamut from indoor and outdoor light fixtures to industrial lighting, lighting for performances and events, special uses, as well as illumination systems and light sources. With this expansion, the event opens up to a new market of lighting professionals, which includes specialized retailers, wholesalers, the public administration, museums and electricians.

The top Italian and foreign manufacturing companies in this sector will also be able to swap notes: with some 541 exhibitors confirmed to date (+9% compared with 2005). The Italian presence, which was exceptional in 2005, is even stronger this year, drawing level with the international exhibitor numbers, with 170 attendees coming from 22 different Countries. German attendance, already strong in the past, has been further consolidated, together with representation from Countries such as Spain, Austria, Belgium, Denmark and France.

As always, the commercial offering will be supported by a cultural fixture, consisting of a key collateral event that will involve the city of Milan, taking the relationship between man and light as an instrument of learning and communication as its theme, produced in collaboration with Professional Lighting Designers’ Association, ELDA+, the foremost association of European lighting designers. The event, “Tales of Light”, sponsored by the City Council of Milan – Culture, was devised exclusively for Euroluce by the German lighting designer Herbert Cybulska, with the technical and executive assistance of the Piccolo Teatro di Milano – Teatro d’Europa, and will be held at the stunning mediaeval Loggia dei Mercanti, which is close to both the Duomo and the Palazzo Reale. This takes the form of a Son et Lumière journey that will retrace the “cultures of light” that the building has experienced over the centuries and that it will encounter in the future: from the naked flame to gas lighting, to electric lighting up to the most avant-garde technological achievements. The installation will therefore play on the use of different colours, shades and tones of light to show the historic building in a different guise. At times light will be used as an element in its own right, with a metaphorical and symbolic value, and at others it will serve to “light up” those architectural details that have sunk into obscurity.

The “Tales of Light” will play out a story in light stages which, accompanied by alternating sounds, will create a luminous loop that will bring the Loggia dei Mercanti to life. Euroluce’s homage to the City of Milan.

Euroluce, a unique moment for light, for those who make light and those who live light.