On the occasion of Italian Design Day around the world, the Consulate General of Italy in Montreal, in collaboration with the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Italian Trade Agency, and the Italian Cultural Institute, presents Classico Design, a conference organized alongside the exhibition. The collection Torlonia. Chefs-d’œuvre de la sculpture romaine.
The event will be held Thursday March 12th 2026, from 1pm to 3pm, at the Exhibition (2nd floor, Pavillon Jean-Noël Desmarais) of Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, at 1380, rue Sherbrooke Ovest, Montréal.
Moderated by the journalist Catherine Girouard, the meeting will bring together Laura Vigo, Fabio Sedia and Salvatore Amura in a dialogue dedicated to the relationship between archaeology, architecture, and design.
Echoing the theme of Italian Design Day in the World 2026 — RE DESIGN. Regenerating spaces, objects, ideas, relationships — the meeting offers a reflection on the presence of the Roman world in contemporary culture and the ways in which it has been reinterpreted over time. Between ancient heritage and contemporary creation, Classico Design aims to show how the forms of the past continue to inspire new ways of conceiving spaces, objects, and relationships.
Salvatore Amura, CEO of Valore Italia and ambassador of Italian design worldwide, will conclude the meeting with a reflection on how references to the Roman world have been reinterpreted in 20th-century design and contemporary creation. Laura Vigo, curator of Asian art and archaeology at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and co-curator of the exhibition, will open the debate by illustrating the role of archaeology in the discovery and transmission of the Roman world. Fabio Sedia, professor at Laval University’s School of Architecture, will offer an architectural interpretation of the continuity between antiquity and contemporary design, starting with the exemplary case of Hadrian’s Villa.
Through the convergence of these three perspectives, Classico Design offers a space for dialogue between archaeological knowledge, architectural thinking, and design culture, questioning the way in which the Roman world continues to be studied, transmitted, and reinvented.
Through the convergence of these three perspectives, Classico Design offers a space for dialogue between archaeological knowledge, architectural thinking, and design culture, questioning the way in which the Roman world continues to be studied, transmitted, and reinvented.
