Reading Room, Milan. A white cube for magazines turns into a cultural hub

A Forty-square-meter gallery in the district of Corvetto. In conversation with founder Francesca Spiller: «Running a bookshop today means creating a relationship with the producers of magazines»

Reading Room, Milan

Francesca Spiller founded Reading Room, Milan, on Via Mincio, a space dedicated to the research and selling of independent magazines. Her degree in Cultural Economics at Bocconi University led her to work for Fondazione Forma per la Fotografia — the project of the Contrasto Agency that from 2005 to 2014 was the reference point for Milan’s photographic culture — and then for CAMERA, Italian Center for Photography in Turin. She worked on this project with Lorenza Bravetta, former manager of the photographic agency Magnum, and the curator Francesco Zanot.

She created a space where photography and contemporary visual culture are shown to the public: «The meaning of such a place is to browse, touch and discover new magazines thanks to the selection available».

Ms. Spiller says that Reading Room, Milan was born during her train journeys from Milan to Turin, taking notes in notebooks. Her vision has become a fluid space, selling magazines as the only product category available. It is a forty-square-meter gallery, a white cube, situated in the district of Corvetto — now in redevelopment and called SouPRA (South of Prada) by creatives, with reference to a foundation located nearby.

Reading Room, Milan: a consolidated editorial phenomenon

The magazines are placed on shelf modules and on wooden supports in the center. «I opened in May 2018 after a year of preparation to design a project, prepare the space and choose the first selection of two hundred magazines». It is an indication of a consolidated editorial phenomenon.

«A Milanese space devoted to the spread, understanding and appreciation of magazines». «I wanted a rational and comfortable space, where the contents and the magazines, with their covers, could emerge. Each publication has the same dignity and visibility. Reading Room, Milan, however small, is flexible and adaptable to different needs, from selling to meetings, from small exhibitions to installations».

Reading Room, Milan is not a store, but a cultural activity. After almost two years of interruption due to the pandemic, Ms. Spiller’s institutional events will be back in store this spring: presentations and launches of new magazines, debates on visual arts, meetings with professionals from the publishing and creative industry are examples of what will happen from the beginning of June at Reading Room, Milan.

Magazine selection at Reading Room, Milan

The identity of the store comes from Ms. Spiller’s personal selection and her research across themes: architecture, cinema, design, erotic, fashion, travel, photography, art, kitchen, graphics, drawing, literature, music, society and sports. They all share the same study of contents and visual language.

«The selection rewards the quality of the contents and the completeness of each editorial project rather than the originality at all costs».

The fetish of the physical object

The last ten years have seen a global crisis of periodical publishing. The web and social networks give access to a selection of news, leading to a fall in sales. This sector seemed to disappear but recently has found new methods of consumption: «Running a bookshop today means creating a relationship with the producers of magazines, then welcoming and suggesting what can stimulate the customers’ attention through a range of activities. The themes we offer — travel, architecture, design, music, literature, fashion, photography, art — give more possibilities to find something interesting also for non-experts, expanding the public».

Reading Room, Milan is not the only space in Italy that distributes independent magazines. Edicola Romana Non Ordinaria in Rome and Edicola 518 in Perugia are reference points for the interests of the public, and have recently seen the development of independent fairs like the annual SPRINT Independent Publishers and Art Books Salon in Milan.

According to Ms. Spiller, one of the reasons for this trend is the necessity to re-establish the role of paper on the web: «With such a digital domain, the paper publication of a photograph has its own strength because the image is worth publishing. The paper is the fruit of a selection and responsibility of those who choose that content».

On the future of the industry, she says: «We are living in a phase of transition, where we need to find a new balance and the desire to read quality content, potentialities, which are the limits of the web and the fetish of the physical object but, in particular, the valorization of the works of the producers».

Reading Room, Milan

Via Mincio, 10. Milan, Italy

A space in Milan dedicated to the dissemination, understanding and appreciation of magazines.