The Monocle Minute

If ever there was a moment for the powerful to gather at some font of ancient wisdom, this is surely it. The 10th gathering of the Delphi Economic Forum – a short walk from the spectacular ruins where the ancient Greeks consulted the oracle Pythia – occurs this week as Europe is menaced militarily by Russia and financially by the US. Anybody heading up the hill to Delphi with any especially good ideas will find an eager if not desperate audience. The theme of this year’s event is “Realignments”, though the thought does occur that our world is being “realigned” in much the same way that your painstakingly completed jigsaw puzzle is “realigned” when someone kicks the table over.

The Delphi Economic Forum is always one of the more agreeable stops on the diplomatic conference circuit: a particularly beneficial balm for radio producers whose nerves may not quite have ceased jangling after the hurly-burly of the Munich Security Conference. Delphi’s remote location lacks a big city for anyone to flee into, encouraging relaxed, after-hours conversation among delegates; and Delphi’s history gives today’s sages and seers something to live up to (this, at least, is the idea).

But today matters as well. Greece, despite its population barely clearing 10 million, is a crucial country (it’s not for nothing that it’s the subject of Monocle’s most recent handbook). Greek companies control perhaps a fifth of the world’s merchant shipping, vulnerable (obviously) to economic disruption and, as Houthi artillery and drones launched from Yemen have demonstrated, global conflict. Greece’s recent announcement of a €25bn “transformation” of the Hellenic Armed Forces suggests a commensurate if overdue seriousness about taking responsibility for maritime trade.

Greece is also an EU frontier with the Balkans; as usual at Delphi, there will be delegates from across that region, including foreign ministers from Albania, North Macedonia and Kosovo. Greece also has lessons to impart in diplomacy, having in recent years found a way to manage an often rancorous relationship with a larger and occasionally belligerent neighbour, if nevertheless a Nato ally. It does not seem a coincidence, though, that Turkey is holding its Antalya Diplomacy Forum on exactly the same weekend.

The team from Monocle Radio’s ‘The Foreign Desk’ will be at Delphi once again, this year joined by Monocle’s editorial director and chairman, Tyler Brûlé. If you’re going to be at Delphi, do come and say yassou.

Andrew Mueller is a contributing editor at Monocle and presenter of ‘The Foreign Desk’. For more opinion, analysis and insight, subscribe to Monocle today.

The annual Art Basel and UBS Art Market Report documents the ups and downs of the past year’s trade in art and antiquities (writes Sophie Monaghan-Coombs). The latest edition, published yesterday, reveals that the value of that business in 2024 was $57.5bn (€52.5bn). This is about 12 per cent less than the year before – part of an ongoing downward trend since the coronavirus pandemic – but that’s still a lot of Basquiats and Monets changing hands between gallerists and collectors.

The US holds onto its position as the world’s leading market, accounting for 43 per cent of the value of global sales. The report inadvertently coincides with the havoc in the global markets caused by Donald Trump’s tariff announcements. But Art Basel CEO Noah Horowitz tells The Monocle Minute that it’s too early to predict the ramifications of this week’s turmoil. “We need to wait, hold our breath and see how that all shakes out,” he says. “There’s every possibility that some of what we’ve seen in the past week could change course.” For now, the art market is in rude health.

For designers, the demands of the market can mean pursuing novelty over improving on existing ideas. But this year, Milan-based Japanese designer Kensaku Oshiro is expanding on the Leplì collection of stools, benches and ottomans that he first designed in 2016 for Poltrona Frau. “Designing from the same project strengthens its identity,” Oshiro tells Monocle when we visit him at his studio in La Fontana, a northern neighbourhood of Milan. “I prefer to perfect a few products than work on 100 that might not be [as good]. Fewer items, fewer designs, fewer concepts – it works better for me.”

The new addition to the Leplì family is a chair and armchair – available in swivel, wheeled and fixed versions – that echo Oshiro’s original idea of evoking the silhouette of a woman in a belted dress. The sartorial inspiration is, of course, apt in the context of Milan – a fashion capital as well as a centre for design. The playful barrel shape of the new Leplì chairs is available in Poltrona Frau’s range of high-quality leathers, which can be rendered in a single-block hue or combined according to taste. “Leather is one of the oldest materials,” adds Oshiro. “I see it as a very Italian material and then I combined it with my Japanese point of view, which is to keep only what is essential.”
poltronafrau.com

You can read more design stories from Milan and beyond in this year’s Salone del Mobile special, which is on newsstands now.

Aero Friedrichshafen, the world’s leading trade show for general and private aviation, begins today on the shores of Germany’s Lake Constance. About 32,000 visitors are expected to attend this year’s edition, where some 750 exhibitors from more than 35 countries will present the latest industry innovations. Among this year’s standout aviation companies is Vienna-based Turbulence Solutions. Founder and CEO András Gálffy tells Monocle how his start-up is working to ensure smoother rides in the air.

How does Turbulence Solutions technology work?
Our system detects turbulence before it hits the aircraft and reacts in real time. Birds constantly correct their wing shape to adapt to the air. That’s what we’re mimicking with small, fast-acting flat plates on the wing. We can reduce more than 80 per cent of the vertical motion typically felt by passengers.

What aircraft will employ this technology first?
We’re starting with small aircraft, general-aviation planes and business jets, where turbulence has a bigger effect on comfort and safety. We’re already flying test aircraft and expect this to be certified soon. The goal is to scale the technology to larger commercial aircraft over time. Aviation is conservative and highly regulated, so we have to start simple.

What’s your approach to trade shows?
Being a founder means doing a bit of everything. But, ultimately, it comes down to selling and delivering. At trade shows, it’s about showcasing our product, securing funding and working with other manufacturers to solve the real problem of turbulence in aviation.
You can listen to the full interview with András Gálffy on tonight’s episode of ‘The Entrepreneurs’.

The team report from the Salone del Mobile furniture fair in Milan, with interviews from architect David Rockwell, the CEO of Italian manufacturer Artemide and the design duo behind the studio Formafantasma.