The paradox of showing

The contribution analyses the Milano Design Week through the lenses of urban anthropology and the sociology of consumption, framing it as a site of symbolic tension between cultural authenticity and commodification. Drawing on Benjamin's commodity fetishism and Debord's spectacle, the essay argues that contemporary exposition has shifted from showing objects to staging branded experiences, saturating the urban semiosphere. Critics point to semiotic overload, symbolic gentrification and the growing dominance of non-design brands as structural risks. To address these challenges, the authors apply the principles of High-Reliability Organisations — preoccupation with failure, sensitivity to operations, deference to expertise — proposing an ecosystemic governance model based on distributed responsibility, authenticity and shared stewardship of the city as a common good.