milan triennale | art, architecture, and design news and projects https://www.designboom.com/tag/milan-triennale/ designboom magazine | your first source for architecture, design & art news Wed, 11 Jun 2025 11:09:39 +0000 en-US hourly 1 ‘data is not neutral’: federica fragapane’s soft forms visualize hard facts on inequalities https://www.designboom.com/design/data-federica-fragapane-soft-forms-hard-facts-inequalities-shapes-triennale-milano-interview-06-08-2025/ Sun, 08 Jun 2025 19:30:48 +0000 https://www.designboom.com/?p=1135566 the italian information designer explains how her triennale milano installation transforms hard facts into empathetic, organic forms.

The post ‘data is not neutral’: federica fragapane’s soft forms visualize hard facts on inequalities appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

]]>
SHAPES OF INEQUALITIES at triennale milano

 

At first glance, the 16 visuals that make up Shapes of Inequalities — a new installation by the Italian information designer Federica Fragapane — don’t look like data. There are no bar graphs, no line charts, no axis labels. Instead, organic shapes unfurl across white space, like sea creatures or windblown petals. Their softness is deceptive. Installed under the overarching theme Inequalities at the 24th International Exhibition at Triennale Milano, the project translates hard, often brutal realities — economic injustice, climate crisis, gender-based violence — into a visual language that is both scientific and sensitive. It also formed the basis for a public talk Fragapane gave during the Art for Tomorrow conference, hosted in conjunction with the Triennale’s opening. In a conversation with designboom’s editor-in-chief, Sofia Lekka Angelopoulou, Fragapane discussed the politics of visual storytelling and the ethical weight of representing human experience through data.

 

‘I often say that I see my job as an alternative version of a photographer: I am photographing angles of reality,’ Fragapane says during an interview with designboom. ‘I strive to capture portions of them through my work.’ That framing—of data designer as documentarian—sits at the heart of her practice. Fragapane has built a career working with large institutions like the United Nations, the European Union, the World Health Organization, and Google, while also producing deeply personal, research-based projects on topics like migration, education access, and war. Her work now resides in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. She operates somewhere between precision and poetics, applying her training in communication design to numbers that often resist simplification. Her aim isn’t to flatten complexity—it’s to give it form. ‘For me it’s important to reiterate two aspects: first of all, how data itself is not a neutral entity dropped from above, but the product of research and human actions that inevitably leave a trace, whether visible or intentional,’ she explains. ‘And so, of course, does the visualization process.’


Federica Fragapane’s Shapes of Inequalities | image © Triennale Milano

 

 

VISUALIZING HARD FACTS THROUGH SOFT FORMS

 

For her Shapes of Inequalities project at Triennale Milano, Federica Fragapane spent months researching ten dimensions of global disparity, including access to health care, educational gaps, racial and gender bias, and climate-related displacement. Each dataset was shaped into a visual narrative: abstract, non-linear, and, in some cases, deeply intimate. ‘Some of the subjects visualized in the exhibition touch me or have touched me personally; others are far from my own experience, and I tried to observe them and give them a shape, conscious of my privileged point of view,’ she tells designboom.

 

The results are not didactic, they are contemplative, even tender. The color palette, including muted reds, soft greens, cloudy purples, evokes the natural world more than the digital one. It’s intentional. ‘I often choose this organic approach when I work with data that has a living presence,’ Fragapane says. ‘It’s my way of paying homage to those lives and trying to convey that pulsating presence through form.’ This design ethos sets her apart from many working in the field of data visualization, which tends to privilege clarity, efficiency, and a particular kind of minimalism. Fragapane’s images, by contrast, invite readers to slow down. Their beauty isn’t an accessory; it’s a method. ‘Working with care on the aesthetics of my works is a way to invite people in,’ she explains. ‘A way to encourage them to look closely and read the stories I’m trying to tell through data.’


a series of 16 data visualizations | image by Alessandro Saletta and Agnese Bedini – DSL Studio © Triennale Milano

 

 

At a time when data is everywhere—weaponized on social media, simplified into clickbait, or buried in impenetrable PDFs—Fragapane’s work insists that data can also be gentle. Not less rigorous, but more empathetic. ‘I try to use what I know how to do to talk about topics I care about — that’s an extremely condensed way to describe the reasons behind some of my works,’ she notes. ‘I’m glad when others share them, use them in turn to highlight issues they care about, or when I see people discovering something new through my projects, even if those discoveries make them angry, just as they made me.’ In that way, Shapes of Inequalities becomes not just a series of visualizations, but an act of translation and of witnessing. It asks viewers to step inside statistics not as distant observers, but as participants. The data, as Fragapane insists, is not abstract, it is alive. Read our conversation with Federica Fragapane in full below.


distilling vast datasets into images | image by Alessandro Saletta and Agnese Bedini – DSL Studio © Triennale Milano

 

 

interview with Federica Fragapane

 

designboom (DB): Your works are included in the permanent collection of MoMA, while you have collaborated with Google, the UN, the World Health Organization, and many more. Can you walk us through your background and practice?

 

Federica Fragapane (FF): I work as an independent data visualization designer. This is a discipline I first encountered during my studies. I studied Communication Design at Milan Polytechnic, and I have been freelancing since 2015. What attracted me deeply at the time was the possibility of using visual elements to give a shape to information and make it more visible, and this is still the main aspect I’m interested in.

 

I often say that I see my job as an alternative version of a photographer: I am photographing angles of reality because I view the topics I explore as three-dimensional, complex, and irregular shapes, and I strive to capture portions of them through my work.

 

My presence and intervention are unavoidable, from the selection of data—the angles—to the forms in which I represent them. For me it’s important to reiterate two aspects: first of all, how data itself is not a neutral entity dropped from above, but the product of research and human actions that inevitably leave a trace, whether visible or intentional. And so, of course, does the visualization process. For me it’s very important to assert my presence and acknowledge that each drawing, while created with care and great attention to the accuracy of the information and sources, is also a reflection of my personal history.

 

I work with both complex data and very simple numbers. For example, one of my pieces acquired by MoMA tells the story of space waste: the visualization shows space debris classified by distance from Earth and by object type, and it’s relatively complex. But I also worked with very simple data, like the number of days since the Taliban banned teenage girls from school in Afghanistan and the death toll in Gaza.

data-federica-fragapane-soft-forms-hard-facts-inequalities-shapes-triennale-milano-interview-designboom-large2

Life Expectancy, part of Shapes of Inequalities | all visualizations courtesy of Federica Fragapane

DB: Visualizing information can take many forms, from text-based imagery to charts, interactive diagrams, or abstract graphics. Your approach has something unique in the way it employs soft forms, organic shapes, and vibrant colors to deliver hard facts. What kind of data do you mostly work with, and what is the role of aesthetics within your practice?

 

FF: There are indeed multiple modes of expression in data visualization, and I’ve worked with different visual languages myself. In some cases, I design simple, geometric charts—both interactive and static—that are more commonly associated with the traditional visual alphabet of data visualization. But as you mentioned, I also often use organic and soft shapes. The choice depends on the context and on the data.

 

I’ve worked for decision-makers, scientists, academics, the UN, and the European Union, and in those cases I’ve used the more conventional approach. But from the very beginning of my practice, I also started working on topics that are personally meaningful to me: migration, gender inequality, human rights violations. In those cases, I tend to use a different language.

 

I often choose this organic approach when I work with data that has a living presence, the presence of the people, and living beings, behind the numbers. It’s my way of paying homage to those lives and trying to convey that pulsating presence through form. Finally, for me, working with care on the aesthetics of my works is a way to invite people in. A way to encourage them to look closely and read the stories I’m trying to tell through data.


Unpaid care work, part of Shapes of Inequalities

 

 

DB: One of your projects that embodies this transformation of harsh, ugly numbers into soft, organic forms is Shapes of Inequality, now on view as part of the Triennale. Can you tell us more about it and how it fits into the overall theme of the 24th International Exhibition, Inequalities?

 

FF: For Shapes of Inequalities, I created a dedicated series of works: 16 data visualizations exploring 10 topics, some of the many faces of inequality. The visualizations present data on economic disparity, social mobility, gender and ethnic discrimination, the climate crisis, access to resources, life expectancy, and migration. The shapes I traced reflect the deep asymmetries, distances, and shifts in scale revealed by the data.

 

Over the past months, I’ve worked with harsh, ugly data, telling stories of both familiar and lesser-known realities. Some of the subjects visualized in the exhibition touch me or have touched me personally; others are far from my own experience, and I tried to observe them and give them a shape, conscious of my privileged point of view. My hope is that the forms I’ve created will encourage visitors to read them.

data-federica-fragapane-soft-forms-hard-facts-inequalities-shapes-triennale-milano-interview-designboom-large3

Inequality and Wealth, part of Shapes of Inequalities

DB: Beyond the visual aspect, what kind of impact do the images you create have? How do they contribute, or you you hope they contribute, to tackling inequality?

 

FF: I try to use what I know how to do to talk about topics I care about—that’s an extremely condensed way to describe the reasons behind some of my works. I’m glad when others share them, use them in turn to highlight issues they care about, or when I see people discovering something new through my projects, even if those discoveries make them angry, just as they made me.


Gaza


Barriers

photographing-angles-reality-federica-fragapane-shape-inequality-triennale-milano-interview-designboom-large01

Space Junk, part of MoMa’s permanent collection


Afghanistan


Iran


Environmental taxes data visualisation

data-federica-fragapane-soft-forms-hard-facts-inequalities-shapes-triennale-milano-interview-designboom-large

Slums and Inadequate Housing, part of Shapes of Inequalities


Access to Resources: Literacy, part of Shapes of Inequalities

 

 

project info:

 

name: Shapes of Inequalities

designer: Federica Fragapane | @federicafragapane

exhibition: 24th Triennale Milano International Exhibition | @triennalemilano 24th International Exhibition

 

24th International Exhibition theme: Inequalities

dates: May 13 – November 9, 2025

location: Milan, Italy

watch designboom’s Art for Tomorrow talk in full here.

The post ‘data is not neutral’: federica fragapane’s soft forms visualize hard facts on inequalities appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

]]>
ecoLogicStudio reimagines domesticity through microbial installation at triennale milano https://www.designboom.com/architecture/ecologicstudio-domesticity-microbial-architectural-installation-triennale-di-milano-deepforest-3-05-29-2025/ Thu, 29 May 2025 18:00:05 +0000 https://www.designboom.com/?p=1134943 biotechnological cycles are embedded into daily domestic routines.

The post ecoLogicStudio reimagines domesticity through microbial installation at triennale milano appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

]]>
DeepForest³ reimagines Forest ecologies at domestic scale

 

DeepForest³ is a microbial architectural installation developed by ecoLogicStudio in collaboration with the University of Innsbruck and the Bartlett UCL. The project is part of the We the Bacteria: Notes Toward Biotic Architecture exhibition at the 24th International Exposition of La Triennale di Milano, curated by Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley. The installation proposes a domestic space structured as an active microbial ecosystem. It utilizes biotechnological systems to establish a functional relationship between architecture, biological processes, and environmental conditions. The spatial arrangement includes components that perform photosynthesis, biodegradation, and carbon storage, forming an integrated biotic infrastructure.

 

At the center of the installation are three types of architectural components: Photosynthesizers, Biodegraders, and Carbon storers. Photosynthesizers, filled with 50 liters of living cyanobacteria, actively capture CO₂ from the gallery environment and convert it into oxygen and biomass. These glass vessels are arranged to form a breathable membrane, both wall and filter, alive with metabolic activity. Biodegraders, built from 3D printed bark-like shells made of algae biopolymers, host living mycelium networks. These fungi feed on spent coffee grounds, a readily available urban waste, and grow into dense, fibrous forms that line the space like living insulation, mimicking salvaged birch trunks but grown from synthetic matter. Carbon storers, such as reclaimed wood elements and active lichen colonies, integrate with these systems to stabilize and reframe the aesthetics of waste as beauty, turning the byproducts of decay into architectural ornament.


all images by Xiao Wang, courtesy of ecoLogicStudio and the Synthetic Landscape Lab

 

 

ecoLogicStudio merges biology with digital fabrication

 

The design strategy followed by ecoLogicStudio’s team aligns the architectural system with Italy’s history of landscape engineering, drawing a comparison between historical interventions and microbial resilience. The spatial configuration compresses forest ecologies into a controlled interior scale. Floor and wall assemblies incorporate engraved and porous substrates, enabling air exchange, moisture retention, and microbial colonization. ‘We are now more and more aware that our own nature is cyborgian and collective, and that our own identities extend far beyond the limits of our bodies. We are microbial ecosystems, we are algorithmic networks. It is a necessary consequence that our home becomes an extension of these ecosystems and networks. Our home is our microbiome,’ shares Prof. Claudia Pasquero.

 

The installation emphasizes visibility of technical systems. Algae growth chambers, mycelial substrates, air and CO₂ pumps remain exposed, functioning as both operative systems and formal features. This approach integrates the mechanical and biological processes into the architectural language rather than concealing them. ‘The installation aims to celebrate the first time microbial architecture enters the Italian temple of design, the Milano Triennale. I think this is an epochal moment. For this reason, we took great care in its design and detailing. DeepForest³ is really more than just a temporary installation, it delivers a fully functional and tangible biotechnological living system, grounded in the metabolic cycles of algae and fungi, but brought to life through bespoke digital design and unique material craftsmanship,’ comments Dr. Marco Poletto.


DeepForest³ installation presented at the 24th International Exposition of La Triennale di Milano

 

 

DeepForest³ exhibits open-source biotechnological integration

 

A secondary feature of the installation is the Zolla bench, made from modular cork blocks and honeycomb cardboard base. The bench is designed for live mycelium cultivation, which gradually transforms the surface through colonization and mushroom growth. This component demonstrates real-time material transformation and user interaction with biologically active surfaces. The installation supports cyclical material use, passive environmental modulation, and open-source system integration. It is conceived as a domestic prototype for future biotechnological applications in architecture, emphasizing accessible and distributed cultivation of photosynthetic and fungal organisms within built environments.

 

DeepForest³ forms part of an ongoing research initiative by ecoLogicStudio and the Synthetic Landscape Lab. Parallel projects include Tree.One, Bio.Lab, FundamentAI, and CryoflorE, which extend this inquiry across multiple international venues including the Venice Architecture Biennale, Bundeskunsthalle Bonn, and MUDAC Lausanne. The installation opens to the public on May 12th, 2025.


visible systems turn the walls into a living, cyber-organic laboratory


air pumps circulate air and CO₂, supporting algae and mycelium growth

deepforest-3-microbial-architectural-installation-ecologicstudio-designboom-1800-2

engaged with the living installation


Carbon storer made from reclaimed trees and 3d printed barks

deepforest-3-microbial-architectural-installation-ecologicstudio-designboom-1800-3

Carbon storer made from reclaimed trees and 3d printed barks


Photosynthesizers and AIReactor in action


Zolla bench is composed of mycelium colonizing cork, with mushrooms starting to sprout

 

 

project info:

 

name: DeepForest³

designer: ecoLogicStudio | @ecologicstudio

location: Milan, Italy

 

lead designers: Prof. Claudia Pasquero, Dr. Marco Poletto

commissioner: Triennale di Milano

exhibition curators: Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley

academic partners: Synthetic Landscape Lab IOUD Innsbruck University, Urban Morphogenesis Lab BPRO The Bartlett UCL

design team: Prof. Claudia Pasquero, Dr. Marco Poletto, Jasper Zehetgruber, Francesca Turi, Alessandra Poletto

prototyping support team: Jonas Wohlgenannt, Korbinian Enzinger, Felix Humml, Bo Liu, Mika Schulz, Michael Unterberger, Marco Matteraglia, Beyza Nur Armağan, Beatriz Gonzalez Arechiga and Xiao Wang

photographer: Xiao Wang

 

 

designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

 

edited by: christina vergopoulou | designboom

The post ecoLogicStudio reimagines domesticity through microbial installation at triennale milano appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

]]>
‘we need a policy for rest’: polish pavilion reclaims care and hygiene at triennale milano https://www.designboom.com/design/policy-rest-polish-pavilion-care-hygiene-triennale-milano-interview-katarzyna-roj-aleksandra-wasilkowska-05-23-2025/ Thu, 22 May 2025 22:10:16 +0000 https://www.designboom.com/?p=1134621 curator katarzyna roj and architect aleksandra wasilkowska discuss their exhibition ‘a brief vacation’ with designboom.

The post ‘we need a policy for rest’: polish pavilion reclaims care and hygiene at triennale milano appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

]]>
The Polish Pavilion at the triennale milano asks who gets to rest

 

In response to this year’s Triennale Milano International Exhibition theme, Inequalities, the Polish Pavilion becomes a sanctuary for both human and ecological bodies, exhausted by capitalism, climate crisis, and care work. Curator Katarzyna Roj and architect Aleksandra Wasilkowska share more about A Brief Vacation with designboom, their show that reimagines the ancient tepidarium as a contemporary chamber of collective rest. ‘Rest,’ Katarzyna Roj tells us, ‘is not something to outsource to individual willpower. It’s something we need a policy for.’

 

Beneath the vaulted halls of the Palazzo dell’Arte, visitors are invited into the transsanatorium, a sensorial refuge that rethinks how cities distribute comfort, challenging the structural inequalities that determine who gets to rest and who doesn’t. A Brief Vacation asks, who can afford stillness in the burnout economy? Through immersive installation, sculpture, scent, sound, and movement, the pavilion reflects on the distribution of peace and bodily care. Roj’s vision, together with Wasilkowska’s design, turns urban infrastructure inside out, reimagining it as a sanctuary where marginalized bodies, caregivers, migrants, and frontline workers, can pause, regenerate, and be seen. Rest, often seen as a luxury, is here reframed as a basic hygiene that demands public policy. ‘This profound fatigue,’ the curator continues, ‘is not only dedicated to humans but also to ecological systems and exhausted resources. We need to think about how we can build infrastructure of care for all of that.’ 


image by Jacopo Salvi, Altomare.studio

 

 

A Brief Vacation revives affordable hygiene rituals

 

The project, part of the 24th Triennale Milano International Exhibition, takes its title and its concept from Vittorio De Sica’s 1973 film Una breve vacanza, where a Milanese factory worker finds unexpected dignity and healing in a mountain sanatorium. ‘It tells the story of Clara,’ explains curator Katarzyna Roj. ‘A Milanese working-class hero who gets tuberculosis and is sent to a sanatorium in the mountains. There, she gets her own room, with good food, and with the whole infrastructure of care, she experiences a social uplift. And this became a starting point for us—to ask, who has the right to rest, especially in times of mass migration, war, and reproductive work?’  The pavilion builds on this cinematic starting point to ask who today is allowed to rest and who is excluded. For Roj, hygiene should not be left to the individual. ‘We need to think of rest as collective infrastructure, especially in the context of mass migration, ecological fatigue, and reproductive labor,’ she adds.

 

The Polish Pavilion, organized by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute with support from BWA Wrocław Galleries of Contemporary Art, builds on the legacy of spaces like Milan’s subterranean Albergo Diurno Venezia, once offering affordable hygiene rituals to working-class residents. Wasilkowska’s design revives this spirit through a transcultural lens, proposing a network of future urban grottos: small-scale sanctuaries responding to crises of heat, drought, and displacement with care. These spaces could integrate with metro infrastructure, capturing underground temperatures, filtering rainwater, and offering emergency sanitation services in overheated cities. ‘Usually when you build a metro, you excavate around one million tons of earth,’ says the Warsaw-based architect during our interview. ‘That soil is transported outside of the city. We want to reuse it, to build a healing mountain next to the station—with sanitary infrastructure inside, like a cross-section of the future?’ One such ‘healing mountain’ is envisioned as a layered grotto of transcultural bathing rituals and rest zones. ‘We’re not just asking who gets to rest,’ states Roj. ‘We’re asking how we build for it—across borders, species, and systems.’


Polish Pavilion becomes a sanctuary for exhausted bodies

 

 

The transsanatorium combines global sanitary typologies

 

The underground chambers draw from global sanitary typologies. The transsanatorium incorporates a transcultural matrix of public bath typologies. ‘My idea was: how can we think of public space for nomads and diasporas living in the city?’ explains Wasilkowska. ‘Inside the healing mountain, there’s a mikveh, a mezzakal from South America, Greek and Roman baths, a Japanese sento, and even a ghat from Hindu culture. It’s like a protopian-utopian mix, because cities today aren’t monocultures anymore.’

 

This pluralistic approach extends even to sanitary architecture. ‘Toilets, for example, should have squatting and sitting options next to each other, you never know who will come. I saw it at the Istanbul airport, and I really appreciated it,’ the architect argues. ‘Migration is accelerating, and we need to adapt our designs to the people who live in our cities, not some imaginary standard user.’

 

In the age of hustle culture and planetary exhaustion, A Brief Vacation also confronts deeper taboos. ‘Lying down in public space is forbidden in European cities—it’s a class issue,’ Wasilkowska adds. ‘This idea is also about redistribution of luxury. It’s cheap—built from waste—but it’s for everyone. You don’t have to travel to an expensive sanatorium. It’s right here, in the metro.’

 

The pavilion’s central chamber features a sculpted daybed by artist Olaf Brzeski, soundscapes by Antonina Nowacka, and custom fragrances by Monika Opieka, aiming at sensual immersion. ‘We want people to lie down, to slow down, to notice their body in space,’ notes Roj. 


a brief vacation reimagines the ancient tepidarium as a chamber of collective rest


challenging the structural inequalities that determine who gets to rest and who doesn’t


Roj’s vision, together with Wasilkowska’s design, turns urban infrastructure inside out

policy-rest-polish-pavilion-care-hygiene-triennale-milano-interview-designboom-large01

a sanctuary where marginalized bodies can pause, regenerate, and be seen


rest, often seen as a luxury, is here reframed as a basic hygiene that demands public policy


the project takes its title and its concept from Vittorio De Sica’s 1973 film Una breve vacanza


Polish Pavilion builds on the legacy of spaces like Milan’s subterranean Albergo Diurno Venezia


the transsanatorium incorporates a transcultural matrix of public bath typologies


custom fragrances by Monika Opieka aim at sensual immersion


A Brief Vacation confronts deeper taboos

policy-rest-polish-pavilion-care-hygiene-triennale-milano-interview-designboom-large03

Wasilkowska’s urban proposal could integrate with metro infrastructure


project info:

 

name: Polish Pavilion, 24th Triennale Milano International Exhibition | @triennalemilano
exhibition title: A Brief Vacation

location: Triennale Milano, Milan, Italy

 

dates: May 13 – November 9, 2025

curator: Katarzyna Roj | @krojczy

architect of transsanatorium: Aleksandra Wasilkowska | @shadowarchitecture

sculptor: Olaf Brzeski | @olafbrzeski

composer: Antonina Nowacka | @antoninawidt

olfactory artist: Monika Opieka | @olfaktorie_bottanicum

photographer: Łukasz Rusznica | @lukaszrusznica

choreographer: Alicja Wysocka | @alfa_omegi

graphic designer: Agata Bartkowiak | @agatabe

support: Maciej Bujko

organizer: Adam Mickiewicz Institute | @culture_pl

co-organizer: BWA Wrocław Galleries of Contemporary Art | @bwawroclaw

director, AMI: Olga Wysocka

deputy directors, AMI: Olga Brzezińska, Piotr Sobkowicz

production and coordination: Joanna Andruszko, Tytus Ciski, Natalia Gedroyć, Klaudia Gniady, Tomasz Koczoń, Barbara Krzeska, Malwina Malinowska, Julia Marczuk-Macidłowska, Agata Opieka, Karolina Padło, Marcin Pecyna, Michał Sietnicki, Joanna Sokalska, Francis Thorburn, Julia Wójcik

co-financed by: Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland, Municipality of Wrocław

partners: Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Milan, Polish Cultural Institute in Rome, PFR Nieruchomości (part of Polish Development Fund Capital Group)

 

photographer: Jacopo Salvi | @jacopo_salvi, Altomare.studio | @altomare.studio

The post ‘we need a policy for rest’: polish pavilion reclaims care and hygiene at triennale milano appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

]]>
boonserm premthada upcycles thai rice barns for elephant food shelter at triennale milano https://www.designboom.com/architecture/boonserm-premthada-thai-rice-barns-elephant-food-shelter-triennale-milano-05-21-2025/ Thu, 22 May 2025 10:50:40 +0000 https://www.designboom.com/?p=1134499 in thailand, the food houses are scattered along forest paths as collection points where villagers bring bundles of fresh plants for the elephants to eat.

The post boonserm premthada upcycles thai rice barns for elephant food shelter at triennale milano appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

]]>
handwoven bamboo winnowing wraps elephant food house

 

In Taklang Village, northeastern Thailand, elephants and people have lived side by side for over 400 years, and today, more than 200 elephants now share the land with human residents. This coexistence is the starting point for Boonserm Premthada’s Elephant Food House presented at the 24th International Exhibition of Triennale Milano. Responding to the growing crisis of elephant food scarcity in Thailand, a problem tied to deforestation, disrupted crop cycles, and climate change, the Thai architect and designer’s work combines architecture, ecology, and local craft.

 

The project proposes a humble form of interdependence, made of reconfigured rice barns once used to store grain for human consumption and now serving as food shelters for elephants, bridging two species through the same basic need. The barns are airy and lightweight, built with timber frames and encased in handwoven bamboo winnowing baskets‚ traditional agricultural tools that have been scaled up and recontextualized. With surfaces that are breathable and lightweight, they offer ventilation and protection while making the craft of the region visible. 

boonserm premthada upcycles thai rice barns for elephant food shelter at triennale milano
all images by Simone Bossi

 

 

boonserm premthada addresses thai elephant food shortage

 

Inside the Elephant Food House at the Triennale Milano, partially enclosed on three sides, Boonserm Premthada places a sculpture of a Vitruvian elephant, formed from paper made with elephant dung — ‘the very material where my elephant-centered and nature-centered design began,’ the architect notes. In placing this figure across from the shelter’s entrance, the gesture ties the cycle of nourishment and waste into a closed loop, reflecting Premthada’s stance that the built environment should be shaped by sensitivity. ‘Inequality, in my view, is not about granting rights to animals but about fostering empathy that humans should have for other living beings,’ he shares. ‘Maintaining balance in the ecosystem is something humans must consciously uphold. In the past, we have only pursued our convenience, overlooking the world around us.’

 

As such, the project’s origins lie in a response to a long-standing environmental and ecological issue in Thailand: the steady decline of food sources for elephants caused by deforestation, land development, human encroachment, and more recently, climate change. In Taklang village, the surrounding forest once provided the primary source of nutrition for its vast elephant population, though, over the years, that reserve of fertile land has become increasingly depleted. The Food Houses were thus developed in response and as part of a local system of care, scattered along forest paths as collection points where villagers bring bundles of fresh plants for the elephants to eat.

boonserm premthada upcycles thai rice barns for elephant food shelter at triennale milano
Boonserm Premthada presents Elephant Food House at the 24th International Exhibition of Triennale Milano

 

 

mediating coexistence through architecture at triennale milano

 

In addition to supplementing the elephants’ diets, the walks to the shelters support digestion and overall health, reinforcing a rhythm of movement and interaction between species. The shelters also function as shaded resting points for humans and elephants alike, along routes once integral to foraging and seasonal migration.

 

Now shown at Triennale Milano under the theme Inequalities, the Elephant Food House retains its original intent, highlighting the ecological pressures faced by elephants as well as the broader systems that shape how species live together, or fall out of balance. It repositions structures typically designed for human use as shared, interspecies resources, suggesting architecture’s role in mediating coexistence. Boonserm Premthada refers to this as a ‘Human and Non-Human Nation’ — a framework that centers humans as part of a broader, entangled ecology.

boonserm premthada upcycles thai rice barns for elephant food shelter at triennale milano
responding to the growing crisis of elephant food scarcity in Thailand

boonserm premthada upcycles thai rice barns for elephant food shelter at triennale milano
encased in handwoven bamboo winnowing baskets‚ traditional agricultural tools

a Vitruvian elephant, formed from paper made with elephant dung

boonserm premthada upcycles thai rice barns for elephant food shelter at triennale milano
the project is made of reconfigured rice barns once used to store grain for human consumption


with surfaces that are breathable and lightweight, they offer ventilation and protection


the traditional barns are airy and lightweight, built with timber frames


the shelters in Thailand also function as shaded resting points for humans and elephants alike

 

 

project info:

 

name: Elephant Food House

architect: Boonserm Premthada | @boonserm_premthada

location: Milan, Italy

 

event: 24th Triennale Milano International Exhibition

dates: 13th May—9th November, 2025

photographer: Simone Bossi | @simonebossiphotographer

The post boonserm premthada upcycles thai rice barns for elephant food shelter at triennale milano appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

]]>
designboom’s ultimate guide to 24th triennale milano international exhibition 2025 https://www.designboom.com/design/designboom-ultimate-guide-24th-triennale-milano-international-exhibition-2025-05-22-2025/ Thu, 22 May 2025 09:09:21 +0000 https://www.designboom.com/?p=1131609 how do design and architecture confront inequality? explore everything happening at the 2025 triennale milano international exhibition in designboom's ultimate guide.

The post designboom’s ultimate guide to 24th triennale milano international exhibition 2025 appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

]]>
24th TRIENNALE INTERNATIONAL exhibition tackles global inequalities

 

The Triennale Milano International Exhibition returns for its 24th edition from May 13 to November 9, 2025, transforming Milan’s Palazzo dell’Arte into a six-month stage for urgent dialogue and interdisciplinary design. Under the theme Inequalities, the Triennale Milano International Exhibition 2025 edition concludes a thought-provoking trilogy that began in 2019 with Broken Nature and continued in 2022 with Unknown Unknowns. This final chapter shifts the focus to the human dimension, addressing one of the most pressing — and politically charged — issues of our time: the growing inequalities that shape our cities, societies, and individual lives.

 

With participation from artists, designers, curators, institutions, and universities from about 73 countries, the 2025 edition becomes a cultural map of the inequalities we inherit, perpetuate, and have the power to transform. Through exhibitions, installations, performances, and lectures, the event invites visitors to reflect on both the injustices and the possibilities that define contemporary existence.

 

As always, designboom’s guide unpacks everything you need to know about the Triennale’s exhibitions, international collaborations, special projects, and national pavilions. Read on for our full breakdown.


Cities © Alessandro Saletta e Agnese Bedini – DSL Studio

 

 

INEQUALITIES, CURATED BY GLOBAL NETWORK OF VISIONARIES

 

At the heart of the 24th Triennale Milano International Exhibition is a dynamic curatorial structure. Led by Triennale Milano President and Commissioner General Stefano Boeri, the exhibition brings together celebrated figures from the worlds of art, architecture, science, and culture. Among them are architectural historian Beatriz Colomina and theorist Mark Wigley, Serpentine Galleries’ Hans Ulrich Obrist, interdisciplinary artist Theaster Gates, and Pritzker Prize-winning architect Norman Foster. They are joined by curators Nina Bassoli, Marco Sammicheli, Nic Palmarini, and Natalia Grabowska, among others.

 

The theme of Inequalities unfolds along two major curatorial trajectories: the geopolitics of inequality, explored on the ground floor, and the biopolitics of inequality, examined upstairs. The former investigates the urban and territorial dimensions of disparity — from housing access to wealth distribution — while the latter focuses on how inequality shapes our bodies, behaviors, health, and identities in everyday life. Together, these lenses form a powerful spatial and ideological framework for a more just and inclusive future.

 

Curatorial contributions are amplified through collaborations with leading global institutions, including Columbia University, Princeton University, Norman Foster Foundation, Democracy and Culture Foundation, and the Serpentine Galleries. Five Milanese universities and several international research centers add further depth to the exhibition’s research-driven foundation.


Cities © Alessandro Saletta e Agnese Bedini – DSL Studio

 

 

SPECIAL PROJECTS AND LEADING VOICES FROM WORLD OF DESIGN

 

The main exhibition space brings together a lineup of special projects and site-specific commissions by globally recognized architects, artists, and thinkers. Among the highlights are contributions from Pritzker Prize laureates Kazuyo Sejima and Alejandro Aravena, and Elizabeth Diller of Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Artist-filmmaker Amos Gitai explores the visual language of social injustice through cinema, while Theaster Gates brings his practice of social sculpture and ritual to Milan with a large-scale installation.

 

The exhibition design and layout are shaped by six innovative design studios — Abnormal, Studio GISTO, Grace, Midori Hasuike, orizzontale, and Sopa Design Studio — who were tasked with creating spatial experiences that reflect both the fragmentation and the interconnectedness of inequality in the contemporary world.

 

Alongside the opening of Inequalities, Triennale hosts the international conference Art for Tomorrow, organized by the Democracy & Culture Foundation and celebrating its 10th anniversary in Milan. The three-day conference examines the social impacts of arts with prominent guests, leading voices from the world of culture, and moderation by designboom.

 

See designboom’s guide to the exhibition and special projects, below.


Cities, The Inujima Project by Kazuyo Sejima, Say Who © Alessio Ammannati

 

 

cities

 

An imagined geography becomes the stage for Cities, an exhibition conceived as an atlas of inhabited places across the world. In thirty-five site-specific installations by authors from over thirty nationalities, the city is explored as both opportunity and battleground — between wealth and poverty, community and segregation, ecology and development. The exhibition challenges traditional understandings of urban inequality and offers alternative visions for growth.

 

Curation: Nina Bassoli

Exhibition Design: (AB)NORMAL


Grenfell Tower. Total System Failure, a special project included in the exhibition Cities © Alessandro Saletta e Agnese Bedini – DSL Studio

 

 

THE BOOK OF AMOS

 

Shot in a single take on a Tel Aviv street, Amos Gitai’s short film revives the voice of the biblical prophet Amos through actors from Israel and Palestine. Their modern-day denunciation of corruption and violence reflects a stark continuity with the prophet’s ancient words, suggesting that history, conflict, and the city are eternally intertwined.

 

 

GRENFELL TOWER. TOTAL SYSTEM FAILURE

 

This deeply moving installation by Grenfell Next of Kin honors the lives lost in the Grenfell Tower fire. Featuring works by artists including Chris Ofili and Khadija Saye, alongside film and quilted memorials, it exposes systemic failures and community resilience. The exhibition is both testimony and resistance.

 

Curation: Kimia Zabihyan, Grenfell Next of Kin


Grenfell Tower. Total System Failure © Alessandro Saletta e Agnese Bedini – DSL Studio

 

 

The Space of Inequalities / ENVIRONMENT, MOBILITY, CITIZENSHIP

 

Through short films and a local data model, this immersive installation explores inequalities in environmental exposure, access to resources, and citizenship rights. From global patterns to Milan’s own territory, it illustrates how space itself becomes a medium of disparity.

 

Curation: DAStU and CRAFT, Politecnico di Milano

Exhibition Design: (AB)NORMAL


The Space of Inequalities | Photo by Filippo Romano

 

 

Atlas of the Changing World

 

Curated by journalist Maurizio Molinari, this exhibition uses maps as narrative tools to trace a rapidly transforming world. From conflict zones to gender gaps, migration to climate change, it examines how cartography remains essential in navigating the chaos of the present.

 

Curation: Maurizio Molinari


Atlas of the Changing World © Alessandro Saletta e Agnese Bedini – DSL Studio

 

 

Shapes of Inequalities

 

Federica Fragapane’s installation transforms data into organic visual languages, revealing the human dimensions behind inequalities. These data visualizations reject neutrality, instead offering layered, emotional readings of injustice through form and rhythm.

 

Project by: Federica Fragapane

Installation and Exhibition Design: Midori Hasuike


Shapes of Inequalities © Alessandro Saletta e Agnese Bedini – DSL Studio

 

 

Radio Ballads

 

Building on a BBC radio format from the 1950s, Radio Ballads returns with four contemporary commissions exploring care, labor, and community in East London. Created through years of collaboration, these films give voice to those whose stories often go unheard.

 

Curation and Production: Serpentine: Amal Khalaf, Former Curator, Civic Projects; and Elizabeth Graham, Former Associate Curator, Civic Projects Layla Gatens, Former Assistant Curator, Civic Projects with Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director; Natalia Grabowska, Curator at Large, Architecture and Site-specific Projects; and Damiano Gulli, Triennale Milano


Radio Ballads © Alessandro Saletta e Agnese Bedini – DSL Studio

 

 

Milan. Paradoxes and Opportunities

 

Through data and artistic collaboration, this project identifies six paradoxes that define Milan today: juxtapositions of wealth and poverty, visibility and marginalization. Artists reinterpret these contradictions, creating a living archive of the city’s fragmented identity.

 

Project Coordinator: Seble Woldeghiorghis 

Curation: Damiano Gullì and Jermay Michael Gabriel, direttore Black History Months Milano
Scientific Advisor: SI Lab Bocconi – Alessandra Casarico, Felix Eychmüller, Chiara Serra

Exhibition Design: orizzontale


Milano. Pradoxes and Opportunities © Alessandro Saletta e Agnese Bedini – DSL Studio

 

 

Towards a More Equal Future

 

The Norman Foster Foundation presents innovative projects — from refugee shelters to affordable housing and city regeneration — that use design as a tool for equity. This exhibition showcases how architecture can address pressing social and environmental inequalities.

 

Curation: Norman Foster and the Norman Foster Foundation


Towards a More Equal Future © Alessandro Saletta e Piercarlo Quecchia – DSL Studio

 

 

471 DAYS

 

A monumental memorial to the 2023–25 Gaza War, this installation uses 471 suspended fabric columns to represent each day of conflict. Through casualty data, satellite imagery, and personal stories, Filippo Teoldi brings visibility and dignity to individual lives often reduced to statistics.

 

Project by: Filippo Teoldi

Installation and Exhibition Design: Midori Hasuike


471 Days © Alessandro Saletta e Agnese Bedini – DSL Studio

 

 

Portraits of Inequalities: Pittura di Classe

 

A new perspective on Milan’s Ca’ Granda portrait collection. On view are thirty portraits of men and women, created between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries. This time, the collection of notable figures is observed from a different perspective—that of a representative of another social class, portrayed by Giacomo Ceruti, the painter often referred to as the ‘Homer of the poor’.

 

Curation: Giovanni Agosti and Jacopo Stoppa

In collaboration with: Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico
Lighting Design: Pasquale Mari


Portraits of Inequalities. Pittura di Classe © Alessandro Saletta e Agnese Bedini – DSL Studio

 

 

We the Bacteria: Notes Toward Biotic Architecture

 

Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley present an architectural manifesto for microbial coexistence. From gut health to planetary ecosystems, the installation argues that to understand inequality is to understand biology, and to design accordingly.

 

Curator: Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley

Exhibition Design: GRACE


We the Bacteria © Alessandro Saletta e Agnese Bedini – DSL Studio

 

 

The Corner Problem

 

This short film by Diller Scofidio + Renfro turns the humble architectural corner into a site of philosophical and hygienic drama. A meditation on invisibility, resistance, and the limits of design.

 

Film by: Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Frank Willens
Directed by: Elizabeth Diller


The Corner Problem

 

 

A Journey into Biodiversity: Eight Forays on Planet Earth

 

From human cities to octopus reefs and fungal networks, this exhibition redefines cities as cohabitations between species. A planetary journey that questions anthropocentrism and explores diverse models of ecological interdependence.

 

Curated by: Telmo Pievani
In collaboration with: Massimo Labra and Maria Chiara Pastore, National Biodiversity Future Center
Exhibition Design: Studio GISTO


A Journey Into Biodiversity. Eight Forays on Planet Earth, work by Marta Cuscunà © Alessandro Saletta e Agnese Bedini – DSL Studio

 

 

THE REPUBLIC OF LONGEVITY

IN HEALTH EQUALITY WE TRUST

 

By 2050, over two billion people worldwide will be aged sixty or older, marking a global shift from old age to an age of longevity. The Republic of Longevity responds with an exhibition that elevates five simple yet powerful Ministries — Purpose, Sleep Equality, Food Democracy, Physical Freedom, and Togetherness — as democratic tools to narrow the widening gap in health and wellbeing. The project collects everyday practices for longer, healthier lives, while confronting the inequalities that determine access to such lives in the first place.

 

Curation: Nic Palmarini with Marco Sammicheli

Exhibition Design: Sopa Design Studio


The Republic of Longevity. In Health Equality We Trust © Alessandro Saletta e Agnese Bedini – DSL Studio

 

 

NOT FOR HER

AI REVEALING THE UNSEEN

 

With quiet intensity, Not For Her uses artificial intelligence to expose what we fail to see: the deeply embedded gender disparities in professional environments. Through a multimedia triptych and an interactive installation, the work erodes the clarity of perception to reveal how invisible barriers distort our workplaces and assumptions. Here, it asks visitors to reconsider what fairness, visibility, and change really mean.

 

Project by: Politecnico di Milano
Conceived by: Donatella Sciuto, Rettrice Politecnico di Milano
Curated by: Nicola Gatti, Ingrid Paoletti, Matteo Ruta, Politecnico di Milano


Not for Her. AI Revealing the Unseen – Politecnico di Milano © Luca Trelancia

 

 

CLAY CORPUS

 

In Clay Corpus, Theaster Gates intertwines the poetic legacies of Japanese potter Yoshihiro Koide and Italian designer Ettore Sottsass. Drawing on his training in Tokoname, Gates wraps Sottsass’s intimate Casa Lana in Koide’s humble vessels, which evoke the Sanpomichi hill where generations of Japanese potters once displayed their wares. Through this cultural and material exchange, the exhibition celebrates craft as a spiritual act, where even the most utilitarian form can hold cosmic meaning.

 

Work: Theaster Gates


Clay Corpus © Alessandro Saletta e Agnese Bedini – DSL Studio

 

 

THE FRAGILITY OF THE FUTURE

 

In the forecourt of the Palazzo dell’Arte, monumental papier-mâché animals — an elephant, whale, giraffe, and hippopotamus — stand vulnerable and unguarded. These works by Jacopo Allegrucci appear both celebratory and mournful, confronting viewers with the majestic species we are on the brink of losing. Created from fragile and biodegradable papier-mâché, the sculptures capture not just the ephemerality of wildlife, but the instability of the systems that threaten it.

 

Work: Jacopo Allegrucci


The Fragility of The Future | Alessandro Saletta e Piercarlo Quecchia-DSL Studi © Triennale Milano

 

 

interNATIONAL participations EXPLORE LOCAL DIMENSIONS OF INEQUALITY

 

As with each edition, the Triennale Milano International Exhibition also includes a rich and diverse array of international participations, invited through official government channels under the auspices of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE). These official exhibitions offer localized perspectives on the global theme, responding through architectural models, urban investigations, social design strategies, and cultural storytelling. Each display becomes a lens through which visitors can observe how inequality manifests — and is resisted — across different geographies and communities. Cities — historically places of opportunity, yet today areas where differences are often intensified — are at the heart of the International Participations’ exhibition projects. Participating countries have been invited to focus on a specific urban or spatial dimension, contributing to a collective reflection on the most forward-thinking political proposals for a society in which differences are embraced as resources to be reconfigured into new forms of community.

 

Stay tuned as designboom breaks down each participating country’s exhibition, below.

 

 

AUSTRALIA

Land Use Inequality

 

Australia presents Land Use Inequality at the 24th Triennale Milano International Exhibition. Promoted by Monash University and curated by Monash Urban Lab with Baracco+Wright Architects, the exhibition critiques the legacy of colonial settlement and urban sprawl in Melbourne. Since 1835, low-rise housing on unceded land has expanded the city’s footprint, generating a web of ecological, social, and First Nations inequalities. The display reflects on how continued low-density development displaces ancient ecosystems and sacred sites, challenging visitors to reimagine land use from a multispecies, justice-oriented perspective.

 

Commissioner: Monash University
Curator: Monash Urban Lab with Baracco+Wright Architects

Exhibition Design: Baracco+Wright Architects


Australia – Land Use Inequality

© Nigel Bertram

 

 

ANGOLA

Made in Angola

 

In Angola, a bottom-up design movement is emerging. It takes its competence from artisanal skills and local sustainable materials and creates products with a strong local identity. These productions are made in laboratories located in the city of Luanda, helping to create skills and job opportunities for the weakest sections of the population. The Made in Angola exhibition tells the story of emerging Angolan design, its places, protagonists, and products. The exhibition is created through a co-creation process that involves different local actors (artisans, videomakers, architecture students, urban explorers, and cultural animators) in a design workshop held in Luanda.

 

Promoter: Italian Embassy in Luanda, Ao Criativa 

Curators: Eugenia Chiara and Chiara Mittler

Exhibition Design: Anju Konikkara George in collaboration with Pedro Mvemba Cidade and students


Angola – Made in Angola

Workshop at AO Criativa © Joshua Photographer for AO Criativa

 

 

ARMENIA

(ordinary) architecture

 

Armenia presents (ordinary) architecture, a conceptual exploration of everyday spaces and their transformative potential. Promoted by LFA and curated by a collective including Arsen Karapetyan and Yury Grigoryan, the display centers around the humble garage — a relic of Soviet urbanism now reimagined as a flexible platform for creative community. This abstract garage space echoes Yerevan’s evolving urbanity and reveals how architecture’s most unassuming elements can embody deep social meaning.

 

Commissioner: National Library of Armenia

Curators: Arsen Karapetyan, Yury Grigoryan, Bogdan Peric, Andrey Mikhalev, Aleksei Lashkov, Dana Smagina
Promoted by: LFA (Library for Architecture)


Armenia – (ordinary) architecture

“Antarain” by Aleksei Lashkov

 

 

AUSTRIA

Soft Image, Brittle Grounds

 

Austria’s Soft Image, Brittle Grounds is a research-driven media installation by Felix Lenz. Promoted by Vienna’s MAK and curated by Marlies Wirth, the exhibition unpacks the entangled inequalities emerging from digital systems and extractive economies. Through speculative narratives and multi-channel video, it critiques the simplification of complex realities under technological rationalism, while offering a queer, ecological counter-perspective to contemporary power structures.

 

Promoter: MAK – Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna

Curator: Marlies Wirth

Project by: Felix Lenz


Austria – Soft Image, Brittle Grounds

© Felix Lenz

 

 

CHILE

ImAGIne Chile

 

Through ImAGIne Chile, Chile invites visitors to envision a future shaped by Artificial General Intelligence and collective imagination. Promoted by Sebastián Errázuriz Studio and ACQUIS, and curated by Errázuriz, the pavilion celebrates the Chilean capacity to innovate amid scarcity. It encourages global collaboration in designing technological futures that are equitable and adaptive.

 

Promoters: Sebastián Errázuriz Studio + ACQUIS

Curator: Sebastián Errázuriz
Production: Pedro Comparini & ACQUIS


Chile – ImAGIne Chile

 

 

CHINA

Balancing Dynamics: The Law of Civilization Development

 

China presents Balancing Dynamics, a vision rooted in traditional philosophy yet addressing contemporary challenges. Curated by Yongqi Lou, the pavilion explores inequality as a generator of equilibrium. Featuring contributions from five leading universities, it proposes localized, interdisciplinary solutions — from aging populations to urbanism — embodied in experimental forms such as aquaponics and 3D-printed infrastructure.

 

Promoter: Construction Industry Sub-Council, CCPIT

Curator: Yongqi Lou

 


China Pavilion © Alessandro Saletta e Agnese Bedini – DSL Studio

 

 

CUBA

La Habana Ciudad Patrimonial – Diffused Urbanity

 

Cuba’s La Habana Ciudad Patrimonial exhibition, curated by Jorge Fernández Torres, reflects on Havana’s unique urban restoration process and its approach to dissolving inequalities through cultural preservation. It celebrates the social equilibrium maintained within the city’s historic center, resisting elitism and segregation through grassroots heritage practices.

 

Commissioner: Oficina del Historiador de la Ciudad

Curator: Jorge Fernández Torres


Cuba – La Habana Ciudad Patrimonial – Diffused Urbanity

Photo by Néstor Martí, Cuba

 

 

CZECH REPUBLIC

The Momentum of a Decision

 

The Czech Republic presents The Momentum of a Decision, a powerful critique of housing policy and its failures in Prague. Promoted by the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague and curated by Janek Rous and Karolina Kripnerova, the exhibition investigates homelessness as a systemic political issue. It challenges the privatization narrative and calls for a renewed responsibility for affordable housing.

 

Promoter: Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague

Curators & Designers: Janek Rous, Karolina Kripnerova, Magdalena Rutova


Czech Republic – The Momentum of a Decision

Magdalena Rutová, A city for sale, 2024

 

 

GUINEA-BISSAU

Tici Humanidadi: Weaving Humanity

 

Guinea-Bissau’s Tici Humanidadi is a poetic installation advocating for global solidarity through the metaphor of weaving. Promoted by its consulate in Italy and curated by Kiyomi Kawaguchi and Nú Barreto, the display showcases local textiles, art, and storytelling. It emphasizes shared humanity, dignity, and the need to overcome entrenched inequalities.

 

Promoter: Consulate of Guinea-Bissau in Italy

Curators: Kiyomi Kawaguchi and Nú Barreto

Exhibition Design: Nú Barreto


Guinea-Bissau – Tici Humanidadi: Weaving Humanity

Crushing Labor © Samba Baldé

 

 

LEBANON

and from my heart I blow kisses to the sea and houses

 

Lebanon presents and from my heart I blow kisses to the sea and houses, a deeply personal meditation on Beirut’s coastal architecture and collective trauma. Curated by Ala Tannir and supported by AFAC and the Graham Foundation, the exhibition mourns and reimagines a historic home shattered by violence and neglect. It blends artistic strategies to honor memory, resistance, and urban care.

 

Promoters: Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC)

Curator: Ala Tannir

 


Lebanon Pavilion © Alessandro Saletta e Agnese Bedini – DSL Studio

 

 

NORTH POLE TRANSBORDER PARTICIPATION

Liminal Phantoms—The Rebirth of a Landscape

 

The North Pole Pavilion presents Liminal Phantoms, an ecological meditation on post-extractive landscapes. Designed by Alejandro Haiek Coll and promoted by Arctic and Um Arts Research Centers, it narrates the slow regrowth after territorial violence. Through sensorium and metaphor, it evokes the resilience of nature and the urgency of ecological justice.

 

Promoters: Arctic Research Center and Um Arts Research Center and Circolo Scandinavo

Exhibition Design: Alejandro Haiek Coll / Laboratory of Intersectional Ecologies / Umeå University – School of Architecture
Research Team: Lolo Rebecca Rudolph, Tomas Mena, Luis Pimentel, Aram Badr, Atakan Colac, Raquel Colacios, Sevan Mohammadpour, Cesar Velando, Hana Osman, Irina Urriola

 


North Pole and Togo Pavillions © Alessandro Saletta e Agnese Bedini – DSL Studio

 

 

PERU

Relatos Chicha

 

By transforming lettering into a tool of resistance and collective pride, the artist Elliot Tupac brings oral and artisanal traditions into the contemporary in Peru’s exhibition. Heir to the artisanal tradition of the poster-makers of Huancayo, he tells part of the story of Lima’s informal settlements, following with a personal gaze the birth of Chicha culture: a collective identity that emerged in the 1980s from the migration of millions of people from the provinces to the capital in search of new opportunities.


Peru Pavilion © Courtesy of Elliot Tupac

 

 

POLAND

A Brief Vacation

 

Poland’s A Brief Vacation offers a sensory and spatial exploration of regenerative urbanism. Curated by Katarzyna Roj and promoted by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, the exhibition invites visitors to recline, reflect, and reimagine cities as spaces of care and renewal. Drawing from cinema and sanatoriums, it connects crisis with healing, and infrastructure with dignity.

 

Promoter: Adam Mickiewicz Institute, BWA Wrocław Galleries of Contemporary Art

Curator: Katarzyna Roj

Architect: Aleksandra Wasilkowska


Una Breve Vacanza, Polish Pavilion at Triennale di Milano 2025, photo by Jacopo Salvi, Altomare.studio

 

 

PUERTO RICO

Once Upon Three Femisites

 

Puerto Rico presents Once Upon Three Femisites, a moving investigation into spatial complicity in gendered violence. Curated by Regner Ramos and promoted by the University of Puerto Rico School of Architecture, the pavilion retraces the tragic story of Alexa Neulisa Luciano through digital, physical, and ephemeral landscapes. It reclaims these sites as spaces of memory, critique, and protest.

 

Promoter: University of Puerto Rico School of Architecture

Curator: Regner Ramos

 


Puerto Rico Pavillion © Alessandro Saletta e Agnese Bedini – DSL Studio

 

 

QATAR

Tiamat

 

Through Tiamat, Qatar constructs a contemporary architectural experiment in stone. Promoted by Design Doha and created by AAU ANASTAS, the ribbed vault structure references ancient arches and desert ecologies. Blending material innovation with cultural heritage, the pavilion explores resilience, craft, and environmental responsibility in collaboration with Palestinian artisans.

 

Promoter: Design Doha — Qatar Museums Research

Project by: AAU ANASTAS (Elias and Yousef Anastas)


Qatar – Tiamat

ADN D3 © Edmund Sumner

 

 

ROM & SINTI NATION

Motherland Otherland

 

Rom & Sinti present Motherland Otherland, an exhibition promoted by ERIAC and UNAR and curated by Dijana Pavloviç and Hanna Heilborn. Through the work of artists like Małgorzata Mirga-Tas and Sead Kazanxhiu, the pavilion amplifies Romani voices and exposes the inequalities embedded in European cultural narratives. It calls for recognition, representation, and justice.

 

Promoters: European Roma Institute of Arts and Culture (ERIAC) and UNAR

Curators: Dijana Pavloviç, Hanna Heilborn

Commissioner: Movimento Kethane


Rom & Sinti – Motherland Otherland

Roma pavilion Building home © Giovanni Hänninen

 

 

SAUDI ARABIA

Maghras, A Farm for Experimentation

 

Saudi Arabia’s Maghras, A Farm for Experimentation is a contemplative exhibition rooted in its namesake Maghras, a community farm in the ancient oasis of Al Ahsa — once water-rich, now under ecological strain. Defined by a symbolic square of four palm trees, the display captures field recordings, artefacts, and speculative design responses to shifting agro-ecosystems. Visitors are invited into conversations around preservation, resilience, and imagining a restorative future between land and people.

 

Curators: Lulu Almana and Sara Al Omran

Commissioner: The Ministry of Culture of Saudi Arabia


Saudi Arabia – Maghras, A Farm for Experimentation

TM Saudi Arabia Image courtesy of Maghras

 

 

TOGO

Out of Fashion

 

A bold critique of waste colonialism, Togo’s Out of Fashion installation transforms discarded jeans from Lomé’s Hedzranawoe market into architecture. It exposes the environmental and social damage caused by fast fashion’s leftovers dumped in Africa, while showcasing the ingenuity of design as resistance and reclamation.

 

Curators & Designers: Studio NEiDA (Jeanne Autran-Edorh & Fabiola Büchele)

Producer: Atelier Lissanon, with Françoise Autran


Togo – Out of Fashion

Main Building at Hedzranawoe market by architect Da-Blèce Afoda-Sebou, Lomé, Togo 2024. Image Studio NEiDA

 

 

UKRAINE

Inhale/Exhale!

 

Ukraine presents a raw, poetic exhibition confronting the fracture lines of war between frontlines and relative safety, between victim and witness. Set in Western Ukraine, Inhale/Exhale! is about inequality, emergence and disappearance, the artefacts of the victim. It urges visitors to exchange sympathy for respect, exploring the realities of disability, trauma, and coexistence in a divided society struggling toward healing.

 

Curator: Khrystyna Berehovska

Promoter: ZAG Gallery


Ukraine – Inhale/Exhale!

Volodymyr Semkiv – Sculpture «Optimist», 100х70х75 cm, wood

 

 

UNITED NATIONS

Parallel Realities

 

The United Nations’s Parallel Realities is an immersive exhibition curated by the SDG Action Campaign. Through provocative visual storytelling by Uğur Gallenkuş and global changemakers’ testimonies, it explores how inequality fractures our world and offers hope through collective action. The space invites each visitor to reflect, connect, and act.

 

Promoter & Curator: United Nations SDG Action Campaign


What a Wonderful World

United Nations – Parallel Realities

The post designboom’s ultimate guide to 24th triennale milano international exhibition 2025 appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

]]>
bacteria metabolize toxicity in andrés jaque’s cork transspecies palace at triennale milano https://www.designboom.com/design/andres-jaque-cork-palace-bacteria-triennale-milano-2025-offpolinn-05-20-2025/ Tue, 20 May 2025 20:30:34 +0000 https://www.designboom.com/?p=1133987 developed for the exhibition 'we the bacteria' the installation introduces a microbial habitat designed to metabolize toxicity and repair damaged ecologies.

The post bacteria metabolize toxicity in andrés jaque’s cork transspecies palace at triennale milano appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

]]>
Andrés Jaque builds microbial habitat for triennale milano 2025

 

At the 24th Triennale Milano international exhibition, Andrés Jaque and his Office for Political Innovation (OFFPOLINN) unveil The Transspecies Palace, a living architecture where design, biology, and activism entangle to propose new modes of cohabitation. Developed for the exhibition We the Bacteria: Notes Toward Biotic Architecture, curated by Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley, the installation introduces a microbial habitat designed to metabolize toxicity and repair damaged ecologies.

 

Through the careful orchestration of cork, fungi, bacteria, and DNA fragments, The Transspecies Palace proposes a radical departure from extractive building practices toward a new, interspecies mode of architectural cohabitation. ‘This is part of a line of work that we started long ago to explore how the materiality of architecture can transition away from human-centered extractivism to a more symmetrical ecological alliance,’ shares Andrés Jaque. This approach continues the architect’s ongoing investigation into how architecture can participate in ecological reparation, an exploration previously seen in projects such as the Reggio School and the Rambla Climate-House.


all images by José Hevia

 

 

more-than-human actors perform inside The Transspecies Palace

 

A thick, uneven crust of cork centers the Spanish architect’s project for the 24th Triennale Milano International Exhibition. This living skin was first prototyped on the facade of Andrés Jaque’s Reggio School in Madrid and developed by OFFPOLINN’s multidisciplinary team. Porous and unpredictable, it becomes a fertile ground for microbial life. Its rough surface traps mineral, lipid, and sucrase particles, enabling colonies of bacteria and fungi to take root. Through this slow-building infrastructure, The Transspecies Palace cultivates a dense and diverse microbial community, including cyanobacteria, proteobacteria, firmicutes, and rhizobium. Under conditions of high humidity, fungal hyphae form natural ‘highways’ that guide bacteria deep into the cork, where they produce exopolysaccharide matrices, biochemical networks that hold the potential to sequester carbon and produce oxygen.

 

This living assemblage actively works to detoxify its environment and nurture regenerative ecosystems. It suggests that architecture can be artifact and organism at the same time, one that collaborates with more-than-human actors to rethink urban and environmental futures.


a living architecture where design, biology, and activism entangle


a microbial habitat designed to metabolize toxicity and repair damaged ecologies


The Transspecies Palace proposes a radical departure from extractive building practices


fungal hyphae form natural ‘highways’ that guide bacteria deep into the cork


this living assemblage actively works to detoxify its environment and nurture regenerative ecosystems


architecture can be artifact and organism at the same time


this living skin was first prototyped on the facade of Andrés Jaque’s Reggio School in Madrid

 

 

project info:

 

name: The Transspecies Palace

architect: Andrés Jaque – Office for Political Innovation (OFFPOLINN) | @andres_jaque

exhibition: We the Bacteria: Notes Toward Biotic Architecture, 24th Triennale Milano International Exhibition

location: Milan, Italy

curators: Beatriz Colomina, Mark Wigley | @wig56

 

collaborators: Vipeq (Mouad Kheffache, Adrián del Río), 18 piés de altura | @18piesdealtura (José María Miñarro), Elena Águila García

photographer: José Hevia 

The post bacteria metabolize toxicity in andrés jaque’s cork transspecies palace at triennale milano appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

]]>
triennale milano opens ‘voce’, a sound-first space with bespoke furniture by philippe malouin https://www.designboom.com/design/triennale-milano-voce-sound-space-bespoke-furniture-philippe-malouin-luca-cipelletti-milan-04-25-2025/ Fri, 25 Apr 2025 16:30:29 +0000 https://www.designboom.com/?p=1129416 philippe malouin’s green modular furniture brings flexibility to the forefront, making the space adaptable for a range of sound-centered events.

The post triennale milano opens ‘voce’, a sound-first space with bespoke furniture by philippe malouin appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

]]>
Triennale Milano’s ‘voce’ a space dedicated to sound and music

 

Opening on May 13, Voce is a fresh permanent installation at Triennale Milano dedicated to exploring sound as a spatial and architectural element. Conceived by architect Luca Cipelletti as a ‘cathedral of sound,’ the 330-square-meter room transforms a historic wing of Giovanni Muzio’s Palazzo dell’Arte into a minimalist, image-free environment designed for focused listening.

 

Industrial designer Philippe Malouin’s green modular furniture makes the space flexible and easy to adapt. The deep, comfortable chairs can transform into elongated seating. They also help control how sound moves through the room. As the furniture can be rearranged, the space can be set up in different ways to suit various sound-focused events. At its core, the project treats sound as structure, an element capable of shaping spatial experience, perception, and use.

 

Voce operates through a synthesis of disciplines. Acoustic design by Giorgio Di Salvo defines the room’s sonic behavior, and lighting by Anonima Luci introduces subtle shifts in tone without competing for attention. Materials are selected for their acoustic response, spatial neutrality, and sensory clarity. The design team rejects visual primacy, proposing instead a form of spatial culture rooted in silence, vibration, and resonance. The space is free of visual stimuli, reorienting attention toward the intangible, allowing sound to become the medium through which architecture is felt and understood.


all images by Delfino Sisto Legnani

 

 

Philippe Malouin’s modular furniture makes the space flexible

 

Voce unfolds like a modern-day chapel, its spatial logic echoing the layout of a church nave. A grid of rectangular columns divides the hall into three asymmetrical aisles, directing movement and framing the experience. Where an altar might traditionally sit, a sculptural wall of modular acoustic panels rises, a shrine to sound. Across the room, designer Luca Cipelletti introduces a ‘counter-altar’ in the form of a cocktail bar, injecting a social pulse into the otherwise contemplative space.

 

Color is used purposefully. White structural elements, deep green upholstery, and matte black tables keep the room neutral and keeping the focus on the sound. Furniture becomes the tool that unlocks Voce’s versatility. Designed by Philippe Malouin and produced by Meritalia, the bespoke seating system is made from deep-green stitched felt. ‘This commission will become permanent public seating at the Triennale,’ the London-based designer announces via his social media. Modular lounges and listening stations are arranged with the intimacy of a high-end club, but they’re flexible and ready to be reconfigured for concerts, dance floors, spoken word performances, or listening sessions.

 

Soundproofing is not hidden but celebrated. A band of technical panels wraps around the space and lines the ceiling, revealing the architecture of acoustics. Sixteen kilometers of cable run invisibly throughout the structure, while the sound remains rich yet contained. Lighting, designed by Anonima Luci, is just as precise, with dynamic LEDs embedded every 5 centimeters, allowing granular control of tone, rhythm, and color. The system evokes Gianni Colombo’s spatial illusions, subtly animating the room in sync with its sonic landscape.


conceived by architect Luca Cipelletti as a ‘cathedral of sound’

 

 

stefano boeri’s piano parco project continues

 

Positioned between Viale Camoens and the internal halls of the Triennale, Voce reconnects previously inaccessible areas of the building while offering its own independent infrastructure complete with dual entrances, a private garden, a cloakroom, and direct connections to kitchen and staff zones. The project is part of a broader transformation of the Piano Parco, an ongoing 9,600-square-meter renovation of the Palazzo dell’Arte’s interior and gardens spearheaded by Italian architect Stefano Boeri and general director of the Triennale Carla Morogallo and architecturally directed by Cipelletti since 2019.


a grid of rectangular columns divides the hall into three asymmetrical aisles


acoustic design by Giorgio Di Salvo defines the room’s sonic behavior

 


lighting by Anonima Luci introduces subtle shifts in tone


Voce reconnects previously inaccessible areas of the building

 

 

project info:

 

name: Voce

architect: Luca Cipelletti | @lucacipelletti

original architect: Giovanni Muzio

furniture design: Philippe Malouin @philippemalouin

location: Triennale Milano | @triennalemilano, Milan, Italy

area: 330 square meters

 

acoustic design: Giorgio Di Salvo, Lucio Visintini

lighting design: Anonima Luci | @anonima.luci (Alberto Saggia + Stefania Kalogeropoulos)

photographer: Delfino Sisto Legnani | @delfino_sl

The post triennale milano opens ‘voce’, a sound-first space with bespoke furniture by philippe malouin appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

]]>
jeff koons, norman foster & theaster gates among speakers at 2025 art for tomorrow in milan https://www.designboom.com/art/jeff-koons-norman-foster-theaster-gates-speakers-art-for-tomorrow-milan-triennale-04-15-2025/ Tue, 15 Apr 2025 10:31:37 +0000 https://www.designboom.com/?p=1126685 the three-day conference will take place at the triennale milano under the theme of 'overcoming, together,' with over 30 influential speakers from the worlds of art, design and architecture.

The post jeff koons, norman foster & theaster gates among speakers at 2025 art for tomorrow in milan appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

]]>
ART FOR TOMORROW HEADS TO MILAN FOR 10TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

 

Following the success of its Florence and Venice editions, Art for Tomorrow returns to Italy for the third consecutive year, this time in Milan. From May 12th to 14th, 2025, the conference will bring together inspirational speakers including Jeff Koons, Lord Norman Foster, Theaster Gates, Federica Fragapane and more, to explore how art, design and architecture can drive change and foster unity. The three-day event, which coincides with the opening of the Triennale Milano international exhibition, celebrates its 10th anniversary this year under the theme of Overcoming, Together. Aside from the conference, participants will be able to join a series of exclusive activities, including tailored visits to museums, galleries, performance spaces, and artist studios to see the arts in action.

 

‘We are delighted to organize this year’s edition in the Triennale, which will give all our guests the chance to visit the exhibition, and maybe reflect on some of our topics,’ says Achilles Tsaltas, President of the Democracy & Culture Foundation, the non-profit organization behind Art for Tomorrow.‘We are partnering with leading Milanese organizations and spaces to offer our guests tours (and surprises) of the MASSIMODECARLO Gallery, the HangarBicocca, Museo del Novecento, the Fondazione Prada, and Loris Cecchini’s studio – which I’m told is one of the most amazing artist studios.’ 

 

designboom is happy to announce that we are partnering with the 2025 Art for Tomorrow conference, bringing you interviews and news from the event — learn more about the program and register here, and use the code DESIGNBOOM to get a 20% discount.

jeff koons, norman foster & theaster gates among speakers at 2025 art for tomorrow in milan
Jeff Koons will hold a public lecture as part of Art for Tomorrow 2025 | all images courtesy of Art for Tomorrow

 

 

‘Overcoming, Together’ AT the MILANO Triennale in may 2025

 

The 2025 Art for Tomorrow conference is held at the historic Milano Triennale building under the theme of Overcoming, Together, exploring how creativity can address society’s most pressing challenges. Initially asked by the City of Milan and Deputy Mayor for Culture Tommaso Sacchi to connect MiArt (as part of Milano Art Week) and the  Triennale International exhibition, with their respective themes being ‘among friends’ and ‘Inequalities,’ the AfT team saw a natural bridge between the two. ‘We believe that by coming together, anyone can achieve anything,’ Achilles Tsaltas tells designboom. ‘When you think of community-based practices, the healing process of art, and art as a catalyst for social development and creative economies there’s a lot there that can help our societies overcome social problems. It’s also very much in the DNA of our Foundation to explore the intersection of arts and democracy.’

 

Tapping into our shared humanity to learn about creative solutions to the most entrenched problems, the conference will highlight the transformative power of the arts to unite communities and inspire meaningful change through spotlight conversations, public lectures, panel discussions, lightning talks and more. ‘Panels I’m particularly looking for will dive into biodiversity where we’ll look at how artists are using tech to recreate lost worlds, or even create alternative futures where biodiversity thrives,’ Tsaltas notes. ‘We’ll also look at how designers are among the best equipped to show inequalities to the world. And with conflicts raging across the globe, we’re also creating a space to discuss how art can help cope in dark times, and how in some cases art can even flourish in war zones.’

 

Aside from the inspirational topics that will be explored by over 30 speakers, the three-day event also offers a great opportunity for its diverse audience to connect with each other, often leading to wonderful partnerships and collaborations. ‘We try our best to curate spaces for all guests to interact with one another, with speakers, and the different partner organizations,’ Tsaltas tells us. ‘What often comes up is a spur to action, in very different shapes or forms.’

jeff koons, norman foster & theaster gates among speakers at 2025 art for tomorrow in milan
Art For Tomorrow 2023 edition in Florence

 

 

AN INITIATIVE BY THE DEMOCRACY & CULTURE FOUNDATION

 

Now in its 10th edition, Art for Tomorrow is organized by the Democracy & Culture Foundation, a nonprofit whose Board Chair is Irina Bokova (former Director-General of UNESCO), while Ai Weiwei, Brunello Cucinelli, and Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani are amongst its Leadership Council. In previous years, the conference took place in Berlin, Doha and Athens, and now in Italy for a three-year period.

 

‘Originally Art for Tomorrow was convened by the New York Times and its commercial division,’ Achilles Tsaltas explains. ‘When the decision was taken to create a nonprofit structure – the Democracy & Culture Foundation – to organize the conference and lead other initiatives, we were really looking at making a wider impact. We do this today by bringing very different crowds together for three days, addressing difficult issues with leading voices. Art for Tomorrow is now a platform for all to join and explore what we call the social impacts of art, diving into sustainability, politics, the driving forces of arts and culture in different parts of the world.’ As part of its 10th anniversary celebrations, the 2025 edition of Art for Tomorrow is also hosting the very first prize giving ceremony of the Creativity for Social Change Award, launched for emerging artists working on social change by the Democracy & Culture Foundation and the Moleskine Foundation.


Achilles Tsaltas, President of the Democracy & Culture Foundation

jeff koons, norman foster & theaster gates among speakers at 2025 art for tomorrow in milan
Art for Tomorrow 2022 edition in Athens

jeff-koons-norman-foster-and-theaster-gates-speakers-at-2025-art-for-tomorrow-milan-designboom-large

Theaster Gates at his Chicago studio, 2024 | photo by Lyndon French, courtesy of Theaster Gates Studio


information designer Federica Fragapane will talk about ‘Visualizing Inequality’ at the 2025 Art for Tomorrow conference

jeff koons, norman foster & theaster gates among speakers at 2025 art for tomorrow in milan
Italian architect and designer Michele De Lucchi | photo by Giovanni Gastel

jeff-koons-norman-foster-and-theaster-gates-speakers-at-2025-art-for-tomorrow-milan-designboom-large2

project info:

 

name: Art for Tomorrow 2025 | Overcoming, Together

dates: 12-14 May, 2025

location: Triennale Milano, Italy

registration: use the code DESIGNBOOM to get a 20% discount

organizer: Democracy & Culture Foundation

list of confirmed speakers: Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Khalid Albaih, Nomi Bar-Yaacov, Susanna Barla, Alvaro Barrington, Stefano Boeri, Elena Bonanno di Linguaglossa, Melanie Challenger, Bjornstjerne Christiansen, SUPERFLEX, Alessandro Cinque, João Correia, Massimo De Carlo, Michele De Lucchi, Martine d’Anglejan-Chatillon, Eneri, Lord Norman Foster, Federica Fragapane, Antony Gormley, Anthony Huberman, Jeff Koons, Jakob Kudsk Steensen, Pearl Lam, Ok kyung Lee, Jiyoon Lee, Courtney J. Martin, Michael P. Nash, Shirin Neshat, Simon Njami, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Nicola Riccardi, David Salle, Audrey Teichmann, Vicente Todolí, Gayane Umerova

The post jeff koons, norman foster & theaster gates among speakers at 2025 art for tomorrow in milan appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

]]>
foster, colomina, obrist, gates, and more curate triennale 2025 ‘inequalities’ exhibition https://www.designboom.com/design/triennale-milano-2025-inequalities-theaster-gates-norman-foster-more-03-07-2025/ Fri, 07 Mar 2025 10:30:59 +0000 https://www.designboom.com/?p=1119909 curated by leading figures in architecture, art, and academia, the international exhibition's 24th edition will run from may 13th to november 9th, 2025.

The post foster, colomina, obrist, gates, and more curate triennale 2025 ‘inequalities’ exhibition appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

]]>
triennale milano 2025 tackles global disparities with inequalities

 

Triennale Milano presents the 24th edition of its International Exhibition, titled Inequalities, running from May 13th to November 9th, 2025, at the Palazzo dell’Arte, Milan. Following Broken Nature in 2019, which explored sustainability, and Unknown Unknowns in 2022, which examined the mysteries of the cosmos, the final installment of this trilogy shifts the focus back to the human condition and confronts one of today’s most pressing issues—global disparities across urban, social, and economic landscapes.

 

Curated by leading figures in architecture, art, and academia—including Norman Foster, architectural historian Beatriz Colomina, architect and lecturer Mark Wigley, and Hans Ulrich Obrist, director of the Serpentine Galleries—the exhibition assembles voices from 43 countries to interrogate inequality from multiple perspectives. It is set to feature projects by Pritzker Prize-winning architects Kazuyo Sejima and Alejandro Aravena, as well as Elizabeth Diller of Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Boonserm Premthada of Bangkok Project Studio, and interdisciplinary artist Theaster Gates. Filmmaker Amos Gitai will also contribute, adding cinematic depth to the discourse.


Brazil, Johnny Miller, Unequal Scenes

 

 

leading figures gather for the 24th international exhibition

 

As inequalities deepen across the globe, the 2025 International Exhibition promises to offer critical insights and tangible pathways toward a more equitable future. The spatial layout of the show at the Palazzo dell’Arte will be divided into two thematic sections. The ground floor will examine the geopolitics of inequality, addressing urban wealth disparities and their evolving implications. The first floor will delve into the biopolitics of inequality, scrutinizing how social, economic, and gender disparities shape life and mobility. Special national pavilions—organized under the auspices of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE)—will each spotlight a different city, identifying innovative policy proposals to mitigate urban inequalities. 

 

The 24th edition of the exhibition gathers leading scholars, curators, designers, and institutions to explore the geopolitical and biopolitical dimensions of inequality. The curatorial team includes Giovanni Agosti and Jacopo Stoppa, Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley, Marco Sammicheli and Nic Palmarini, Nina Bassoli, Hans Ulrich Obrist and Natalia Grabowska, Seble Woldeghiorghis, Damiano Gullì, and Black History Months Milan (Jermay Michael Gabriel), Norman Foster, Theaster Gates, and Telmo Pievani. The exhibition also features special projects by Amos Gitai, Elizabeth Diller/Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Federica Fragapane, Filippo Teoldi, Maurizio Molinari, Kimia Zabhiyan (Grenfell Next of Kin), Jacopo Allegrucci, and Ingo Niermann. Designing the exhibition layouts and installations are Abnormal, Gisto, Grace, Midori Hasuike, Orizzontale, and Sopa Design Studio.


Brazil, Johnny Miller, Unequal Scenes

 

 

performances, research, and public engagement

 

Alongside the main exhibition, Inequalities will extend into a performative program curated by Umberto Angelini, featuring artists such as Chiara Bersani, Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige, and Peeping Tom. The event will also include a public program led by Damiano Gullì, engaging scholars and cultural figures in discussions throughout its duration. Nobel laureate Michael Spence will deliver a keynote address at the opening ceremony on May 12, underscoring the event’s intellectual rigor. A new initiative, Triennale on Tour, will take the exhibition beyond its Milanese venue, visiting eight municipalities with a mobile unit designed by Orizzontale architects’ collective.

 

For the first time, the Triennale International Exhibition brings together five major Milanese universities—University of Milan-Bicocca, Bocconi University, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Politecnico di Milano, and Università degli Studi di Milano—alongside the IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico Foundation. The exhibition also fosters collaboration with over 20 international institutions, including the Arctic Center, Democracy and Culture Foundation, Columbia University, Norman Foster Foundation, Oficina del Historiador, Princeton University, and Serpentine Galleries. Scientific coordination is led by Beatrice Balducci, with international curation by Laura Maeran. 


Norman Foster Foundation, Towards an Equal Future, Essential Homes Research Project | image © Pablo Gómez-Ogando, courtesy of the Norman Foster Foundation


Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley, We the Bacteria: Notes Toward Biotic Architecture, E-Coli rendering based on scanning electron microscopic (SEM) | image Alissa Eckert for CDC, public domain


Nic Palmarini and Marco Sammicheli, The Republic of Longevity. In health equality we trust, Brynjar Sigurdarson, The Silent Village Entrance Trance | image © Fabrice Gousset Courtesy Galerie kreo


Serpentine Gallery and Damiano Gullì, Radio Ballads, Ilona Sagar, The Body Blow, Film Still, 2022, | image courtesy the artist and Serpentine, London

triennale-milano-2025-inequalities-theaster-gates-norman-foster-more-designboom-large01

Nina Bassoli, Cities, Palisades Fire that started in the City of Los Angeles, January 2025


Telmo Pievani, A journey into biodiversity, Eight forays on planet earth, Marta Cusconà


Telmo Pievani, A journey into biodiversity. Eight forays on planet earth, Peter Godfrey-Smith


Theaster Gates, A Clay Biography, Theaster Gates, Yoshihiro Koide Collection (1941-2022) | image courtesy Theaster Gates Studio and Mori Art Museum

triennale-milano-2025-inequalities-theaster-gates-norman-foster-more-designboom-large02

Noto for Her, Dontella Sciuto, Matteo Ruta, Ingrid Paoletti, and more

 

project info:

 

name: 24th Triennale Milano International Exhibition – Inequalities | @triennalemilano

curators & contributors: Norman Foster, Beatriz Colomina, Mark Wigley, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Theaster Gates, Giovanni Agosti, Jacopo Stoppa, Marco Sammicheli, Nic Palmarini, Nina Bassoli, Natalia Grabowska, Seble Woldeghiorghis, Damiano Gullì, Black History Months Milan (Jermay Michael Gabriel), Telmo Pievani

location: Palazzo dell’Arte, Milan, Italy

dates: May 13 – November 9, 2025

The post foster, colomina, obrist, gates, and more curate triennale 2025 ‘inequalities’ exhibition appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

]]>
elio fiorucci’s bold legacy comes to life in triennale milano retrospective https://www.designboom.com/art/elio-fiorucci-bold-legacy-triennale-milano-retrospective-11-07-2024/ Thu, 07 Nov 2024 16:01:23 +0000 https://www.designboom.com/?p=1100328 drawing from the personal archives of the designer, the exhibition intertwines the story of fiorucci's life with the development of his brand.

The post elio fiorucci’s bold legacy comes to life in triennale milano retrospective appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

]]>
Triennale Milano unveils extensive Elio Fiorucci exhibition

 

Running until March 26th, 2025, Triennale Milano presents Elio Fiorucci, the most extensive exhibition ever dedicated to the renowned Italian fashion designer and his eponymous brand. Celebrating Fiorucci’s transformative influence on fashion and Italy’s contemporary art scene since the 1960s, the retrospective provides a detailed look at his legacy. Drawing from the personal archives of the designer and a range of industrial products, the show intertwines the story of his life with the development of his brand, offering fresh insights into his vision. For the first time, visitors can listen to previously unreleased audio recordings of Fiorucci himself, a rare chance to understand his creative approach in his own words.

 

Curated by art director Judith Clark, the exhibition features the designer’s most iconic works, including photographs, clothing, accessories, and contemporary art. These items are set within an immersive exhibition design by theater and opera director Fabio Cherstich, enhancing the theatrical quality of Fiorucci’s world. Presented in a chronological arrangement, the material allows visitors to follow the evolution of his career, showcasing the personal and professional milestones that defined his innovative legacy.


Elio Fiorucci, installation view | image by Delfino Sisto Legnani DSL Studio © Triennale Milan

 

 

How One Designer’s Vision Made Milan a Global Hub of Creativity

 

Stefano Boeri, President of Triennale Milano, emphasized the importance of the exhibition in filling the cultural void surrounding Fiorucci’s influence in the city.‘Milan, thanks to Fiorucci, has in fact been for at least two decades one of the magnets of the most advanced ideas in international youth culture and the cradle of the most fertile and daring contaminations not only between fashion, design, visual art, and advertising, but also between culture and commerce,’ Boeri shares. ‘By invading the dark Milan of the 1970s with colors and shapes and then exporting his chromatic comet to the world, Elio Fiorucci gave his city the gift of primacy in international creativity.’


Fiorucci’s bold, colorful aesthetic exploded onto the Milanese scene in the 1970s, transforming the city into a hub of creativity. Through his characteristic fusion of fashion, design, and advertising, Fiorucci changed the retail landscape and redefined Milan’s role in the global cultural zeitgeist. The exhibition narrates how this brand was a mirror of its designer’s personality—playful, irreverent, and always ahead of the curve. His ability to combine fashion with art and commerce is explored through a vast collection of media, including video footage, architectural models, and even room-sized installations.


Elio Fiorucci, installation view | image by Delfino Sisto Legnani DSL Studio © Triennale Milan

 

 

Fiorucci’s Vision Continues to Influence Modern RetaiL

 

Elio Fiorucci, whose name became synonymous with youth culture, creativity, and irreverence, has seen a revival in contemporary global culture. His brand has become a favorite among Gen Z and the style-conscious It Girls, with its bold and boundary-pushing designs. However, beyond his innovative clothing, Fiorucci has also contributed to the world of retail and experiential marketing.

 

As early as the 1960s, the designer understood that the retail interior design could create an environment that engaged all the senses, creating the concept store to turn shopping into an experience. He was the first designer to incorporate scent into retail spaces by using air conditioning systems to perfume his stores, and he famously introduced music as an integral part of the shopping experience. These innovative touches created an atmosphere that was as much about entertainment as it was about purchasing, helping to elevate his brand to international fame and setting a lasting benchmark for the modern retail experience.


Elio Fiorucci, installation view | image by Delfino Sisto Legnani DSL Studio © Triennale Milan

 

 

Exhibition Catalog and rare Album Capture the Designer’s Vision

 

Accompanying the exhibition is a comprehensive catalog, available in Italian and English, published by Electa. The catalog features essays by scholars and creative figures, exploring the themes and languages that interested Fiorucci throughout his career. It offers a deeper dive into the designer’s cultural impact and his unique vision for the future of fashion and retail.

 

Also included is Around the World for Elio Fiorucci: The Albums of Mirella Clemencigh, a special album curated by Judith Clark and Adelita Husni-Bey. The album introduces Fiorucci’s imagery and features a conversation between the exhibition curator and Husni-Bey, the daughter of Mirella Clemencigh, a fashion designer and Fiorucci collaborator. The album is a rare glimpse into Fiorucci’s personal relationships and creative collaborations from the 1960s and 1970s.


Elio Fiorucci, installation view | image by Delfino Sisto Legnani DSL Studio © Triennale Milan


Elio Fiorucci, installation view | image by Delfino Sisto Legnani DSL Studio © Triennale Milan


Fiorucci Stickers, Panini, 1984, courtesy Fiorucci / Fiorucci Stickers, Panini, 1984, courtesy of Fiorucci


Elio Fiorucci, installation view | image by Delfino Sisto Legnani DSL Studio © Triennale Milan

elio-fiorucci-cultural-influence-triennale-milano-retrospective-11-07-2024-designboom-1800-02

Elio Fiorucci, installation view | image by Delfino Sisto Legnani DSL Studio © Triennale Milan


Elio Fiorucci, installation view | image by Delfino Sisto Legnani DSL Studio © Triennale Milan


Elio Fiorucci, portrait with glasses Fun, 1978, courtesy of Love Therapy archive

elio-fiorucci-cultural-influence-triennale-milano-retrospective-11-07-2024-designboom-1800-01

Love Theraphy Store c/o OVS, San Babila | Corso Europa, 2013, courtesy of Love Therapy archive

 

project info: 

 

name: Elio Fiorucci | @fiorucci
curator: Judith Clark | @prefigured_, @j_clarkspace
exhibition design: Fabio Cherstich | @fabio_cherstich
location: Triennale Milano | @triennalemilano, Milan, Italy
dates: November 6, 2024 – March 16, 2025

The post elio fiorucci’s bold legacy comes to life in triennale milano retrospective appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

]]>