Milan Design Weeks
April 2024

On the occasion of Salone del Mobile, French visual artist JR has unveiled a new site-specific installation at Milan’s Stazione Centrale, entitled La Nascita (The Birth). The monumental trompe-l’oeil blurs the boundaries of time and place, fashioning a surreal architectural fantasy that draws a link between the grandeur of the station today and its history. In 1906, following the opening of the Simplon Tunnel, an engineering feat marking the burgeoning era of train travel in Milan, King Victor Emmanuel III laid a symbolic foundation stone for the new central train station. As one of the longest train tunnels in history, tons of rock were excavated from the Alps to create the ambitious Simplon passage. JR superimposes the rugged, chiseled facade of the hollowed mountain onto the Milano Centrale Railway Station. La Nascita evokes the historical strata of Milan’s main train station. The building, a testament to transitional architecture, underwent numerous design revisions over its two decades of construction to accommodate evolving visions of Italy. JR propels the station into another transition, seamlessly weaving mineral formations into the amalgamation of classical Roman, eclectic, rationalist, art nouveau, and Art Deco architecture. As with his installations La Ferita on Florence’s Palazzo Strozzi and Punto di Fuga on the Farnese Palace in Rome, a deep gash opens the station. Where the opening leads is unknown, yet it beckons viewers to consider both the celebrated and sorrowful histories memorialized on the station’s facade, inside its halls, and under its platforms. While wandering amid scattered mineral formations on the Piazza, travelers are invited to contemplate the journey of life and the indomitable human urge to explore, exchange, and migrate.

Stazione Centrale
piazza Duca d'Aosta 1
20125 Milan

Moncler transforms Milano Centrale railway station into a public gallery with the exhibition "An Invitation To Dream", where extraordinary minds shaping culture today, invite visitors to dream. Curated by Jefferson Hack.

Stazione di Milano Centrale
piazza Duca d'Aosta 1
20125 Milan

A showcases the new collection of furniture and Home accessories, resulting in impeccable craftsmanship.
Private press preview on April 15 from 9:00 to 18:00.

via Broggi 23
20129 Milan

Open to the public prior registration at:: www.dolcegabbana.com f

Pirelli HangarBicocca showcases an exhibition titled Call and Gather: Sisters, Moths, and Flame Twisters. Lioness Bones, Snakes, and Stones. featuring the works of Chiara Camoni, one of the fore­most Italian artists of her generation. Her practice ranges from drawing to vegetable prints, from video to sculpture, with a partic­ular focus on ceramics. Her work is charac­terized by the use of objects belonging to the domestic world or organic materials that the artist integrates into her production. The exhibition, curated by Lucia Aspesi and Fiammetta Griccioli, brings together the largest body of works ever presented by Chiara Camoni and, together with a series of new pro­ductions, gives life to an architecture of collectivity and memory, whose forms are inspired by the Italian gardens of the late Renaissance and the ancient am­phitheaters.

Pirelli HangarBicocca
via Chiese 2
20126 Milan

More info:: pirellihangarbicocca.org/

Pirelli HangarBicocca presents a retrospective of New York-based artist Nari Ward, an internationally acclaimed artist, known for his installations that combine familiar and humble materials into a layering of socio-historical references. With a particular focus on time-based media works, in­cluding video, sound, performative sculptures, and installations, the exhibition titled Ground Break delves into over thirty years of practice, presenting early seminal and historical works as well as new productions. The narrative unfolds through the seminal large-scale installations, originally realized by Ward between 1996 and 2000 for Ralph Lemon’s choreography Geography Trilogy, presented here in an ex­hibition setting for the first time since then. The three works will create a new choreography together with other sculptures, videos, installations, and the bodies of the visitors. The notion of performativity animates the exhibition it­self, which will be marked by a program of live collaborative actions running throughout the show. The exhibition will be complemented by a monographic volume presenting the most recent studies on Nari Ward’s practice, exploring aspects of performa­tivity, sound and time-based practices that have emerged from collaborative exchanges in the artist’s work.

Pirelli HangarBicocca
via Chiese 2
20126 Milan

More info:: pirellihangarbicocca.org/