The gallery spaces provide a setting for a dialogue between the photographic works of Alessandro Vicario and the new collection of glass vases by Laura Sattin.
Curated by architect Emanuela Terrile, this is the first event in the Lab 1930 BON VIVRE project which, during Milan Design Week, will provide an annual opportunity for exchange between a photographer represented by the gallery and a designer. The aim is to open the gallery up to a wider range of external perspectives in terms of both curation and the works on display: this will enable older photographic series to be reinterpreted through engagement with design.
As Vico Magistretti wrote, "Living is, above all, an autobiographical matter": the home is a constantly evolving representation of the self, a space in which we can express our current identity or construct the one we aspire to have.
The domestic space thus becomes a layered surface, a dynamic threshold between the present and the past, the visible and the invisible. It is precisely within this tension that photography and glass converge: both operate through subtraction and revelation, making things visible without exhausting them. Their transparency is never absolute, just as opacity is never definitive.
In the seven photographs entitled Transparencies, from the series Landscapes of Absence. In the Footsteps of Lalla Romano (2003), Alessandro Vicario builds upon his reflections on memory and time, in opposition to the contemporary tendency towards a culture of forgetfulness. By examining the silence of rooms once lived by the poetess Lalla Romano, Vicario highlights her absence by photographing the fragmented traces emerging from the hammered glass doors of her house in Milan.
In Laura Sattin's vases, too, the material transcends its role as a mere surface to become a vessel for time. In the Gradienti collection (2026), she combines traditional glassblowing techniques with a contemporary spatial sensibility, exploring the essence of glass and colour through subtle transitions and strong contrasts. The sandblasted glass of her vases softens the sharpness of the light, evoking the interplay between presence and absence.
To accompany the exhibition, the catalogue Laura Sattin, Alessandro Vicario, Trasparenze/Transparencies has been published by ELR Edizioni Le Ricerche, Losone 2026, featuring a critical essay by Emanuela Terrile. The graphic design is by Massimo&Fiameni Design, Milan. The photographs of Laura Sattin's Gradienti were taken by Alessandro Vicario.
The exhibition set up is by Pietro Bologna.
