Milan Design Week 2026 – the 5VIE District’s Program

Milan Design Week 2026 – the 5VIE District’s Program

The 5VIE district draws inspiration from the work of contemporary philosopher David Chalmers for this year’s Milan Design Week. QoT – Qualia of Things, the title of the upcoming edition, turns the spotlight on the qualitative and subjective aspects of conscious sensory experience—those individual “sensations” that cannot be described through measurable data.
5VIE thus proposes an alternative to one of the most popular themes of recent years—the Internet of Things—and to the emphasis placed on networking physical objects and on the power of connectivity required to manage vast amounts of data.
Since its foundation, the 5VIE district has made authorial design and the hybridization of art and design its defining traits. With this year’s theme, it reaffirms its vision, underscoring “the urgency of safeguarding the human dimension of feeling.” By stating that the qualities of objects—their form, color, material texture, sound—activate different qualia in each individual, we affirm that every object holds value above all for its ability to evoke emotions, to summon other landscapes, images, memories, and to generate ever‑changing vibrations, because the relationship that emerges between the object, its creator, and its user is always unique.

Cover image: Jomon Vessels by Noe Kuremoto. Photo by Kestutis Zilionis, courtesy of Noe Kuremoto

5VIE Productions for MDW — 20–26 April 2026

Now in its 13th edition, 5VIE presents ten new productions alongside exhibitions by designers, independent studios, and companies. These will be showcased across the district’s three main hubs – Cavallerizze on Via Olona 4; Via Cesare Correnti 14; and SIAM on Via Santa Marta – as well as throughout the surrounding streets that define the area.

Tadeas Podracky – Before the Shape Appears
The project introduces three new lamps sculpted from solid wood – one pendant and two floor lamps. Each piece emerges from a hands-on practice rooted in sculpture and the direct shaping of material. The works take form through the resistance, grain, and internal structure of the wood itself, allowing the shape to gradually reveal itself over the course of the making process.

Noe Kuremoto’s Jomon – A Mother’s Anthem
At the Cavallerizze on Via Olona, Japanese ceramic artist Noe Kuremoto presents a new exhibition conceived as a love letter to mothers around the world—a celebration of the complexity of motherhood.
The show features Kuremoto’s latest stoneware creations, envisioned as contemporary reinterpretations of some of the oldest known ceramics, dating back to the Jōmon period (14,000–300 BCE). Traditionally, these vessels were used in both domestic and ritual contexts and were often regarded as protective objects.
Kuremoto’s elegant works are reimagined as talismans and tributes—homages to the everyday moments of light and shadow that, together, shape a life.

Danny Candotto – In Habit Out
IN-HABIT-OUT is a collection of five wall-mounted display cases that will be installed along Via Cesare Correnti: small architectures to inhabit with objects, to leave empty, or to observe as fragments of a scaled‑down Milan.
The title, IN-HABIT-OUT, is a neologism tracing a trajectory from the inside outward: “IN” represents the intimate, private space; “IN-HABIT” refers to the individual and social condition of inhabiting a space; “OUT” denotes what inevitably emerges from that intimacy into the city.

Elizabeth Lewis – Cosmic Meadow
For Milan Design Week 2026, SWING Design Gallery presents Cosmic Meadow, an installation by Australian ceramic artist Elizabeth Lewis, hosted within 5VIE.
This collection of handcrafted ceramics reflects on the surrealism of biomorphic forms found in ancient sculpture and architecture. Inspired by the animal world and mythology, the vases and wall pieces draw from natural processes of decay and calcification, giving shape to works that feel both primordial and otherworldly

Elizabeth Lewis, Thorny vase. Courtesy of Swing Design Gallery

Giuditta Vettese – La Fiamma che non Brucia
With this new edition of La Fiamma che non Brucia (The Flame That Does Not Burn), Giuditta Vettese continues the research she began in 2024 with the bronze sculpture of the same name, created with the support of Sali e Tabacchi Journal at Fonderia Battaglia.
Within the spaces of Le Cavallerizze, the sculpture becomes a domestic altar—a place for intimate contemplation, devotion, and care.

Marco Guazzini – Risonanze
For Risonanze (Resonances), Guazzini begins with an apparently simple gesture: taking objects of different types—a console, a desk, a coat rack, a small side table, and other pieces born from imagination—and binding them together through a system of aluminum tubes.
The result is a landscape of things in which function is surpassed and becomes possibility; every connection suggests a new outcome, every curve opens toward a new direction.

Marco Guazzini – Risonanze. Marco Guazzini and Maria Cristina Didero

Richard Yasmine – Vessels of the Intangible
This lighting collection sits at the intersection of design, artistic installation, and theatricality.
Each object—crafted through different artisanal techniques—transforms one of the five sensory organs (the eye, the ear, the nose, the lips, and the finger) into a threshold of awareness.
What appears as a luminous sculpture becomes a vessel for what escapes immediate comprehension: the after‑image of sight, the resonance of sound, the lingering trace of scent, the imprint of touch, and the anticipation of taste—translated into states of memory, desire, expectation, resonance, and nostalgia.

Studio mo man tai – Re-campaign
Re-campaign is a travelling chromatic installation marking the entrance to the Cavallerizze.
The Eindhoven-based duo transforms large-scale advertising banners – some originally measuring up to 18 × 46 meters – into fifteen vibrant textile portals.
Once used to cover urban façades and convey commercial messages, these high‑resistance prints are cut, recomposed, and reassembled to create an immersive passageway.

mo man tai – Re-campaign.

Liquid Rituals
Liquid Rituals is a ceramic research and production studio exploring how objects can transform everyday gestures into rituals, merging function, materiality, and artistic tradition while drawing inspiration from natural forms and organic matter.
The installation invites visitors into the creative world of Liquid Rituals: fluid shapes inspired by aquatic and vegetal organisms intertwine with ceramic processes, giving life to objects that belong to an imaginary realm—an oneiric weave of places and memories taking form through clay.

Sara Ricciardi – Alma Water. The Sea Room
Alma Water is an immersive installation that transports us into the liquid heart of Sardinia.
The space is animated by the continuous movement of large silk bellies. Suspended and stirred by breaths of air, the fabrics ripple like a marine surface, generating a fluid, enveloping choreography.
Within the context of Milan Design Week 2026, the Sea Room becomes a space for pause and immersion, where sound becomes a communal gesture.
A water‑dance dedicated to Sardinia, in which the sea is not only observed: it is listened to, crossed, and created together.

Sara Ricciardi – Alma Water. The Sea Room