POETICA by WonderGlass with wallpaper designs by Calico Wallpaper
Istituto dei Ciechi
Via Vivaio 7, Milan
Tuesday 8th – Saturday 12th April
Opening times: 10am – 7pm
Porta Venezia Design District 2025
POETICA by WonderGlass with wallpaper designs by Calico Wallpaper
On the occasion of the 63rd edition of Salone del Mobile, WonderGlass returns to Istituto dei Ciechi with POETICA, an installation featuring new works by Vincent Van Duysen and Ronan Bouroullec, complemented by exquisite wallpaper designs from Calico Wallpaper, and a special contribution by Officine Saffi Lab. This evocative project reimagines glass and paper as vessels for memory and imagination, offering a poetic exploration of materiality and craft.
The title draws from the ancient art of making and storytelling, reflecting the creative forces that shape art, literature, and design. Materials transcend their physical form, becoming bridges between the tangible and the intangible. Their shapes and hues carry emotion, memory, and meaning, evoking craftsmanship as a form of language.
POETICA explores the delicate balance between the ordinary and the abstract, where objects reveal hidden dimensions through their interaction with their surroundings. Each piece unfolds new layers of meaning, in a storytelling that begins in the mind of the designer, evolves through the hands of the craftsman, and finds its full expression in the eyes of the viewer. A poetic cycle is thus co-created – design, craftmanship and perception – resulting in an ever-evolving narrative that extends beyond the object itself.
Vincent Van Duysen introduces Optô, a collection with an architectural essence, defined by a commanding visual presence and an organic integration into its surroundings. Central to the design is the innovative use of perforated fused glass, paired with blown glass, creating a dynamic interplay between transparency and opacity, light and shadow. This duality imbues the collection with an abstracted fluid dimension, continuously revealing new facets as it interacts with context, light, and perspective.
Ronan Bouroullec presents an experiment in materiality – uniting two crafts that shape materials at high temperatures, Architettura per Fiori balances the weight of cast glass with the delicacy of enamelled ceramics. Developed in collaboration with Officine Saffi Lab, each vessel traps light within its arching glass mass, filtering this illuminated body across the corresponding and delicate ceramic enamels. This collection will also be displayed at Fondazione Officine Saffi.
Bouroullec’s second work, the installation Vetrofuso Spazio, creates suspended screens with simple geometries by layering fine strips of glass, which are fused together by intense heat. It is a primitive project, a geometric lace whose irregular vibration is unpredictably altered by intense heat— a simple and direct expression of constructive beauty, further expanding the dialogue between materials, craftsmanship and artistic expression.
“At the core of our practice is the belief in the power of collaboration to unlock new creative possibilities. With Calico Wallpaper, the installation walls are transformed into a poetic canvas, setting an evocative atmosphere for the experience. Meanwhile, our collaboration with Officine Saffi Lab, designed by Ronan Bouroullec, embraces the richness that comes from cross-disciplinary exchange. Working with visionaries in their fields allows us to push the boundaries of material expression, where the fusion of tradition and experimentation reveal unexpected new narratives, elevating design into a tactile and emotional experience.” – Maurizio & Christian Mussati, WonderGlass Founders
Aura and Aurora, both designed in house by Calico Wallpaper Co-founder and Creative Director Rachel Cope, are designed to immerse viewers in waves of atmospheric colour. Aura is inspired by the unseen fields of energy that surrounds a person or object, while Aurora is inspired by the relationship between light, colour, place, and mood in each day’s cycle of dawn and dusk. These collections reflect the intangible qualities of energy and light.
POETICA culminates in a celebration of collaboration—not just between materials but between visionaries and makers. WonderGlass, with the collaboration of Calico Wallpaper and Officine Saffi Lab, brings together an installation that explores the space between creation and perception, where the familiar is transformed into the extraordinary, and where the art of making becomes poetry itself.
ABOUT
WonderGlass is a story made in Italy: a family business founded in 2013 by father and son, Maurizio and Christian Mussati, with the vision of preserving the skills and techniques of the Venetian master glassmakers, stimulating new luxury markets for design-led glass. Based between London and Italy, WonderGlass has revolutionised the classic rules of glassmaking, by synthesising the Venetian traditions of impeccable Italian craftsmanship with the cosmopolitan talents of today’s global art and design leaders. As of 2018, the brand becomes a group: a team of highly qualified glassmakers, institutions, creatives, partner companies and research institutes. The collaborative nature of the studios for one-off collections have become abiding partnerships – resulting in a comprehensive mastery in cast, blown and fused glassmaking. On these pillars the group builds a temple to craftsmanship, art, architecture and design, giving shape to never-before-seen projects carrying complex souls.
Calico Wallpaper is a designer of bespoke wallpaper. The company was founded in Brooklyn, New York, in 2013 by creative and life partners Nicholas and Rachel Cope. Their process combines artisanal methods from the decorative arts, such as traditional marbling and dip-dyeing techniques, with innovative technologies. Calico Wallpaper works with a global roster of leading designers and architects. In addition to residential and hospitality projects, Calico Wallpaper’s designs have been exhibited internationally at Milan Design Week and London Design Festival and have obtained a place in the permanent collection at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. In 2021, Calico Wallpaper opened its first showroom at 57 Lispenard Street, New York, NY, with partner and furniture manufacturer Stellar Works.
Officine Saffi Lab is a ceramic studio dedicated to the creative investigation of ceramic production, collaborating with an extended network of local and international experts from the field. Foregrounding collaboration and co-creation, Officine Saffi Lab connect artists, designers and brands with ceramic culture. Officine Saffi Lab guides clients on a journey to find the most creative ceramic techniques and the best solutions for their projects. We draw upon Italy’s ancient tradition, while refining international techniques and processes. We fire at high and low temperatures; are skilled in making large-scale, multidimensional projects; and our ongoing research around raw materials has led us to develop hundreds of recipes for our own one-of-a-kind glazes. Officine Saffi Lab is dedicated to continuous research, always exploring and experimenting with new techniques and materials to push the boundaries of ceramics. In addition to offering design services, the lab can either create bespoke projects for clients or connect them with the best talents in the field. With extensive experience in prototyping, the team is capable of transforming abstract ideas into tangible forms, experimenting with innovative processes to bring concepts to life.
Istituto dei Ciechi
Via Vivaio 7, Milan
Tuesday 8th – Saturday 12th April
Opening times: 10am – 7pm