INSIEME

Curated by
Sabato De Sarno

Produced and presented by
Vanity Fair 

Part of
Archivio Italia

Location
Piscina Cozzi
Viale Tunisia 34, Milano

Before the objects,
there are always people.

INSIEME is the curatorial project conceived by Sabato De Sarno and presented during Milan Design Week, bringing together twelve Italian artisanal excellences in a collective exhibition dedicated to the contemporary value of making.

INSIEME begins with people: those who work and give shape to things, even before the objects and processes that make them possible. Within the spaces of Piscina Cozzi, in the heart of the Porta Venezia Design District, the exhibition unfolds as a profound reflection on human labor, material, and time, questioning what usually remains at the margins of perception: the process, the gesture, knowledge as an embodied practice.

“INSIEME was born from the desire to get closer to what is usually unseen: the working hand, the time that settles into things, the knowledge that is passed on beyond words. I didn’t want to tell stories about objects, but about people. I wanted to give space back to those who build beauty every day without being seen. In a world that accelerates, INSIEME chooses to pause. To look at the origin of every form: the hand, the light, the presence. Because the future is not what will come, but what we are still able to recognize, listen to, and imagine with our hands.” Sabato De Sarno.

The exhibition path is structured around six material families — glass, ceramic, metal, stone, wood, textile — historical foundations of Italian craftsmanship. For each material, two production realities with complementary histories and techniques have been selected, and each was asked to present not an icon, but an expression form of its own knowledge. Each participant developed an original project, born from a direct dialogue with Sabato De Sarno and shaped over time also through visits to the companies: a process of listening and exchange that placed people at the center, before products. In this context, each reality does not exhibit a memory, but an identity. INSIEME thus becomes a space of relationship between matter and thought, where making asserts itself as a cultural act before a productive one.

GLASS

GLAS ITALIA - MACHERIO (MB), 1972

“Glas Italia works with glass to transform space. Not to fill it”

VENINI – MURANO (VE) 1921

“At Venini no one works alone: it is a silent work, made of gestures and understandings that need no words”

CERAMIC

FORNACE BRIONI – GONZAGA (MN) 1920

“Fornace Brioni is a place of work and life together. A community that forms around the kiln” SOLIMENE – VIETRI (SA) 1954

“Solimene carries forward an imagery born from the sea. Colors, symbols, figures that belong to that place”

METAL

BOTTEGA VAZZOLER – OLMI (TV) 1961

“At Vazzoler the iron is still hot, still alive. Every strike remains visible, it is not hidden” DE CASTELLI – TREVISO 1931

“De Castelli works metal as a surface. It becomes depth, a reaction to light”

STONE

ARTIERI 1985 – VOLTERRA (LU) 1895

“Artieri 1895 is a community working alabaster, where fragility becomes a value”

HENRAUX – QUERCETA (LU) 1821

“Henraux forces you to think in another direction. Here everything begins from the mountain, in marble”

WOOD

F.LLI LEVAGGI – CHIAVARI (GE) 1863

“Levaggi has a responsibility: to keep the Chiavarina chair alive”

BONACINA – LURAGO D’ERBA (CO) 1889

“Bonacina is a family before being a company. What is passed down continues to live within every object”

TEXTILE

RUBELLI – VENEZIA 1858

“Rubelli works with an archive that is never still. Every design can return, change, begin again”

AMINI – MILANO 1962

“Amini works on something invisible. Everything starts there: from a knot repeated thousands of times”

THE COLOR YELLOW

Yellow is the visual and narrative code of INSIEME: it is the accent that highlights. Yellow as revealing light. Yellow as attention. Yellow as energy and contrast. In the exhibition, yellow does not decorate, but rather indicates.

EXHIBITION DESIGN curated by TIPSTUDIO

The exhibition project begins from the concept of time, understood as a transitional and passing experience that invites visitors to pause and slow down. The proposed experience is immersive and multisensory, aiming to convey the deep perception of what usually remains unseen: process, waiting, concentration, error.

“For INSIEME I didn’t want a scenography, but a structure capable of holding together the twelve works and dialoguing with Piscina Cozzi. I chose TIPSTUDIO because they work with material every day, just like the twelve excellences involved in the project. I presented them with a challenge: to change scale, from object to space. It was the only way to remain authentic.” Sabato De Sarno

JR | INSIDE OUT PROJECT X INSIEME

INSIEME, THE FACES OF MAKING

The manifesto work of INSIEME, presented during Milan Art Week and visible to the public from Tuesday, April 14th, 2026, takes shape on the façade of Piscina Cozzi through a site-specific installation created within JR’s Inside Out project. JR is a French artist internationally renowned for interventions that bring art outside traditional spaces and into the city. The Inside Out Project is a global participatory art program from artist JR’s Can Art Change the World Foundation. The intervention, with the support of Galleria Continua, magnifies the faces of the artisans involved in the exhibition, making visible in the urban space what normally remains hidden. The façade becomes a collective portrait, restoring centrality to the people whose work, knowledge, and gestures preserve a heritage of materials and skills.

“We chose to entrust JR with the manifesto work because his practice naturally aligns with the vision I wanted to build and tell through this project. A vision that places people at the center, before objects. The intervention focuses on the faces and presence of artisans, custodians of knowledge and gestures. It is not a celebratory portrait, but a way to give space and recognition to those who shape things every day through their work.” Sabato De Sarno

INSIEME

Conceived and curated by
SABATO DE SARNO

Creative direction and project lead
FRANCESCO MARI

Manifesto artwork
Jr – Inside Out Project

Photography
ENRICO COSTANTINI

Exhibition design
TIPSTUDIO

Sound design
MATTIA DEL MORO

TEXT
MATILDE CASSANI