Davide Groppi
Un'ora di luce
Curated by Marco Sammicheli
From March 26 to May 26, Davide Groppi told his story through lamps, lighting constructions, and scenographic insights that lent depth to darkness and substance to light.
The exhibition, curated by Marco Sammicheli, was conceived as a mechanism for Volumnia to offer visitors a moment of wonder. A machine of wonders spanning poetry, industry, design, and enterprise, it unfolded through a series of installations retracing more than forty years of work. The design of light embraced architecture, evoked artistic forms, complemented space, and nurtured relationships.
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COMING SOON
Davide Groppi has been inventing and manufacturing lamps under his eponymous brand since the late 1980s.
His creative independence leads him to develop original and recognisable designs characterised by simplicity, lightness, emotion, invention and wonder, now distributed worldwide.
His lamps are created to give shape to an idea, a need, a meaning: inspirations come from art, from the ready-made, from magic, and from the desire to play with light. For Davide Groppi, light is a golden opportunity to surprise, seduce and inspire emotion.
He has designed products, installations and projects for homes, shops, museums, restaurants and hospitality spaces, collaborating with major names in the design sector. His work has been published and awarded on multiple occasions. Accolades include the ADI Compasso d'Oro for the lamps NULLA (2014), SAMPEI (2014) and ANIMA (2024).
Marco Sammicheli is the curator for design, fashion, and crafts at the Triennale Milano.
As the Supervisor of the International Exhibition, since 2018 he has been representing Triennale Milano at the Bureau International des Expositions in Paris. He has curated exhibitions for museums and galleries including: Estùdio Campana (Power Station of Art, Shanghai); Italian Pavilion (London Design Biennale, 2023); Bruno Munari (Museo del Novecento, Milan); Carlo Mollino, Ettore Sottsass, Alberto Meda, Mario Bellini, Inga Sempé, Monica Bolzoni (Triennale Milano), Steven Holl (Antonia Jannone Gallery).
He has written monographs and contributed to various thematic publications. Marco sits on the boards of ITS Arcademy, the Magistretti Foundation, the Cirulli Foundation, and the Paolo VI Collection. He teaches at the Catholic University of Milan, where he leads a research project on religious design in collaboration with the Vatican Museums.
Volumnia was established in 2018 and occupies the spaces of the 16th-century Basilica of Sant'Agostino in Piacenza. The church, for years left abandoned and hidden from the public, has been revitalised thanks to the vision of Enrica De Micheli, a gallerist for over thirty years.
The ever-evolving project has become a hub for research where historical design meets art, offering a cultural calendar filled with exhibitions and events, where ancient beauty intertwines with contemporary influences.