Lake Como Design Festival returns to Villa del Grumello with a new exhibition itinerary that traces a journey through time. Built in the second half of the 16th century, the villa became one of the first suburban residences on the shores of Lake Como, cherished for its enchanting view and privileged location—surrounded by greenery yet close to the urban center.
In dialogue with this edition’s theme, Fragments, the exhibition offers a reflection on the fragment as a living trace — an element that contains stories, visions, and memories. The exhibition opens with a group of works by Enzo Cucchi. At the center of the room presented by Galleria ZERO...—sculptures that reinterpret the fountains of Rome, transforming them into fragments of an imaginary city emerging as an inner vision, engage in dialogue with a series of wall-mounted works created in collaboration with Edizioni Lithos. Archivio Mantero, an international reference point for textile culture, presents UNANNO, a display that narrates the first year of the project’s public activity as a new creative engine. The result is a reflection on time and memory as design material, constantly regenerating. With the Vico Collection, Campeggi reintroduces a selection of transformable objects born from the historic collaboration between Claudio Campeggi and Vico Magistretti: a collection that conveys design as a dynamic and adaptive gesture — an invitation to conceive function as a living form.
Courtesy Campeggi archive – Fondazione Vico Magistretti.
AMINI – Hand Knotting rug in Tibetan Wool by Bruno Munari.
At the heart of the Villa, Etel dedicates a retrospective to Brazilian designer Claudia Moreira Salles, a prominent figure of warm, material, and sensitive modernism. The exhibition traces a path that interweaves formal rigor and poetic use of natural materials. The narrative continues with Eredi Marelli, presenting a new selection of iconic Italian design — from Paolo Buffa to Aldo Rossi — the result of ongoing research and rediscovery. Amini pays tribute to Bruno Munari with a series of carpets inspired by his celebrated Macchine Inutili (Useless Machines), translating the master’s visual freedom into textile surfaces that become maps of imagination and invention. Dayanita Singh, known for her Spontaneous Books — books and book-objects — presents Como Box for Lake Como Design Festival: an unbound book composed of 30 offset-printed images on individual cards, held inside a wooden structure. At the villa’s darsena WonderGlass showcasing a collection of glass works that explore transparency as a metaphor for memory: fragments of ancient techniques and contemporary visions merge into objects that are both material and narrative.
etel – Claudia Moreira Salles, CMS wardrobe stand.
DEDAR – Weaving Anni Albers. Photography Ilaria Orsini.
At the first floor DEDAR presents Weaving Anni Albers, a project developed in collaboration with the Josef & Anni Albers Foundation: five jacquard fabrics inspired by the visionary legacy of the German artist, reinterpreted with contemporary sensibility to transform thread into a living language between art, material, and memory. The journey continues with a dialogue between Mario Radice and Nanda Vigo, inspired by the deep friendship and mutual admiration between the two — beautifully expressed by Radice in a letter to his dear friend. In the next room, the journey concludes with a selection of works by Alberto Marangoni who, in 1964, founded the MID Group – an acronym for Change, Image, and Dimension – together with Barrese, Grassi, and Laminarca. This was one of the most visionary and innovative collectives of the time, a key player in Kinetic and Programmed Art, helping to redefine the boundaries between art, technology, and participation.
Villa del Grumello is set within the 'Kilometre of Knowledge', a cultural route and, at the same time, a green corridor of remarkable natural value and unique landscape. Located near the center of the city of Como, it connects several historic villas of rare beauty overlooking the lake, through their centuries-old parks, covering a total of 15 hectares.
FRAGMENTS OF MEMORY
Villa del Grumello
Como, via per Cernobbio 11
14-21 September 2025
10 AM - 7 PM
entrance with ticket