Curated by Annalisa Rosso

Featuring Aldo Bakker, Valentina Cameranesi Sgroi, Formafantasma, Martino Gamper, Odd Matter, Parasite 2.0, Soft Baroque, Bethan Laura Wood and Zaven

Nine display projects in dialogue with the works of Silvia Bächli, Aldo Bakker, John Baldessari, Valentina Cameranesi Sgroi, Chiara Camoni, Kueng Caputo, Marc Camille Chaimowicz, Adriano Costa, Sylvie Fleury, Simone Forti, Enzo Mari, Nicolas Party, Sarah Pucci, Ettore Spalletti, and Francis Upritchard

November 21, 2025
5.30 pm: Talk
6–9 pm: Opening
By reservation only info@lasocietadelleapi.mc

Palazzo Lezze Michiel
Campo Santo Stefano 2951, Venice

Opening weekend:
Saturday November 22 and Sunday 23, 2025, by appointment
info@lasocietadelleapi.mc

La Società delle Api presents the exhibition ON DISPLAY! curated by Annalisa Rosso and featuring nine international designers and design studios. Aldo Bakker, Valentina Cameranesi Sgroi, Formafantasma, Martino Gamper, Odd Matter, Parasite 2.0, Soft Baroque, Bethan Laura Wood, and Zaven have been invited to Palazzo Lezze Michiel—the Venetian home of Silvia Fiorucci, founder and president of La Società delle Api—to reflect on the theme of the display as an interpretative act, one which is never neutral, designed to guide both perception and meaning.

Each designer is called upon to imagine a display project and to implement its exhibitive function in relation to other works of art or design by figures such as Silvia Bächli, Aldo Bakker, John Baldessari, Valentina Cameranesi Sgroi, Chiara Camoni, Kueng Caputo, Marc Camille Chaimowicz, Adriano Costa, Sylvie Fleury, Simone Forti, Enzo Mari, Nicolas Party, Sarah Pucci, Ettore Spalletti, and Francis Upritchard.

The works selected, almost all from the Silvia Fiorucci Collection, are the upshot of a range of responses, rooted in the culture of design yet deeply intertwined with the personalities of the designers, from those who chose to engage with figures extremely close to them to those who preferred to seek dialogue with those furthest away.

While placing an object on a pedestal is a universal symbolic gesture, one found even in childhood behavior, the concept of “display” also raises very topical cultural issues, ones bound up in the role of design and its investigation of the present. This concept concerns the very life of a collection, be it private or public, as well as the broader definition of the exhibition context as a place of sharing and interaction with onlookers. The items on show are thus narrative, spatial, and design devices that go well beyond their sole function as physical supports so as to activate an exchange of meaning—in an era marked by the proliferation of seemingly interchangeable images—capable of capturing the viewer’s gaze and conveying a specific stance on the work displayed.

The result is a choral exhibition which, through its blend of various languages, ideally reflects the dialogical practice pursued by La Società delle Api in its research and its promotion of systematic and transversal comparisons between different disciplines, visions, and imaginaries.

The opening on November 21, 2025 at 5.30 pm will feature Aldo Bakker, Valentina Cameranesi Sgroi, Martino Gamper, Odd Matter, Parasite 2.0, Soft Baroque, and Zaven, talking about their projects with Silvia Fiorucci in a conversation moderated by Annalisa Rosso.

Lighting partner:
FLOS

Thanks go to:
Giustini/Stagetti for Document Table / Console by Formafantasma
Karakter for Console Table by Aldo Bakker

Opening weekend: Saturday November 22 and Sunday 23, 2025, by appointment
Until January 31, 2026, Thursdays – Saturdays, by appointment info@lasocietadelleapi.mc