For spring 2025, Fondazione ICA features two exhibitions that interweave design, art and architecture. “The Lightness of Things,” curated by Alberto Salvadori, explores Jasper Morrison's essential approach through twelve floating chairs and photographic compositions of archetypal objects, immersed in a minimalist soundtrack composed by Anthony Moore. “Wonders of the Modern World,” curated by Pier Paolo Tamburelli, investigates eight contemporary architectural wonders with illuminated models, video and sound, revealing the ritual power of collective spaces. On display are photographs and videos by Giovanna Silva and Giulio Squillacciotti, accompanied by a sound installation by Nicola Ratti.

A visit to Triennale during Design Week is a must: don't miss the exhibition dedicated to John Giorno, which explores the universe of the New York poet and performer, a key figure of the 1960s underground. The Milanese brand MSGM for the occasion has created the official merch with one of Giorno's iconic quotes. And then, the exhibition curated by Giulio Iacchetti in collaboration with EMERGENCY, which addresses urgent questions of contemporaneity with projects by seven Italian designers, questioning how to mend the fractures of history through design. Both can be visited until April 13, free admission.

Fondazione Prada in the Podium space welcomes the exhibition entitled “Typologien,” which explores twentieth-century German photography through the concept of “typology,” which originated in the 17th and 18th centuries in botanical studies as a way to study plants, and transposed to photography to classify images without hierarchies, establishing unexpected analogies. The exhibition, curated by Susanne Pfeffer, features 600 works by 25 artists, including Becher, Gursky and Tillmans, organized typologically rather than chronologically. The exhibition highlights similarities and differences, revealing the role of photography in visual classification.

From March 27 to July 27, 2025, Pirelli HangarBicocca is hosting “Icarus,” the first major anthological exhibition in Europe by Japanese artist Yukinori Yanagi. The exhibition, curated by Vicente Todolí and Fiammetta Griccioli, includes some of the artist's most iconic works, repurposed with new configurations in the space of the Navate. Yanagi, known for his monumental installations, explores several contemporary themes, from nationalism to the concept of borders and issues related to technology and globalization.

“Joel Meyerowitz. A Sense of Wonder” is the first major Italian retrospective on the renowned American photographer, being held at the Santa Giulia Museum in Brescia. The exhibition, with over ninety photographs, traces Meyerowitz's six-decade career, from color street photography to shots of the World Trade Center after 9/11. A special focus is devoted to the 365 self-shots of Lockdown 2020, presented for the first time in Italy. The exhibition is the first in the trilogy curated by Denis Curti “Americana. An Anthology in Images,” which will continue in 2026 with Bruce Gilden's research, and in 2027 with Francesco Jodice's photographs.

John Bock is back in Milan at Gió Marconi with the exhibition “Tristesse,” in which he presents a collection of garments made between 2024 and 2025 in a kind of store. The approximately fifty outfits on display, dubbed “Quasi Me” by the artist, were created by deconstructing second-hand clothes. Along with the “Tristesse” collection, video documentation of a 2009 fashion show at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin will also be presented. The artist will be in the gallery from April 2 to 5.

Another unmissable stop on any Design Week itinerary, Dropcity - a center for architecture and design - is hosting two main research projects this year in the former Magazzini Raccordati at Central Station: “Prison Times - Spatial Dynamics of Penal Environments,” an investigation into living conditions and perceptions of space and time in detention centers, with objects from prisons around the world; the second is titled “Bruther. fbx,” and is dedicated to the bruther studio, founded in Paris in 2007 by Stéphanie Bru and Alexandre Theriot. Dropcity's tunnels will also host other exhibitions and initiatives, including a photographic focus on the practice of architect and designer Bruno Vaerini, and public program meetings entitled Beautiful Mistakes, spaces for architects and designers to dialogue and share the methodologies and research behind their practices.

Nilufar, under the guidance of its founder Nina Yashar, presents “Repertorio” a five-act exhibition amid set design, art and design, which unfolds in Nilufar Depot's large space in the historic Via della Spiga gallery and in Via Senato. The project features the collaboration of contemporary artists and designers whose creations meet a selection of timeless vintage masterpieces. The main room of Nilufar Depot on the first floor hosts the first act of the exhibition, “Silver Lining,” an extraordinary installation co-curated by Fosbury Architecture, dedicated to the multifaceted nature of metal.

“Best of Both Worlds: Italy. Art and Design in Italy 1915-2025” at ADI Design Museum is an exhibition that explores the evolution of Italian design, emphasizing the link between art and industry. Curated by Stefano Casciani, with staging by Piero Lissoni/GraphX, the path traces the milestones of Italian design from Futurism to contemporary times, chronicling a story of intertwining and complementary languages, artists given to design and personalities who made history in between these two worlds. Among unpublished materials and iconic works, the exhibition celebrates the dialogue between creativity and innovation.

It is called “Pastorale,” Nico Vascellari's exhibition in the Sala delle Cariatidi at Palazzo Reale, curated by Sergio Risaliti. The reflection giving rise to the exhibition project starts from the contrast between wartime destruction and natural idyll. The title evokes a locus amoenus as a refuge from the violence of history, in a room historically scarred by the bombings of 1943, brought to new life with the arrival of Picasso's “Guernica” in 1953. The exhibition explores the link between nature and memory, juxtaposing human frailty with the regenerative capacity of nature and the environment. Vascellari, inspired by the woods of his childhood, invites a reflection on resilience through art.

A selection of forty contemporary artists, including Miroslaw Balka, Kimsooja, Kounellis, and Penone, have been invited to investigate both the internal and external areas of the seventeenth-century Villa Arconati. This collaboration has led to the exhibition titled “Arte & Natura: Dentro e Fuori,” which is organized by the Arco platform and curated by Diana Segantini. The focus of this project is on the interplay between artistic works and their architectural settings, examining how art is experienced, and providing a platform for cooperation among collectors, researchers,

Lorenzo Gnata's “Cosmogonies” is an engaging installation featured at the Gaggenau DesignElementi Hub. In this setting, the delicate strands of natural resin reshape the environment, blending seamlessly with the advanced features of the luxury kitchens from the renowned German brand. Gnata, born in 1997, uses a 3-D pen to create three-dimensional drawings, crafting shapes that stretch out into space, in which chaos is translated into creative energy. Made with the support of Cramum curator and artistic director Sabino Maria Frassà, the exhibition project tells the story of the relationship between nature, man and technology, through a fruitful dialogue between art and design.

From March 17 to May 7, 2025, Politecnico di Milano is hosting “Carlo De Carli. Corollario,” an exhibition dedicated to one of the protagonists of Italian architecture and design after World War II. The exhibition project, in addition to furniture, drawings, models and paintings, also gathers original editorials and cyclostyles of his lectures, as well as letters and sketches from colleagues and friends, ranging from Carlo Mollino to Gio Ponti, who was his mentor, and many others. Curated by Lola Ottolini, Margherita De Carli, Claudio Camponogara, Gianni Ottolini and Roberto Rizzi, the exhibition is produced with staging by Sixplus Architects and the patronage of Milan Order of Architects.

About a year after the passing of architect and designer Gaetano Pesce, Galleria Antonia Jannone hosts the exhibition “Gaetano Pesce. A Celebration for Architecture,” co-produced with Studio Gaetano Pesce New York and Contemplazioni. The exhibition is a tribute to the master's revolutionary vision with models, drawings and autograph texts. Among the works are models of the Pluralist Tower (1987), the World Trade Center (2002), and the Pink Pavilion (2007), the latter in polyurethane foam. Then, a special focus explores the link between Pesce and Oman, with the “Oman Chairs” inspired by trees of the species Boswellia sacra.

As part of Milano Design Week 2025, at Teatro Lirico Giorgio Gaber, Formafantasma presents Staging Modernity, a performance-installation directed by Fabio Cherstich to pay homage to Cassina and its iconic design models. In collaboration with Cassina, the Fondation Le Corbusier and the heirs of Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand, this event celebrates the 60th anniversary of the Le Corbusier-Jeanneret-Perriand collection and explores the dissonance between modernism and contemporaneity. Throughout the week, theatrical performances with texts by Emanuele Coccia, Andrés Jaque, and Feifei Zhou will be activated to reflect on the ideological and material implications of the relationship between modernity and nature.