Set inside a construction site, the most radical art fair of the past decade arrives in Milan

On Via Fabio Filzi, directly facing the Pirelli Tower designed by Gio Ponti, stands a seven-story building defined by expansive glass façades. Designed between 1956 and 1959 as the headquarters of dairy company Galbani by architects Eugenio and Ermenegildo Soncini, with engineering by Pier Luigi Nervi, Palazzo Galbani is a modernist gem that remained largely overlooked for decades. Today, it is being restored by Milan-based studio Park. This is where, while the building is still an active construction site, the first-ever edition of Paris Internationale outside France will take place. Over the past decade, the Paris-born fair has challenged the very format of the art fair.

From April 18 to 21, bridging Milan Art Week and Design Week, Paris Internationale Milano will bring 34 Italian and international galleries to Palazzo Galbani, including Milan-based Clima, Veda, Martina Simeti, Ordet, and Francesca Minini. The Milan edition follows the same principles as its Paris counterpart: a tightly curated selection and an intentionally compact format that prioritizes quality over quantity, with monographic presentations and cross-generational dialogues between artists. A series of Special Projects will also unfold across the building’s different floors, featuring site-specific interventions conceived in direct response to the ongoing construction. Ambra Castagnetti with Francesca Minini, Anna Franceschini with Vistamare, and Robert Mapplethorpe with Franco Noero are among the names involved in this new section of the fair.

The exhibition design, developed by Swiss studio Christ & Gantenbein in collaboration with Milan-based designers NM3, is shaped by the constraints of the construction site. It will consist of a system of freestanding walls, not anchored to either floor or ceiling, allowing the artworks to inhabit the space without altering its structure.

“We founded Paris Internationale ten years ago as a utopia, almost a crazy idea. And now, ten years later, we had another crazy idea: to bring it to Milan,” said Marie Lusa, co-founder of Paris Internationale, during the press preview. “The building has a powerful impact on what happens inside it, because it carries its own narrative: the logic of the place speaks for itself.” What remains to be seen is what story one of Milan’s most compelling construction sites will tell.

Opening image: Galbani Palace. Photo Nicola Colella