Eclipse of Perceptions at Milan Design Week 2025

• Kia Design returns to Milan Design Week for third consecutive yr, offering a platform for creative expression and cultural trade
• Works by artists Philippe Parreno and A.A. Murakami curated to mirror the model’s ‘Opposites United’ design philosophy
• ‘Marquee’, ‘The Cave’, ‘Past the Horizon’ and ‘The Eclipse’ ship a sensory journey echoing the evolution of Kia’s design philosophy
• Exhibition runs from April 7-13 at Museo della Permanente in Milan, Italy

Kia Design has launched the theme of its Milan Design Week 2025 exhibition, Opposites United: Eclipse of Perceptions, in collaboration with internationally acclaimed artists Philippe Parreno and A.A. Murakami (Azusa Murakami and Alexander Groves).

This yr’s exhibition continues Kia’s dedication to cultural trade and inventive exploration. Specializing in the model’s evolving transformation – rooted in its core cultural values and inventive id – the occasion sparks conversations that problem and encourage each Kia Design and the worldwide artistic group.

By bringing collectively visionary artists similar to Philippe Parreno and A.A. Murakami, alongside Kia Design and different distinguished members of the worldwide artistic group, the exhibition goals to supply an interactive expertise the place guests can have interaction with the concepts, philosophies, and expressions that form modern creativity.

Since its first participation in Milan Design Week in 2023, Kia Design has sought to help artwork and tradition by offering a platform for artists to precise their interpretations of the model’s design philosophy, ‘Opposites United’. Taking part artists collaborate on experimental approaches, expressing the ‘Opposites United’ theme by way of their works or performances, creating resonant experiences for visiting audiences.

The Eclipse

A central stage for performances and speak periods, ‘The Eclipse’ options tiered seating paying homage to the Colosseum, with content material projected onto a layered system of shades. On this house, the viewers is inspired to turn into energetic contributors, immersed within the content material and decoding it subjectively, fairly than merely remaining as observers.

Eclipses have held important scientific, spiritual, and cultural meanings all through human historical past. These celestial occasions have impressed us to dream, look past our personal existence, predict the long run and advance our applied sciences.

Opposites United: Eclipse of Perceptions makes use of the house to embody the story of Kia Design, and its ambition to evolve relentlessly, by way of dramatic staging and spatial transformations. The viewers serves as witnesses to a uncommon and distinctive second, becoming a member of as energetic contributors at every occasion of enjoyment and contemplation.

Philippe Parreno

Probably the most internationally influential French artists of the final 25 years, Philippe Parreno works throughout a various vary of media, together with movie, music, sculpture, drawing, and efficiency.

Adopting languages and codes from quite a lot of media, Parreno’s work questions the boundary between actuality and fiction, exploring the house the place the true and imagined intersect. Parreno encourages audiences to rethink how they have interaction with the true and the imagined, prompting a deeper reflection on the character of expertise itself.

Marquee

Situated on the exhibition’s entrance, Parreno’s Marquee exemplifies the cultural vanguard by revitalizing the historic marquee idea within the context of up to date artwork. By blurring the traces between structure, design, and efficiency, the work transcends its origins as a cinema frontage, with the text-free work as an alternative specializing in gentle and type.

Ephemeral gentle, spatial interplay, and performative illumination form a dynamic expertise, elevating the marquee from a mere object to a mirrored image on the evolving interaction of previous and current.

A.A.Murakami

Established in 2020 by Azusa Murakami and Alexander Groves, A.A. Murakami creates immersive installations that mix science and artwork. The continuing Ephemeral Tech collection combines modern expertise with ethereal supplies and states of matter to create sensory experiences and unnatural phenomena.

A.A. Murakami’s work has been featured on the Venice Artwork and Structure Biennales and is a part of everlasting collections at MoMA in New York, the Pompidou Centre in Paris, Vitra Design Museum in Germany, and M+ in Hong Kong. Murakami and Groves’ experimental design apply, Studio Swine, has additionally obtained awards at main world festivals, together with Cannes.

The Cave

A.A. Murakami’s The Cave fuses primal and technological parts to spotlight humanity’s enduring artistic impulse. A big-scale automaton with robotic limbs, representing cutting-edge expertise, interacts with historic devices crafted from replicas of historic animal bones. The juxtaposition represents relentless exploration, with the limbs rising from a pool of water earlier than activating bellows to blow air by way of the devices, creating an ethereal soundscape that fills the house.

The immersive purple gentle and nonetheless water setting push sensory boundaries, reflecting the work’s idea as a meditation on life’s defiance of entropy and sparking mental curiosity. The set up poses profound questions concerning the endurance of human creativity and which means within the face of existential uncertainty.

By means of its ephemeral efficiency, The Cave underscores A.A. Murakami’s pursuit of capturing a novel second – not by replicating the previous or current, however by relentlessly combining and reimagining parts to forge a brand new path.

Past The Horizon

Past the Horizon is the second work by A.A. Murakami featured inside Opposites United: Eclipse of Perceptions. The show showcases big, amorphous bubbles rising from hanging automata and reworking into clouds. Pushing the boundaries of conventional sculpture and set up, the work explores ephemeral, performative, and interactive dimensions. 

The usage of mechanical units to create natural, ever-changing types displays a willingness to experiment with unconventional supplies and applied sciences, an indicator of artistic risk-taking. The unpredictable nature of the bubbles – typically random, typically synchronized – introduces a component of likelihood, embracing the inherent threat in working with dynamic, uncontrolled techniques.

The immersive setting, with its elevated walkway, hazy environment, and flooring coated with a skinny layer of water to make it reflective, additional amplifies the viewer’s expertise, creating a way of marvel and inspiring interplay with the art work’s unpredictability.

Opposites United: Eclipse of Perceptions runs from April 7-13 at Museo della Permanente in Milan, Italy.