events

The Great Design Disaster participated in the collective show at Nilufar Gallery at Depot (Viale Lancetti 34) during Milano Design Week 2025. Revved up and ready to blur the boundaries between furniture and machine, Overdrive is a pair of tables that shimmer like a supercar caught in motion. Clad in an iridescent automotive finish that shifts from pink to green, their polished carbon steel bodies play with light like a high-speed chase frozen in time. With chunky 10 cm tops and rounded legs, they balance solid presence with an untouchable slickness, part brutalist, part dreamscape, and 100% trouble. Designed exclusively for Nilufar Gallery, Overdrive captures the raw energy of speed, power, and precision craftsmanship. A fusion of industrial edge and futuristic aesthetics, it’s built for those who like their design bold, fast, and fearless.

VOIDS is an Objects of Common Interest project for The Breeder gallery, exploring absence and presence, material and immaterial, gesture and permanence. This series of resin works prioritizes negative space—the unseen, the transient. Through casting, ephemeral moments become tangible, transforming what is typically discarded into something permanent. Inspired by Athens' urban landscape, the first series reinterpreted corrugated steel shopfront rollers, rendering them unusable after each iteration. This transformation captures the fleeting nature of their original state while creating sculptural forms that embody transition. First presented at Frieze London 2024 with The Breeder, VOIDS takes on a new dimension at Villa Borsani during Alcova 2025, where the lamps blur the line between object and light source. Curator Joy Herro envisions a scenography where they seem animated, as if desiring transformation. More than an exhibition, VOIDS ROLLERS is an encounter—an unfolding narrative, challenging perceptions of material permanence and inviting us to reconsider form, space, and memory.

Eleftheria Tseliou Gallery | Scenography by Joy Herro / The Great Design Disaster, in collaboration with METEA. 

Presented at Villa Borsani during Alcova Milano 2025, The Library Project reimagines the artist book library as an immersive, design-conscious experience. Following its 2017 debut as The Library Show at Eleftheria Tseliou Gallery, this new iteration merges art, architecture, and scenography to explore the intimacy of reading and the poetics of display.Curated with care and conceptualized by Joy Herro, the exhibition features artist books displayed on minimalist Plexiglas trays—floating, tactile invitations to explore works by: Antonakis, Christian Boltanski, Ulisses Carrion, Richard Hamilton / Marcel Duchamp, Maria Efstathiou, Iannis Ganas, Vassilis Gerodimos, George Hadjimichalis, Ito Jakuchu, Apostolos Karastergiou, William Kentridge, Ilias Koen, Panagiotis Koulouras, Rena Papaspyrou, Tom Phillips, Gerhard Richter, Dieter Roth, David Sampethai, and Kyrillos Sarris.
Joy Herro reflects: “Art and design come together to embody the idea of design at the service of an art exhibition. Naturally, I thought of a reading table, but for some reason, a tray kept recurring in my mind. I couldn’t shake the image of books being served rather than simply displayed—like an invitation, a gesture of generosity, or perhaps the visual equivalent of an elegant dinner party for the mind.”

On the occasion of Ceramic Brussels 2025, the Galerie Gastou presents L’Espèce Rouge, a new evolution in the work of Agnès Debizet. The exhibition will be brought to life in a scenography imagined by Joy Herro, who infuses a contemplative and theatrical dimension into the ensemble. The landscape evokes a minimalist, dreamlike universe, a contemplative setting in front of which the public is invited to pause and discover the silent scene. The immaculately white mountains form a striking contrast with the engraved rocks, which themselves seem to bear ancient stories. The creatures, suspended between these elements, emerge like apparitions. For Agnès Debizet, this setting fully reflects the essence of l’Espèce Rouge: candid, innocent creatures from an imagination oscillating between dream-like nature and playful fantasy. “These strange beasts are neither majestic nor sacred,” she explains. “They question their own identity and their place in a universe that eludes them, just as it does us.”

Joy selection x YALI FALL / WINTER 2024 presentation is a juxtaposition that serves as a thought-provoking effect on our daily rhythm, rushing from awakening to work, exercise, party, and sleep in an unending loop. Each scene is distilled into a singular furniture piece from her private collection, as they are the pieces she lives with every day, featuring Bald chair by The Great Design Disaster and the timeless table by Afra and Tobia Scarpa. Yali’s cloth becomes a symbol of the beauty in slowing down, urging us to savor the elegance of the mid-century amid our fast-paced routines. MODERN GYMNASIUM presentation took place at Javier Peres’ home gym in Milano, owner of Peres Projects, showcasing Donna Hunacas’s painting. At the Yali fashion show, art and design intertwine seamlessly, embodying a lifestyle where fashion transcends mere clothing to become a true expression of self, akin to art. Models ensembles not only showcase outfits, but also evoke a sense of artistic narrative.

Acoustic piece TGDD x MDW 2023 is composed by the artist Andrea Dama, by weaving together ambient-electronic music and acoustic effects with recordings taken during TGDD’s artisan workshop visits. The result is an immersive journey inspired by the sound of the artisans with his personal twist.

To us, nothing is more Italian than small (often more times than not) family owned businesses. Artisans, bakers, bar owners, family run trattorie... the people who own these places are the heart of what makes people swoon for Italia. They normally do one thing very, very well and then create their own cult following, even if it might just be a cult following in a specific neighbourhood.

And where would the artisan go have their lunch break?

Of course at the tavola calda or latteria next to their bottega.
Bringing attention to these people who are the heartbeat of Italy, who make beautiful things to adorn the home, or something simple yet exquisite to eat, are upon whom we would like to shine our spotlight.

April 18th, 13:00 at Zodiaco Bar, via Alessandro Volta 11 (Lunch time)
April 19th, 17:30 at Bar Tabacchi Gallo, via Monte S. Genesio 24 (Aperitivo time)
April 20th, 17:30 at Paperoga, via Lomellina 21 (Aperitivo time)

NILUFAR GALLERY  at MILAN DESIGN WEEK 2023 | THE BRIGHT SIDE OF DESIGN | NILUFAR DEPOT — Viale Lancetti 34 – Milan, IT

The Great Design Disaster ( @thegreatdesigndisaster ) presents ‘Heart Can Act Alone”, Realized in hand-knotted wool, the carpet’s pattern brings to mind the patina of a well-worn tapestry in faded hues on which is represented enigmatic lettering that symbolizes a MADE-UP universal language.

Why dream of love
when HERE
your innermost so
unbespoken self
to be attracted
can only
act
alone

A Brief for the Creation of a New Integrated Universal Alphabet by TGDD | All the old letters reverberate bad history. If, tomorrow, an outbreak of Peace strikes the world like stubborn influenza, somewhere, some recollection of bigotry would persevere as ideas and the words to which they assign themselves tend, miraculously, to persevere - THE WORD! - like the cold case serial killer perseveres, like a bad headache seems, for today (which becomes tomorrow), to persevere. Like grief perseveres. Like mistakes resound, persevering. Language, fixing time, binding memory, simply won’t allow us to move forward without a piece of the past dangling behind us like the remnants of a tail from some amphibious phase of our human evolution. You speak of culture, of preserving your roots, all rooted in language, that last brick of Babel that you defend like a tower. So let’s build an alphabet from all of the languages, a code of all codes where you find you inside of us rather than just you with us outside. The world is too small to hide from how small it is any longer, to clutch at old thoughts sentences the body to death. The honoured place of your culture sits within the tapestry of all of human existence. Let’s all embrace the enigma, the letters from all letters. It will take time, will be all-consuming, no time for quarrels over water-holes or the third name of the deity, every day will simply need be divine as we divine the whole of what we’ve become rather than dying. One tiny letter at a time. We can learn it together, so we can learn together. Now, repeat after us…

What makes a design object a true object of sustainable luxury? The Great Design Disaster opens the doors into the behind the scenes of the world of a master artisan giving an authentic glimpse into the processes that support the industry of collectible design and art. Drawing from the crafts and workmanship that define the manufacturing culture of Italy, TGDD are firm believers in the art and luxury of things slowly made, one piece at a time so that they truly manifest the value of craftsmanship and the vision of their design. With each project, TGDD goes beyond boundaries combining design vision while highlighting the artisans whose work define every commissioned piece. By putting the crafts at the forefront, TGDD ensures the survival of crafts and its perpetuity for the next generations. Artisans are the masters and backbone of the design industry and TGDD wants to continue to demonstrate their value and how they bring tolife objects of our very desires. What makes the unique object beautiful is the human behind each piece. The final product for the client, thus, is much more than just an object but an experience and contemplation into the fascinating world of design. Together with Fonderia Artistica Campagner, TGDD gives a special sneak peek into an artisanal journey.