‘I by no means thought the phrase fragile had detrimental connotations,’ says the curator Valentina Ciuffi, founding father of the artistic observe Studio Vedèt and the thoughts behind ‘The Romance of Fragility’, the most recent exhibition by Delvis (Un)Restricted, debuting throughout Milan Design Week 2026. Bringing collectively the work of six designers and design studios – Acquainted Kind, Serim Kwack, Johan Pertl, Inderjeet Sandhu, Tino Seubert and Maria Tyakina – the present explores the formal limits of glass. ‘To me, one thing that’s fragile is one thing you maintain,’ Ciuffi provides. ‘It’s one thing that requires consideration.’
Uncover Delvis (Un)Restricted at Milan Design Week
Inderjeet Sandhu’s ‘Merge’ candlesticks
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of the studio)
For the exhibition, Ciuffi chosen works with a intentionally broad materials expression, from items that resemble strong supplies reminiscent of stone to others that interact extra straight with the commercial language of glass.
Prague-based Johan Pertl, as an illustration, attracts on the gradual processes of pure land formations. His ‘Erosion’ facet desk takes cues from the decay of coastlines, with translucent, pink-tinged glass cascading from a white marble plinth, like water regularly carrying away rock. ‘It appears to be like as if it comes from one other planet,’ Ciuffi notes.
Johan Pertl’s ‘Daybreak’ facet desk
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of the studio)
Elsewhere, glass turns into a vessel for reminiscence. Acquainted Kind – based by Myeonga Website positioning and Marie Kolářová – revisits the vanishing custom of Bohemian minimize glass, as soon as a staple in Czech houses. Working with craftspeople from the Šumava mountains, the duo repurpose leftover sheet glass right into a collection of nesting vases, hand-cutting conventional patterns utilizing a diamond grindstone.
Tino Seubert’s ‘Ferric Glass’ flooring lamp
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of the studio)
The exhibition additionally pushes past useful typologies. The work of Korean designer Serim Kwack, Ciuffi says, ‘is sort of a portray, or a wall hanging’. Utilizing discovered industrial glass panes, Kwack creates refined imprints of on a regular basis objects – headphones, keyboards and different home gadgets – leading to ghostly traces suspended inside the floor.
Serim Kwack’s ‘The Room’ wall hanging
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of the studio)
‘Plenty of the time, collectible design objects are handled as in the event that they’re fragile, even when they’re not; they appeal to this sure angle of care’
Valentina Ciuffi
For Ciuffi, glass is greater than a cloth outlined by transparency and perceived delicacy. It turns into a lens by means of which to look at our relationship with collectible design itself. ‘Plenty of the time, collectible design objects are handled as in the event that they’re fragile, even when they’re not,’ she says. ‘They appeal to this sure angle of care about them.’
Serim Kwack’s ‘The Room’ wall hanging
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of the studio)
Tino Seubert’s ‘Ferric Glass’ desk lamp
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of the studio)
In line with Ciuffi, this undertaking marks the start of a broader analysis into fragility. ‘I’d wish to work with different supplies, like paper, or discover the concept of stability and equilibrium,’ she continues. ‘Nevertheless it’s all the time the identical questions: how can we maintain these objects? And the way do they inhabit our houses?’
Opening on 21 April 2026, the exhibition contains a set design by House Caviar, a longtime collaborator of Studio Vedèt. The By way of Fatebenefratelli showroom will probably be remodeled with glass bricks, creating a cloth dialogue with the works on show.
Delvis (Un)Restricted is at By way of Fatebenefratelli 9, 20121 Milano, 10am – 7pm, 21-26 April 2026
