A New Light Arrives in Milan — ARQ.NISK × Curated by Victor Niskier
MILAN DESIGN WEEK 26
From 7 to 13 April 2026, Craft Gardens is presented at Milan Design Week within the exhibition curated by architect Victor Niskier and ARQ.NISK — a curated gathering of Brazilian and Portuguese artists brought together around the language of material, light and contemporary craft.This participation marks Craft Gardens' first presentation in Milan — one of the world's most influential design contexts — and situates the work within an international conversation about the role of handmade practice in contemporary space-making.
WHERE DISCARDED MATERIALS BECOME LIGHT, COLOUR AND MEANING.
Curated by Victor Niskier, the exhibition brought together artists from Brazil and Portugal working across textile, sculpture and material design — each exploring the intersection of cultural heritage, responsible making and spatial presence.
Set within a private space in Milan during the most visited week in the global design calendar, the exhibition offered an intimate and considered alternative to the spectacle of the trade fairs — a space where objects were encountered slowly, at close range, in the quality of attention they deserve.
A CHANDELIER CONCEIVED FOR A CITY THAT ASKS QUESTIONS.
For Milan Design Week 2026, Craft Gardens presented a textile chandelier — a multi-tiered suspended sculpture in deep bordeaux, terracotta and gold, developed specifically for the exhibition context.
The piece is rooted in the Pajaki tradition: suspended sculptures from rural Poland, made since the 18th century from the simplest materials — straw, paper, thread. Not decorative objects, but symbolic ones, created to celebrate cycles, to bring balance and protection into the home.
What Craft Gardens brings to that tradition is a contemporary translation — same principle, different scale, different material, different context. Fibre suspended in space, responding to light and air, inhabiting a room as a living presence.
The material is ECONYL® — regenerated yarn recovered from ocean waste and industrial offcuts, including leftover threads from Portuguese carpet production. What is discarded becomes light. That transformation is not incidental — it is part of the work.
Milan does not ask who you are. It asks what you have to say. This piece was the answer.
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