Beyond the Gucci Bamboo 1947 handle.
Gucci has the superpower to turn an object into the iconography of its history. It did it with the moccasin, with the green and red triband, with the intertwined double G, and-of course-with bamboo. What began as a practical solution in the 1940s (when leather was scarce and ingenuity had to be sharpened) became a code of the House, a symbol that has transcended bags and decades. Now, in the midst of Fuorisalone 2025, Gucci decides not only to remember its legacy, but to expand it to disciplines beyond fashion. Gucci | Bamboo Encounters, the exhibition curated by 2050+ and conceived by Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli, opens a dialogue between the world’s most resistant material and the most inquiring minds of contemporary design.
The setting could not be more Milanese: the Chiostri di San Simpliciano. This Renaissance cloister serves as a counterpoint to an exhibition in which bamboo is reimagined, dissected and reconstructed in ways that border on science fiction. Gucci has not brought together a series of artists and designers to pay homage to its Bamboo 1947, but to ask what else this material can be when taken out of its historical context and allowed to play in the realm of art, architecture and the functional object.
The answer is a repertoire of pieces that move away from the obvious and go from organic to industrial without blinking. Anton Alvarez turns bamboo into pure sculpture with his enigmatic 1802251226, while Dima Sroujinos, in Hybrid Exhalations, blown glass alters the structure of found baskets. Dutch collective Kite Club takes the material to the air in Thank You, Bamboo, a series of kites that reframe the relationship between design and lightness. Laurids Gallée manipulates bamboo with resin in Scaffolding, a work that speaks of construction and deconstruction at the same time. Nathalie Du Pasquier, historian of the Memphis group, brings PASSAVENTO, an installation that decontextualizes bamboo with panels and silk. From Seoul, Sisan Lee uses etched aluminum to twist the relationship between Korean tradition and the avant-garde, and the back studio-based in Turin and Mumbai-closes the circle with bamboo assemblage n.1, a light installation that turns bamboo into architecture.
In addition to the exhibition, from April 8-10, Gucci and 2050+ will open the dialogue with a series of talks in which artists, designers and industry minds will discuss the past, present and future of the material:
April 8 at 6:00 pm
Encounters of Imaginaries: Johanna Agerman Ross in conversation with Nathalie Du Pasquier and Sisan Lee
April 9 at 6:00 pm
Encounters of Materials: Felix Burrichter in conversation with Anton Alvarez and Laurids Gallée
April 10 at 6:00 pm: 00 h
Encounters of Crafts: Elise By Olsen in conversation with the back studio and Kite Club (Sheltens and Abbenes + Bertjan Pot)
April 10 at 18:45 h
Encounters of Narratives: Alessandro Rabottini in conversation with Dima Srouji
Because if Gucci makes one thing clear with Bamboo Encounters, it’s that bamboo was never just a handle on one of its iconic bags. The exhibition will be on view from April 8 to 13 at the Chiostri di San Simpliciano, Milan. Reservations available here.
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