Sottsass's Magic Touch

From June 2026, the Artizon Museum presents Ettore Sottsass: Design begins where magic begins, an exhibition that approaches the work of one of the most influential figures of twentieth century design from a radical and unconventional perspective. The title encapsulates a poetic and theoretical stance that runs throughout the career of Ettore Sottsass, for whom design does not originate solely from function but from a symbolic, almost ritual act. The exhibition foregrounds the visionary dimension of Sottsass’s practice, presenting design as a language capable of absorbing emotion, spirituality, memory and desire. Objects, furniture, ceramics, drawings and photographs are brought into dialogue, revealing a practice in which the boundaries between art, architecture and design are constantly crossed. Within this framework, design becomes a tool to question the relationship between the individual and the environment, between the body and space, between the everyday and the mythical. The show highlights the central role of color, archetypal form and material, elements Sottsass used to disrupt modernist neutrality and introduce a narrative and sensory dimension. His works are not confined to solving practical problems but articulate a worldview, at times ironic, at times provocative, always deeply human. Presented in Tokyo, the exhibition acquires a particular resonance. Japanese culture, with its sensitivity to the symbolic value of objects and to the relationship between gesture, function and spirituality, provides a fertile context in which to reconsider Sottsass’s work beyond the history of Western design. The result is a quiet yet powerful dialogue between kindred sensibilities, where design is charged with meanings that exceed use and production.