Studio Alchimia and the Revolution of Italian Design through Irony, Freedom, and Collaboration
Studio Alchimia rewrote the rules of design with irony, freedom, and a deep sense of collectivity. The exhibition at the ADI Design Museum brings back that shared energy, made of intertwined thoughts and visionary gestures.
It didn’t emerge from a desk, but from fertile chaos. From a room where ideas bounced, collided, and laughed together. This is how Studio Alchimia took shape—Milan, 1970s: a group of minds that rejected the boundaries between art and design, between the serious and the playful. A laboratory of possibilities, where creativity was a collective act, not a matter of authorship.
Today, that vibration comes alive again at the ADI Design Museum with the exhibition Alchimia. The Revolution of Italian Design (November 11, 2025 – January 22, 2026): more than one hundred and fifty works—including furniture, drawings, and photographs—tell the story of a period that sought freedom rather than approval. A way of designing that was a shared language, both ironic and profound, a form of collective invention.
Alchimia was the first antidote to creative individualism. The project was a political gesture, material became narrative, and mistakes were valued. No one sought perfection; they sought meaning—together. Alessandro Guerriero, Mendini, Branzi, Sottsass, De Lucchi—names that today sound monumental—were then a group in motion, a small crowd of thoughts in constant discussion.
From left: Giorgio Gregori, Adriana Guerriero, Alessandro Mendini, Alessandro Guerriero
Throughout the exhibition, everything reflects that lightness dense with thought. From Guerriero’s “raft-carpet,” a symbol of crossing and risk, which hosts objects disguised as provocations—lamps as jokes, chairs as stories. Each piece is an idea brought to life, born from an encounter.
Today, when design often isolates itself behind screens or signatures, Alchimia reminds us of the urgency of dialogue. It calls us to put the creative community back at the center, to embrace the joy of building shared ideas. Design is not only about what appears, but about what is thought together—and an idea becomes contagious when it is not solitary.
Text Marina Jonna
