One only needs to approach a creation by Sara Ricciardi to understand that, for her, design never arises from a simple functional need. It emerges like a breath, a pulse, an inner scene where matter remembers having been a story.  

From Pataspazio, her Milanese studio designed as a pataphysical laboratory, she composes a theatre of objects that are both archaic and futuristic, guided by a principle that sums it all up: "Form follows poetry." Freeing herself from functionality, her furniture, decorative pieces and interactive installations seek to move, to open a passage, to re-enchant the everyday by offering it a part of myth.

Luminary This work falls squarely within this tradition. Conceived as part of "Gen D," Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana's visionary project dedicated to a new generation of designers, the piece is a luminous ode to the popular festivals of southern Italy. Ricciardi reinterprets traditional wooden lampshades, illuminating them with color and transforming them into vibrant sensory architectures. Here, light speaks of joy, exuberance, and childhood; it becomes a fragment of memory reanimated by the artist's hand.

This celebration of clarity is countered by another form of experience: Under the Willow Tree, An immersive installation conceived as a refuge. The willow, a tree of gentleness and a symbol of the female cycle, becomes a sonic instrument. Its supple, drooping branches, transformed into hydrophones, bear small metal bells activated by the wind or the passage of visitors. The sound emanating from them has something ancestral about it, like a call from a tranquil shore. At Palazzo Litta, these branches come to life thanks to the textile expertise of the Massia Vittorio 1843 house, while the acoustics, calibrated by Paolo Borghi who harmonized the sounds of the chimes integrated into the branches, envelop us in a shared breath. In this space, metal becomes cosmology, the vibration of the world, a guide toward relational peace. Here we find Ricciardi's essential quest: to transform contemplation into experience, the object into an inner landscape.

This exploration of the metamorphosis of matter also unfolds in the "Metamorfosi" collection, a series of vases where glass is revealed in its two states: on one hand, raw, angular, almost mineral; on the other, stretched, softened, and made fluid by fire. Brass, the connecting element, links these opposites in a single breath. It's like a fleeting moment of transformation—the chrysalis still vibrant, the form still undefined. Ricciardi shows here that the object can be a metaphor for life: matter in becoming, an identity that fluctuates, a threshold between what was and what will be. 

In addition to her explorations of light and sound, the Italian designer continues her sculptural work with "Sferica," a furniture series where roundness becomes the primary language. Each piece seems to emanate its own gentle gravity; armchairs and tables become tranquil celestial bodies, planetary presences that invite surrender. The smooth, polished curves and enveloping volumes redefine the relationship between body and dwelling. Here again, function dissolves into a halo of creativity: everything is a matter of sensation, weight, and breath.

This dramaturgy of matter reaches an almost initiatory dimension in Swinging Throne. Presented at the Visionnaire Design Gallery, this regal swing, crafted with master woodturners and trimmings from Massia Vittorio 1843, appears as a fragment of a forgotten ritual. Its light fringes defy gravity, while its leather details evoke Bugatti's Moorish exoticism. One doesn't truly sit upon this throne: one enters it as if into a rare state of suspension, oscillating between power and playfulness, majesty and lightness.

Through Luminaria, Under the Willow Tree, “Metamorfosi”, “Sferica” or Swinging Throne, Sara Ricciardi weaves a singular vision: that of a world where matter speaks, where forms breathe, where each object becomes a threshold to another realm. Her art draws on Italian traditions, the gestures of artisans, and intimate mythologies to create pieces that seek neither utilitarianism nor discretion: they assert themselves as autonomous creatures, fragments of embodied poetry.

Each of Ricciardi's works is a whisper: an invitation to slow down, to listen, to allow oneself to be transformed. For this artist, form, which follows poetry, is its material manifestation, proof that the world can reinvent itself through a simple object, provided one accepts to let the magic of transformation enter it. 

sararicciardistudio.com  

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