In Milan, one of the most evocative places, and most representative of identity, is the Foundation that houses the collection of works by the famous designer, architect and academic Achille Castiglioni. It’s located in a privileged position at the very heart of the city, in Piazza Castello.

Founded in 2011 when his heirs wished to continue promoting and sharing the “Castiglioni world”, the Foundation catalogues and organizes the designs, drawings, writings, objects and all the materials that the Milanese architect worked on throughout his life. Of the various activities open to the public, the Foundation organizes guided tours of the rooms in Castiglioni’s studio, where models and objects that have made the history of Italian design are on exhibit.

We were lucky enough to visit the Studio Museum on a special occasion, when the artist Riccardo Previdi was exhibiting his work Cocoon at the Foundation, a video piece that shows him being filmed in the process of creating the iconic lamps for Flos, a historic Italian firm. Seated in an armchair that rotates on itself, the artist is sprayed with cocoon microfilaments that form a fine but resistant membrane, as though he were becoming one of Achille Castiglioni’s famous lamps.

Of the numerous and fascinating objects that fill the spaces at the Foundation, Previdi decided to explore how these softly shaped lamps were made, similar to silk cocoons or clouds, revealing the complex mechanisms underpinning the objects and images that surround us in our daily lives, continuing to explore the relationship between art and architecture that distinguishes the artist’s research.