Mandalaki Studio,
BREATH. Architecture Of Lightness,
Volvo Studio Milano
Shaping the Imperceptible: “BREATH” by Mandalaki Studio at Volvo Studio Milano
On the occasion of Milan Art Week and Milan Design Week 2026, Volvo Studio Milano, an elegant, Scandinavian-inspired space collaborating with Viasaterna to develop its cultural programming, hosts “BREATH. Architecture of Lightness”. This exhibition was conceived by Mandalaki Studio, a Milan-based art and design studio consisting of Enrico De Lotto, George Kolliopoulos, Giovanni Senin, and Davide Giovannardi. The studio explores the intersection of art, design, and technology through immersive installations and sensory experimentation. Curated by Rischa Paterlini in collaboration with Viasaterna, the project is completed by a soundscape developed by composer Luca Longobardi.
Consistently oriented toward the intersection of perception and matter, Mandalaki Studio has developed a line of research here that unites a scientific approach with sensory experience, positioning itself between industrial design and artistic-technological innovation. While light constitutes the core of Mandalaki’s practice, in “BREATH” it takes on a structural role: it does not merely illuminate, but acts as an active device for perceptual transformation and engagement with the outside world. As Enrico De Lotto states, “It does not simply illuminate. It shapes movement.”
The project serves as a fragment of a broader effort to construct a Sensory Horizon, the cultural theme selected by Volvo Studio for 2026, positioning itself as an investigation into dynamism as the primary condition of experience.
A Fluid Organism: Air, Light, and Movement
The centerpiece of the exhibition is a dynamic sculpture consisting of an ultra-thin, silk-like membrane, traversed and animated by fans regulated and designed by Mandalaki Studio. The fabric renders the essence of air’s constantly evolving movement visible, transforming the incorporeal into a living matter capable of manifesting flows, tensions, and variations.
In this sense, “BREATH” achieves a decisive transition: it does not merely represent air, but constructs a true architecture out of it. What we normally perceive as emptiness is articulated here as a visible structure, a dynamic field of forces. Air acquires a legible physicality—not as a mass, but as a system of relationships and dynamic continuities.
It is an unstable, never-definitive architecture that continuously generates and dissolves before our eyes. Its truth lies precisely in this instability: light and air are never identical to themselves, but exist only in their becoming. Lightness, therefore, does not equate to the absence of weight, but to an active condition built within space. The void organizes itself, takes shape, and becomes perceptible.Light steps in as a tool capable of defining every facet of the work, modulating its chromaticity.
It is through light that this architecture of air fully reveals itself: not as a closed volume, but as a diffuse presence—a construction existing within the relationship between matter, energy, and perception, lending vitality and spatial context.
In the evening hours, the installation opens up to the exterior, visible through the windows of the exhibition space. As Rischa Paterlini observes, the work offers itself “as a breath that passes through the glass,” establishing a direct dialogue with the city. In this way, “BREATH” is not confined to the space that contains it, but connects with the surrounding environment, making perceptible something that we, in reality, already inhabit every day.
Sound and Perception: An Emotional Narrative
The sonic dimension, developed by composer Luca Longobardi, contributes decisively to building the experience. The composition In/Out, inspired by the mechanical breathing of the fans that power the fabric’s movement, accompanies the oscillation of the work, transforming it into a fluid-dynamic organism.
The music does not simply serve as a background but acts as an emotional mirror: it builds a narrative context that guides the perception of movement. Perceptual variations (tension, suspense, release) correspond to sonic variations, making the experience deeply immersive and synesthetic.
In this landscape, air, light, and vibration intertwine, altering the perception of time and fully engaging the viewer.
On the occasion of Milan Art Week and Milan Design Week 2026, Volvo Studio Milano, an elegant, Scandinavian-inspired space collaborating with Viasaterna to develop its cultural programming, hosts “BREATH. Architecture of Lightness”. This exhibition was conceived by Mandalaki Studio, a Milan-based art and design studio consisting of Enrico De Lotto, George Kolliopoulos, Giovanni Senin, and Davide Giovannardi. The studio explores the intersection of art, design, and technology through immersive installations and sensory experimentation. Curated by Rischa Paterlini in collaboration with Viasaterna, the project is completed by a soundscape developed by composer Luca Longobardi.
Consistently oriented toward the intersection of perception and matter, Mandalaki Studio has developed a line of research here that unites a scientific approach with sensory experience, positioning itself between industrial design and artistic-technological innovation. While light constitutes the core of Mandalaki’s practice, in “BREATH” it takes on a structural role: it does not merely illuminate, but acts as an active device for perceptual transformation and engagement with the outside world. As Enrico De Lotto states, “It does not simply illuminate. It shapes movement.”
The project serves as a fragment of a broader effort to construct a Sensory Horizon, the cultural theme selected by Volvo Studio for 2026, positioning itself as an investigation into dynamism as the primary condition of experience.
A Fluid Organism: Air, Light, and Movement
The centerpiece of the exhibition is a dynamic sculpture consisting of an ultra-thin, silk-like membrane, traversed and animated by fans regulated and designed by Mandalaki Studio. The fabric renders the essence of air’s constantly evolving movement visible, transforming the incorporeal into a living matter capable of manifesting flows, tensions, and variations.
In this sense, “BREATH” achieves a decisive transition: it does not merely represent air, but constructs a true architecture out of it. What we normally perceive as emptiness is articulated here as a visible structure, a dynamic field of forces. Air acquires a legible physicality—not as a mass, but as a system of relationships and dynamic continuities.
It is an unstable, never-definitive architecture that continuously generates and dissolves before our eyes. Its truth lies precisely in this instability: light and air are never identical to themselves, but exist only in their becoming. Lightness, therefore, does not equate to the absence of weight, but to an active condition built within space. The void organizes itself, takes shape, and becomes perceptible.Light steps in as a tool capable of defining every facet of the work, modulating its chromaticity.
It is through light that this architecture of air fully reveals itself: not as a closed volume, but as a diffuse presence—a construction existing within the relationship between matter, energy, and perception, lending vitality and spatial context.
In the evening hours, the installation opens up to the exterior, visible through the windows of the exhibition space. As Rischa Paterlini observes, the work offers itself “as a breath that passes through the glass,” establishing a direct dialogue with the city. In this way, “BREATH” is not confined to the space that contains it, but connects with the surrounding environment, making perceptible something that we, in reality, already inhabit every day.
Sound and Perception: An Emotional Narrative
The sonic dimension, developed by composer Luca Longobardi, contributes decisively to building the experience. The composition In/Out, inspired by the mechanical breathing of the fans that power the fabric’s movement, accompanies the oscillation of the work, transforming it into a fluid-dynamic organism.
The music does not simply serve as a background but acts as an emotional mirror: it builds a narrative context that guides the perception of movement. Perceptual variations (tension, suspense, release) correspond to sonic variations, making the experience deeply immersive and synesthetic.
In this landscape, air, light, and vibration intertwine, altering the perception of time and fully engaging the viewer.
The Continuous Becoming
Broadening our gaze, this dimension of change concerns not only the artwork itself but points to a broader condition that permeates the very experience of reality.
The work makes evident a condition that has always belonged to us: we are immersed in a continuous flow, in a dynamic system where nothing remains identical to itself. From this perspective, the proposed experience aligns with the concept of becoming found in Heraclitus’ thought, according to which the identity of reality is defined by the perennial clash between complementary opposites (Pólemos). These opposites, while conflicting, recall each other, thereby guaranteeing the dynamic unity of the whole.
Much like the sky—often perceived in its apparent stability and suddenly revealed in its intensity at sunset—the things around us elude our gaze until we are willing to grasp their processual nature. There are no fixed states, only transitions; no definitive objects, but unstable balances that, paradoxically, produce a form of continuity.
Observing the fabric, so ineffable yet vigorous with life, one realizes that what appears immobile is actually traversed by a constant transformation intrinsic to its very essence. Air, light, and breath, much like human experience, exist only in their incessant becoming.
An Expanding Exhibition: Space and Image
“BREATH” is not limited to its central component but extends throughout the entire office area, which acts not as a simple container but as an active element of the project. In this perspective, space becomes an integral part of the artwork, helping to produce and amplify its meaning.
Within this further exhibition dimension, a series of images taken in the high mountains find their place, representing one of Mandalaki’s main sources of inspiration. The photographs investigate the vitality and imperceptible lightness of light, capturing moments of suspension between sky and atmosphere characterized by a strong chromatic intensity. The offices are also traversed by Halo lamps, which echo the colors captured in the high mountains to modulate the space into a sequence of luminous atmospheres.
Perception, Revelation, and Awareness
The nature of the project emerges clearly from all these elements: within the frantic context of Milan, “BREATH” introduces a perceptual suspension.It thus becomes a device for awareness: an invitation to slow down, to feel one's breath, and to reconnect with an essential dimension of experience. Light, which modulates everything visible, and air, which we continuously move through, reveal themselves as foundational elements of our relationship with the world.
The exhibition does not emphasize the new; instead, it provides us with the tools to experience reality in a purer way, freeing us from the perceptual habits that make it opaque and restoring our capacity for awe and wonder.
*From “il respiro della materia”, flyer of the exhibition
The installation has been visitable during the Milano Art Week and Design Week 2026, while the exhibition through the offices is open until 3/10.
For Informations and time schedule: 02 25551000
https://www.volvocars.com/it/l/studios/milano/
VOLVO STUDIO MILANO,
Viale della Liberazione corner Melchiorre Gioia
Broadening our gaze, this dimension of change concerns not only the artwork itself but points to a broader condition that permeates the very experience of reality.
The work makes evident a condition that has always belonged to us: we are immersed in a continuous flow, in a dynamic system where nothing remains identical to itself. From this perspective, the proposed experience aligns with the concept of becoming found in Heraclitus’ thought, according to which the identity of reality is defined by the perennial clash between complementary opposites (Pólemos). These opposites, while conflicting, recall each other, thereby guaranteeing the dynamic unity of the whole.
Much like the sky—often perceived in its apparent stability and suddenly revealed in its intensity at sunset—the things around us elude our gaze until we are willing to grasp their processual nature. There are no fixed states, only transitions; no definitive objects, but unstable balances that, paradoxically, produce a form of continuity.
Observing the fabric, so ineffable yet vigorous with life, one realizes that what appears immobile is actually traversed by a constant transformation intrinsic to its very essence. Air, light, and breath, much like human experience, exist only in their incessant becoming.
An Expanding Exhibition: Space and Image
“BREATH” is not limited to its central component but extends throughout the entire office area, which acts not as a simple container but as an active element of the project. In this perspective, space becomes an integral part of the artwork, helping to produce and amplify its meaning.
Within this further exhibition dimension, a series of images taken in the high mountains find their place, representing one of Mandalaki’s main sources of inspiration. The photographs investigate the vitality and imperceptible lightness of light, capturing moments of suspension between sky and atmosphere characterized by a strong chromatic intensity. The offices are also traversed by Halo lamps, which echo the colors captured in the high mountains to modulate the space into a sequence of luminous atmospheres.
Perception, Revelation, and Awareness
The nature of the project emerges clearly from all these elements: within the frantic context of Milan, “BREATH” introduces a perceptual suspension.It thus becomes a device for awareness: an invitation to slow down, to feel one's breath, and to reconnect with an essential dimension of experience. Light, which modulates everything visible, and air, which we continuously move through, reveal themselves as foundational elements of our relationship with the world.
The exhibition does not emphasize the new; instead, it provides us with the tools to experience reality in a purer way, freeing us from the perceptual habits that make it opaque and restoring our capacity for awe and wonder.
*From “il respiro della materia”, flyer of the exhibition
The installation has been visitable during the Milano Art Week and Design Week 2026, while the exhibition through the offices is open until 3/10.
For Informations and time schedule: 02 25551000
https://www.volvocars.com/it/l/studios/milano/
VOLVO STUDIO MILANO,
Viale della Liberazione corner Melchiorre Gioia
Leo Montanari