alex chinneck 'unzips' a building's traditional façade for milan design week

british sculptor alex chinneck, known for inverting electricity pylons and tying grandfather clocks in knots, has ‘unzipped’ the façade of a building in milan as part of the city’s design week festivities. to create the dramatic effect, chinneck created a totally new elevation in the style of traditional milanese architecture, which appears to open up to reveal the building’s interior. the interior spaces, on the other hand, are radically transformed through unexpected ‘openings’ in the cement pavement and stone walls.

all images by marc wilmot

serving as the project’s distinctive feature, the zip is used as a device through which the artist gives way to a series of surreal crevices from which an ethereal and weightless light disseminates. ‘through the repeated use of the zipper, we have opened up the fabric of a seemingly historic milanese building to playfully re-imagine what lies behind its façade, floors and walls,’ explains alex chinneck.

the walls and floor become metaphors for a process of transformation, evoking — through a series of portals — seemingly infinite routes to a newly imagined future. ‘ethereal light pours through each opening, filling the space with color and filling the work with a sense of positivity and potential,’ chinneck continues. the project spazio quattrocento until april 14, 2019 as part of milan design week. see designboom’s ongoing coverage of the world’s biggest design event here.

project info:

artist: alex chinneck
name: IQOS world revealed by alex chinneck
presented by: philip morris international
location: spazio quattrocento – opificio 31, via tortona 31, milan
dates: april 9-14, 2019 from 10AM to 9PM
photography: marc wilmot