EXHIBITION OVERVIEW
DREAM NEON and SOMA_studiomilano team up to conceive « LEDS DO.IT » – their first exhibition for the Milan Design Week 2022.
LEDS DO IT brings together 07 creators – designers, makers, and artists who give Dream Neon’s neon signs and installation waste a second life.
Each creator explores different themes central to the role of light and the beauty that lies in waste. Together they present new solutions to divert silicone and electronic surplus from
landfills, turning this toxic debris into imperfect beauty, and give a new sense to light.
Light is the vital beauty of life, just like newborn eyes opening for the first time.
Light reveals hidden worlds and souls.
Without light, there is no creation, no drawing on caves walls,
no writing or reading romance in the dawn.
But every light needs a crack to get in.
And once the light gets in, it creates new spaces where we can turn pain into
beautiful textures, colours, and rhythms.
Whether we like it or not, cracks are everywhere.
There are cracks intrinsic to the human condition and inherent in the earth’s evolution. Both are unavoidable cracks. But there are also avoidable cracks, human-made cracks. And they emerge in different forms and sizes. They are caused by humankind’s greed that travels
like missiles falling from a blue sky, a contagious virus spreading across the globe, or a forest fire eating nature alive.
affections, and who we are. Cracks are the imprints we leave on this planet, for good or worse.
And despite all cracks, there will always be space for the light to get in. And once we realize this, we empower ourselves and our
communities to rebuild beauty out of imperfection.
In this exhibition, designers, artists, and makers come together to celebrate light, helping it pass through the cracks. They have worked with the neon light industry’s waste and turned them into imperfect beauty.
And in doing so, these creators designed new solutions to divert silicone and electronic waste from landfills. They call us to let the light get in! They invite us to rescue the light that lies in waste and repurpose its lively cracks.
SELECTED CREATORS
To discover the works from creators, come and visit us during Fuori Salone
Via Pastrengo 7, - 20159 - Milano
Marie-Louise Hellgren
'Ways of waste'
Luca Alessandrini
'Parasite'
Parasite develops around the concept of hacking. In this case, LUCA ALESSANDRINI works with Dream Neon’s industrial surplus to illustrate how waste grows and takes over one of last century’s most iconic design pieces: an original DSS glass fiber chair from Herman Miller Eames. In a post-Anthropocene scenario where waste takes part in an ecosystem distorted by humans, Parasite biomimetic shape represents a symbolic act of rebellion against design. Waste takes back its place, demanding attention and glowing, showing what remains after design: only waste its-self.
SCERBO
'Radical light'
The light of Dream Neon becomes the revelation of plants’ invisible and infinite underground connections. Electrochemical exchanges form a mycelium that the underground foster in contact with the essential elements that enable life.
“Radical Light” is a visual plot where the light of photography will merge with that of technology, revealing the boundless idea of the union that nature has always tended toward in its most hidden state.
SuperForma
'Velaskello confetti'
SuperForma’s new collaboration with Dream Neon extends beyond digital manufacturing as it builds a bridge between industry and digital craftsmanship giving life to new pop and sparkling object. Velaskello Confetti is a stool inspired by the Velasca Tower, representing the rebirth of an artisanal production locally rooted and eco-sustainable. The piece is made out of PLA scraps deriving from 3d printing wastes from Milanese companies and glazed with Dream Neon’s industrial waste materials.
Carolina Giorgiani . 'Glitch Dread'
Carolina Giorgiani
'Glitch Dread'
Glitch Dread is a luminous installation created by Carolina Giorgiani after receiving packs full of colourful, soft, mini, rubber-like-candies: neon leftovers. While touching them, the designer came up with the idea of skewering the silicone with a needle and thread. She kept on skewing, creating a 4-meter pink line. Working on this installation brought childhood memories of when Giorgiani used to select the best glass and shells from the beach. She experienced the same feeling of an obsessive compulsion that calms down her worried mind. Glitch dread is a work about slow processes, simple and traditional practices mutated in a continuous, calming, and hypnotising act of creating (instead of destroying) with destroyed materials. The installation includes five “dreads” that simultaneously seem to be suspended and grow from the ground
Undz Gnart
'Gold'
Gold proposes a new take on kintsugi – the Japanese philosophy and art of mending broken porcelain and ceramics with gold. Undz Gnart chooses light, instead of gold, to give objects a second and more meaningful life. Gnart works with broken porcelain and neon-led spare parts, building a link between light and gold, knowing that the second represents the sun on earth for varioous ancient civilizations. Gold ice bucket also reacts to the audio ambient.
Stromboli Design
'Rewind'
Rewind is a sculptural rope, yet functional, that triggers the silicon band object proposed by Dream Neon. By working with industrial waste – the confetti pieces of silicon, Stromboli Design created a positive parasite to the slick base object. The repurposed waste shines a light on the piece, unveiling its hidden beauty.
FOLLOW US ON
@ledsdoit
MEET US AT
ISOLA DESIGN DISTRICT
VIA PASTRENGO 7
From 10am to 8pm
REACH OUT TO FOR PRESS KIT
DEDICATED:
We dedicate this exhibition to SOMA’s co-founder and one of LEDS DO.IT curator: Marlon Chiumento, whose colourful lights continue to inspire and cheer up everyone who crossed his way.