In 2025, Nilufar Depot – an extraordinary Milanese stage for design, spanning both avant-garde and historical works, and renowned worldwide – marks its tenth anniversary. Its founder, Nina Yashar, is among the most influential talent scouts in the field: since opening her Nilufar Gallery in 1979, she has consistently anticipated trends and revealed new voices.
Nilufar Depot, Milan Design Week 2015 – Photo © Amendolagine Barracchia
The Viale Lancetti venue was inaugurated in 2015 as an extension of the historic Via della Spiga gallery. A former silverware factory redesigned by Massimiliano Locatelli, its volumes – reminding Yashar from the outset of La Scala opera house – were conceived to host large-scale exhibitions. From the beginning, the space established itself as an international reference point for contemporary design.
Lina Bo Bardi Giancarlo Palanti – Studio d’Arte Palma 1948-1951, Milan Design Week 2018 – Photo © Amendolagine Barracchia
12 chairs for meditation by Andrés Reisinger, part of the Time traveler exhibition, Milano Design Week 2024 – Photo © Alejandro Ramirez Orozco
Among the defining projects of this first decade: the 2018 retrospective on Lina Bo Bardi and Giancarlo Palanti; FAR 2019, a collective devoted to emerging designers; Pietro Consagra’s sculptures in 2021; and Poikilos – New Forms of Iridescence by Objects of Common Interest in 2023. These exhibitions reflect a program where curatorial research and international openness converge, now documented in Nilufar Depot, The First Decade – a book of over one hundred pages combining images, critical texts, and a reconstruction of the shows and installations that have shaped the space.
Nilufar Depot, The First Decade – Photo © Filippo Pincolini
To mark the anniversary, Yashar has invited Martino Gamper to create a site-specific performance. The choice carries symbolic weight: in 2015, at the Depot’s opening, Gamper designed the setting for the inaugural dinner. His new action, staged in the atrium, involves the transformation of selected pieces of collectible design.
Nina Yashar – Photo © Filippo Pincolini
Martino Gamper – Photo © Filippo Pincolini
Gamper’s presence also recalls the project that brought him to international attention in 2007. With Gio Ponti Translated by Martino Gamper, presented at Nilufar Gallery in via della Spiga, the designer from Merano reworked furniture originally created by Gio Ponti for the Hotel Parco dei Principi in Sorrento. By dismantling and reassembling those iconic pieces, he enacted an unprecedented process of “translation.” It was not an act of denial but a redefinition of the object, treated as living matter with generative potential.
FAR showcase at Nilufar Depot, Milan Design Week 2019 – Photo © PimTop
Nearly twenty years after that collaboration, Gamper’s return to Nilufar confirms both the centrality of his research and the gallery’s role in weaving its history together with that of contemporary design’s leading figures.
Matacubi by Pietro Consagra, Milan Design Week 2021 – Photo © Mattia Iotti
“Celebrating Nilufar Depot’s first ten years is deeply emotional for me,” Yashar notes. “This space was born as an experiment and, over the years, has grown into a living, open laboratory. Looking back, I’m grateful for everything we’ve built – but I see this anniversary above all as a new beginning. The aim is to keep pushing the boundaries of the project, welcoming new visions, and shaping an even more dynamic future.This space began as an experiment and has become a living, evolving laboratory. Looking back, I am grateful for all that we have built, but I see this anniversary above all as a new point of departure. The goal is to continue pushing the project’s boundaries, to give space to new visions, and to shape an even more dynamic future.”
