Gucci has unveiled Gucci | Bamboo Encounters at Fuorisalone, an exhibition curated and designed by Milan-based studio 2050+ and its founder Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli. Set within the atmospheric Chiostri di San Simpliciano, a 16th-century cloister in the heart of Milan, the exhibition opened during Fuorisalone 2025 and offers a fresh interpretation of the brand’s historic relationship with bamboo. The show features contemporary artists and designers from around the globe, each invited to reimagine bamboo as both a cultural and material medium.
DESIGN
The exhibition pays homage to Gucci’s post-war innovation when, in the 1940s, the House began incorporating bamboo handles into handbags, most notably the iconic Gucci Bamboo 1947. The move was both a technical solution and a creative milestone. Over the decades, bamboo grew into a defining motif of Gucci’s visual identity, standing for resourcefulness and reinvention. Bamboo Encounters builds on this lineage by highlighting how the material continues to resonate in today’s design discourse.
Among the featured works is 1802251226 by Swedish-Chilean artist Anton Alvarez, a sculptural nod to the natural curvature of bamboo. Palestinian artist and architect Dima Srouji presents Hybrid Exhalations, combining hand-blown glass with found bamboo baskets, subtly referencing fragility and resilience. The Dutch collective Kite Club, Bertjan Pot, Liesbeth Abbenes, and Maurice Scheltens, offers Thank You, Bamboo, a series of abstract kites crafted with bamboo and modern materials, evoking motion and elevation.
Austrian designer Laurids Gallée contributes Scaffolding, a series of resin objects informed by structural frameworks and ephemeral construction sites, while French artist Nathalie Du Pasquier turns to silk and bamboo panels in her piece PASSAVENTO, fusing geometric form and rich texture. Sisan Lee from Seoul draws upon traditional Korean design in engraved aluminum works that reinterpret bamboo through a high-contrast, metallic aesthetic.
The exhibition concludes with bamboo assemblage n.1, a light-based installation by Turin-Mumbai duo the back studio (Eugenio Rossi and Yaazd Contractor), which reflects on tradition and modernity through glowing modular structures. Together, the works reinforce bamboo’s cultural elasticity, how a humble material can carry both memory and futurity. More than a retrospective, the exhibition signals a living dialogue, one that stretches from Gucci’s past into the speculative futures of design.
