At Salone Raritas, Galerie Philia presents How High the Moon, an exhibition conceived as a meditation on material, reflection and immaterial presence.
Bringing together a selection of works articulated around aluminum, stainless steel and silver tones, the exhibition unfolds as a monochromatic landscape in which matter appears both dense and elusive. The choice of a single chromatic register is not aesthetic reduction, but rather an attempt to intensify perception: to allow form, light and surface to become the primary vectors of experience.
The title, borrowed from the iconic piece by Shiro Kuramata, points toward a paradox. How can an object — inherently bound to gravity, weight and function — evoke something as distant, intangible and unreachable as the moon? Kuramata’s wire mesh chair, included in the exhibition, becomes both anchor and vanishing point: a structure that dissolves into space, oscillating between presence and disappearance.
Across the exhibition, polished and brushed metal surfaces act as reflective membranes. They do not simply occupy space but transform it, capturing fragments of the surrounding environment, distorting them, multiplying them. In this sense, the works are not autonomous objects but relational entities, constantly redefined by light, movement and the presence of the viewer.
The selection brings into dialogue contemporary and historical pieces, from the geometric rigor of Pietro Franceschini’s aluminum structures to the radical lightness of Shiro Kuramata, and the chromed steel and plexiglass constructions of André-Jean Doucin. These works resonate with the tactile precision of Kym Ellery’s stainless steel and glass compositions, the perceptual explorations of Boldizar Senteski’s mirrored surfaces, and the subtle interventions of Henry Wilson in aluminum. This dialogue is further extended by Giotto Pagani’s sculptural chair, whose folded aluminum planes articulate a tension between structure and void, reinforcing the exhibition’s exploration of balance, gravity and immaterial presence.
Within the scenographic context of Salone Raritas — conceived as a porous architectural landscape designed to enhance the narratives it contains — the exhibition operates as a suspended field, where objects seem to detach from their functional origins and enter a more ambiguous, almost atmospheric condition.
How High the Moon ultimately proposes a shift: from object to apparition, from design to resonance. In this metallic constellation, what is at stake is not only the form of things, but their capacity to exceed themselves — to reflect, absorb and extend the space around them.
Special Thanks to Francesca Borgonovo, Caterina Licitra and Salone del Mobile.
Curated by Ygaël Attali