Darkness and light intersect and merge throughout Davide Groppi’s professional journey, and in his first retrospective exhibition. Curated by Marco Sammicheli and open to the public until May 26 at Volumnia in Piacenza, Un’ora di luce explores Groppi’s creative path through lamps, luminous constructions, and scenographic intuitions.
The former church that amplifies the experience of light
A remarkable inventor of light, a visionary creator, yet also a grounded entrepreneur, and founder of the brand that bears his name, Davide Groppi presents his work for the first time through lamps and immersive installations.
The exhibition unfolds within the main nave of the Church of Sant’Agostino, a space returned to the city by Volumnia’s founder, Enrica De Micheli, as a venue for art. The gallery focuses on contemporary art and 20th-century Italian works, and the former sacred space is enhanced by a lighting design project created by Groppi in 2018.
At the entrance, a large-scale version of the iconic Moon pendant marks the transition between outside and inside, opening the experience.
«The exhibition, reads the press release, begins with five utopias of light, unique pieces suspended between the possible and the impossible, between nature and artifice. Visitors are guided through a sequence of inhabited walls, within which artificial light appears in unexpected, joyful, and astonishing ways, as if seen for the first time. These are works of poetry, at times a negation of functionality and rationality, rhetorical figures».
Special editions and new lamps presented for the exhibition
To underline the connection with the gallery, Davide Groppi introduces Vera Limited Edition, presented in a lacquered amaranth finish and produced in a limited run for Volumnia.
This table lamp consists of a transparent glass cone and an aluminum base. The bulb “does not exist”: it is a hologram that appears when the lamp is switched on.
Also featured within the exhibition is Umasi, a new product unveiled as a preview.
