The central railway station in Milan, Milano Centrale, is set to become one of the world’s largest public galleries later this month in an immersive photography show for the Milan Design Week 2024, hosted by luxury fashion house, Moncler. Milano Centrale is the main station in the Italian metropolis and the second largest station in Italy for its footfall, admitting approximately 120 million passengers per year. It is no surprise, therefore, that the station is now designated to become a multipurpose venue for the luxury fashion brand Moncler’s latest show, An Invitation to Dream, during what is one of the busiest periods of inspired design frenzy in the city.

Since their foundation in 1952, Moncler has striven to embolden “intrepid explorers to reach the highest peaks and accomplish their dreams”, as an official release quotes. Dreams, and their ascension, are considered to be a driving force behind the upscale brand’s creative power. A number of creative marketing campaigns and the brand’s communication are similarly targeted to imbue an aspirational quality in its consumers, an encouragement to their community to ‘dream big’ and aspire for larger. An Invitation to Dream is thus, at home in the brand’s overall approach and communication in a bid to engage with the creative community.

These central notions also firmly correlate with the creative vision of the show’s curator, Jefferson Hack, who, since establishing the global media outlet Dazed in 1991, has consistently bolstered nonconformist creatives and their dreams through his curatorial efforts and publications. Hack was particularly acknowledged for this when he won the Special Recognition for Cultural Curation Award at the British Fashion Awards in 2022. According to an official release, with another London-based artist Jack Davison – who acts as the project’s photographer and filmmaker – the exhibition looks to “some of the most extraordinary minds shaping culture today, to inspire or even help [audiences] to dream like them”.

The setting of an expansive, immersive photography exhibition within a major hub of transportation for the city of Milan, especially activated during the Milan Design Week, is a statement itself unto opening all sorts of exciting avenues for engagement. Originally designed by Italian architect Ulisse Stacchini in 1931 as an efficient, inter-city transport hub, in recent years, the site for Milano Centrale has found itself increasingly utilised as a space for public engagement and exhibitions. Curated by Manu De Ros, The Word of Banksy – The Immersive Experience hosted by the station back in 2021 boasted over 130 mural recreations of some of the more provocative works by the anonymous artist. The immediate area outside the station is also currently employed to display Michelangelo Pistoletto’s The Apple Made Whole Again sculpture, a towering, white apple made of stainless steel and powdered marble. This piece was donated to the city in 2015 to honour the EXPO theme that year, Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life.

Other train stations across the globe are also often used as art spaces. Consider David Batchelor’s large-scale installation at London’s St. Pancras Station, Chromolocomotion (2014). The brightly-coloured 20m x 10m stained glass sculpture hung in the station’s main train shed. Arguably so, a case may be made for train stations conversely offering amongst the best of spaces for art display. As purpose-built structures, they provide ample room, and sufficient natural lighting, and are never short of an audience.

Labelled by Hack as “some of the finest creative visionaries across culture” today, a number of artists have been called upon to participate in the upcoming Moncler show. A series of large-scale text pieces and hand-printed lithographic portraits of these individuals by Davison will be on display in the historic Milano Centrale. Some portraits will further be scaled up and projected onto the screen-based advertising panels in the station. Existing advertisements will be replaced with a slow-motion montage of Davison’s photography and the public space will be transformed into an all-encompassing ‘dreamscape’. This will not be the first time the Milan Design Week has featured large-scale, site-specific installations that subvert the iconicity of the very ground or structure they are set in; 2023 boasted dozens of similarly done large-scale assemblages.

12 artists will appear in Davison’s photography, including chefs, sculptors, makeup artists, and poets, including Ruth Rogers, Daniel Arsham, Isamaya Ffrench, and Julianknxx. Hack elucidates how these ‘essential’ figures are inherently valuable to the show as they represent “new hopes and possibilities”, their work showcasing “deeply transformative aspects”.

'An Invitation to Dream' will be on view from April 15 to April 21, 2024, at the Milano Centrale Railway Station.

Stay tuned to STIR's coverage of Milan Design Week 2024 which showcases the best of exhibitions, studios, designers, installations, brands and events to look out for. Explore EuroCucina and all the design districts—Fuorisalone, 5vie Design Week, Isola Design Week, Brera Design District and Porta Venezia Design District.

(Text by Sophie Hosking, intern at STIRworld)