As part of Milano Art Week 2025 and against the backdrop of Milano Design Week 2025, the exhibition “Gio Ponti e il teatro. Dallo storyboard cinematografico alla costruzione della scena” will be held from April 4 to 5 and from April 7 to 9 at NABA’s Milan campus (Via C. Darwin, 20). The exhibition will feature an installation by students from the BA in Set Design, highlighting Gio Ponti’s connection with the world of theatre.
Guided by Margherita Palli (NABA Set Design Advisor) and Set Design Area lecturers Marco Cristini, Matilde Casadei, and Giacomo Andrico, the students have reconstructed Bertoldo’s entrance scene based on the storyboard for a film adaptation of Pirandello’s play “Henry IV”. To do so, they followed Ponti’s notes, which alternate between detailed descriptions of set elements and directorial annotations regarding camera movements.
NABA presents “Gio Ponti e il teatro. Dallo storyboard cinematografico alla costruzione della scena”: the roundtable and exhibition opening
As part of the exhibition, on Friday, April 4 at 11:00 AM in Classroom G0.4, a roundtable will offer an in-depth exploration of Ponti’s role as a “humanist”, spanning architecture, design, theatre, art, and culture. Taking part in the discussion alongside Margherita Palli will be Salvatore Licitra (Gio Ponti Archives Curator), Francesca Molteni (filmmaker, curator, writer, and founder of Muse Factory of Projects), Marco Scotini (NABA Visual Arts Department Head), Massimo Martignoni (architectural historian and NABA lecturer), Alberto Bentoglio (Department of Cultural and Environmental Heritage Director at Università degli Studi di Milano), and Fabiana Giacomotti (journalist), introduced by Luca Poncellini (NABA Design and Applied Arts Department Head) and Vincenzo Cuccia (NABA Media Design and New Technologies, and Set Design Area Leader).
The exhibition opening will follow, guiding visitors into an antechamber where they can view the documentary “Lo storyboard di Gio Ponti”, a project by Francesca Molteni in collaboration with Salvatore Licitra and produced by Muse Factory of Projects in which a roll of blotting paper, preserved in a wooden box in the Gio Ponti Archives, will unroll like a film.
The documentary will be accompanied by an exhibition of iconic furniture pieces designed by the architect and produced by Molteni&C, leading visitors towards the reconstruction of the “Henry IV” scene within NABA’s new Set Design laboratory, made possible thanks to the collaboration with Cleaf for material support. Visitors will also be guided by the voice of Franco Branciaroli in the monologue “La Luna nel pozzo”.
A booklet featuring contributions by, among others, Margherita Palli and Salvatore Licitra will offer further insight into the project, including an imagined interview with Gio Ponti created by students from NABA’s MA in Visual Arts and Curatorial Studies.
This project clearly reflects NABA’s interdisciplinary approach, with the aim of breaking down the boundaries between disciplines.
NABA presents ‘Gio Ponti and the theatre. From the film storyboard to the construction of the set’: details of the event
Friday, April 4, opening in Classroom G0.4 from 11:00 AM to 7:00 PM
Saturday, April 5, from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM
From Monday, April 7 to Wednesday, April 9, from 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM
NABA Campus in Milan
Via Carlo Darwin 20
Free entrance with mandatory reservation at this link.