Gucci | Bamboo Encounters is a tribute to bamboo – an evergreen plant that seamlessly blends strength with lightness, a material rich in cultural significance, and a key medium in contemporary design. Curated and designed by 2050+, the exhibition draws inspiration from the House’s pioneering use of bamboo in the mid 1940s.
Inspired by Guccio Gucci’s son’s passion for bamboo walking sticks, artisans began crafting handbags with curved bamboo handles. Initially an emblematic element of the Gucci Bamboo 1947 bag, the material went on to influence the design of a wide range of items – jewelry, textile patterns and stationery – transforming bamboo into one of the House’s most recognizable codes.
Building on this rich legacy, Gucci | Bamboo Encounters showcases seven ad-hoc commissions from contemporary designers spanning diverse backgrounds and generations, each given free rein to reimagine and recontextualize bamboo in bold and adventurous ways, testing new paths for the encounter of materials, crafts, technologies, identities, epistemologies and imaginaries.
The outcome of this choral design exhibition now takes shape at the Chiostri di San Simpliciano as a constellation of artifacts celebrating the trans-temporal and trans-geographical essence of bamboo, highlighting its remarkable durability, flexibility, and versatility.
CREDITS
Gucci | Bamboo Encounters
Chiostri di San Simpliciano, Milan, Italy
08.05.2025–13.04.2025
An exhibition envisioned by Gucci, curated and designed by 2050+
Project team: 2050+ (Matteo Bozzi, Nico Canal, Nils Grootenzerink, Sara Barbini, Marco Gambarè, Davide Marcianesi, Erica Petrillo, Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli, Massimo Tenan)
With new ad hoc commissions by designers: Anton Alvarez, Nathalie Du Pasquier, Laurids Gallée, KiteClub (Sheltens & Abbenes, Bertjan Pot), Sisan Lee, Dima Srouji, the-back-studio
Data artist: Tiziana Alocci
Graphic Design by Aisslinger Pellegrino
