An anniversary that feels like a new beginning: with a book, a site-specific project by Martino Gamper and a story that keeps evolving
In 2025 Nilufar Depot celebrates its first ten years with a double event: the launch of the book “Nilufar Depot. The First Decade” and a site-specific performance by Martino Gamper, invited by Nina Yashar to transform the atrium of the space. The designer - who in 2015 curated the Depot’s opening dinner at via Vincenzo Lancetti 34 in Milan - now returns with a gesture full of symbolism. His action won’t be about breaking, but about regenerating: through assemblages and recompositions, Gamper “reactivates” a selection of collectible design pieces from the gallery, giving them new forms and new stories. At the center of it all will be his most complex Off Cut Table: a composition of thirteen tables made with reclaimed wood, a true manifesto of his exploration between experimentation and memory. On Tuesday, September 30th, the event will be open to the public from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm, upon registration at the following link.
Nilufar Depot - Depot MDW 2017 © Mattia Iotti
Alongside the performance, the book “The First Decade” retraces the story of the Depot year by year, with more than a hundred pages of images and critical texts by Annamaria Sbisà. It’s not just a catalog, but a visual and narrative archive that tells the story of a place that, born almost by chance, has grown into an international reference point. At the beginning, the Depot wasn’t even supposed to look like it does today: Nina Yashar was simply looking for a storage space for her endless discoveries. But as soon as she stepped into the building on Via Lancetti, she immediately felt it couldn’t just be a warehouse.
Nilufar Depot - Depot MDW 2021, Matacubi, Pietro Consagra Solo Show © Mattia Iotti
From that spark came a true theater of design, with its central empty stage and balconies opening like opera boxes at La Scala, transforming the former silver factory into a visionary stage. From that moment on, a sequence of exhibitions has marked the international scene: from the retrospective on Lina Bo Bardi and Giancarlo Palanti (2018), to FAR’s cosmic journey (2019), from Pietro Consagra’s Matacubi (2021) to Poikilos – New Forms of Iridescence by Objects of Common Interest (2023). Each time, the Depot has reinvented itself as a fluid container of languages, harmonizing vintage and contemporary, historic icons and new discoveries.
“Celebrating the first ten years of Nilufar Depot is an immense emotion for me,” says Nina Yashar. She continues: “this anniversary is above all a new starting point: I want to keep pushing the project’s boundaries, open space for new visions, and build an even more dynamic future.” Ten years later, just like at the beginning, the Depot remains a place of constant metamorphosis, where objects, spaces, and ideas don’t come to an end but keep transforming — keeping alive that vital tension between memory and the future. Tradition and avant-garde.
Nilufar Depot - Depot MDW 2015 © Mattia Iotti
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