The exhibition by AMO - Ambra Medda Office brings together Greek and Chinese traditions, rethinking craft as a space of encounter between cultures
In contemporary design, craft is no longer a reference to the past, but a space for current research. It is here, between memory and project, that Sail Away takes place, the exhibition that AMO - Ambra Medda Office - presents at Milan Design Week 2026 in its new Milan space at Via Nullo 6.
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On the left: Leda Athanasopoulou © Yannis Bournias
On the right: Yumo Yuan © Willian Zou
The project comes from the meeting between Greek designer Leda Athanasopoulou and Chinese artist Yumo Yuan, and takes shape as a dialogue between two traditions that are distant only geographically. As the exhibition itself suggests, some forms and symbols seem to emerge independently across different cultures: not by imitation, but through a kind of shared necessity. At the center is craft, understood not as simple production, but as a gesture full of intention. Objects that are not only meant to function, but to “say something”: protection, continuity, beauty. An ancient idea that today returns with strength, precisely at a time when everything is becoming faster and more standardized.
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Crafts commissioned by Leda Athanasopoulou © Joseph Alexiadis
On one side, Athanasopoulou works on the island of Lesvos, activating a network of local artisans and bringing back practices that risk disappearing. Ceramics fired in kilns fueled by olive pits, aluminum taverna chairs, and objects inspired by tama - votive offerings linked to protection and the idea of journey - become tools to bring everyday knowledge back into circulation, made of slow and repeated gestures.
Textiles by Yumo Yuan © Natalia Ruhe
On the other side, Yuan develops a more subtle work on textiles, starting from vintage fragments and personal archives. Motifs from Greek tradition - grapes, ships, roosters, shells - are translated into hand-woven and hand-painted compositions, inspired by 18th-century warp print techniques. The result is soft, blurred imagery, where Chinese folk aesthetics meet Greek ones without ever fully overlapping.
It is precisely in this distance - never fully resolved - that the project finds its strength. Sail Away does not seek a synthesis, but a resonance. The title suggests it: the ship, a central symbol of the exhibition, crosses both cultures - identity and return in Greece, good fortune in Chinese tradition - bringing together different meanings in a shared desire for journey and arrival.
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