Ingo Maurer, Behind the Scenes of a Poet of Light

Science-fiction action figures, golden plastic dragons, replicas of Japanese food. Unlikely objects collected during travels and walks through cities around the world, which, for Ingo Maurer (1932–2019), could become the starting point for an idea. It is precisely this universe of curiosities, chance encounters and intuitions that takes centre stage in Peep Show, the exhibition running from 6 to 26 November at Via Varese 13 in Milan, in the year marking the brand’s 60th anniversary. Neither a traditional retrospective nor a chronological journey through the designer’s most celebrated lamps, the exhibition instead explores the sources of his imagination. From Porca Miseria to Lucellino, from Wo bist du, Edison...? to Why Not, Maurer’s creations have always intertwined experimentation, irony and poetry. The exhibition, however, chooses to focus on what came before: the objects, associations and experiments that fuelled his creative process.



Curated by Jolanthe Kugler, currently Chief Curator at mudac – Musée cantonal de design et d’arts appliqués contemporains in Lausanne, with an exhibition design by spatial designer Nathalie Opris, Peep Show brings together a selection from the collection of objects Maurer accumulated over the decades. Bought on impulse from shop windows and toy stores, often shipped home in entire boxes, these small finds reveal a way of looking at the world in which anything could spark curiosity and give rise to new design possibilities. The objects are displayed on simple worktables, evoking the atmosphere of the Designerei, the creative workshop in Munich that remains the beating heart of the brand today. Above the tables, the cable of the Signature lamp, one of the company’s most recent creations, traces an intricate line through space, resembling a scribble: a visual representation of a creative process in which order and improvisation coexist.

The exhibition also features a number of finished lamps, sometimes directly connected to the objects on display. Yet the relationship between inspiration and outcome is not always so immediate. Many of the objects Maurer collected never became prototypes, remaining suggestions, stimuli and unexplored possibilities that nevertheless helped shape his work. Completing the narrative are photographs and films from the Designerei archive: experiments in the studio courtyard, travels, installations, trials, failures and moments of discovery. This spontaneous documentation captures the everyday and collaborative nature of Maurer’s creative practice, alongside images of site-specific installations and compositions created in the Munich workshop. “Evoking the pleasure of looking where one shouldn’t, Peep Show offers visitors the rare opportunity not only to admire Ingo Maurer’s lamps, but also to enter the imaginary landscape from which they emerged,” explains curator Jolanthe Kugler. The Milan exhibition also serves as a preview of a larger exhibition project, scheduled to take place in 2027 at the company’s showroom on Kaiserstrasse in Munich.