In the elusive space between art and design, a new series of radical objects emerges from Francesco Meneghello’s platform, WE DON’T DESIGN. The collection is a sophisticated exploration of conceptual design, a dialogue where the imaginary is given form and the object becomes a vessel for pure thought.
Rêverie is a word laden with magic. It describes a state of contemplative surrender where thoughts drift freely, guided by emotion and sensory impression. This fluid and sensual mode of engaging with the world is the inspiration behind Francesco Meneghello’s new visual project, a dreamlike journey into the universe of WE DON’T DESIGN. At its core lies a fundamental question for design: how to visually render the soul of metaphysical objects—enigmatic pieces that exist between idea and form, slipping the grasp of logic to touch the imaginary?
The answer, explored in collaboration with Milan-based photographer Thomas Pagani, is to abandon realism and step into the intangible space of rêverie. The resulting visual narrative is a conceptual exploration in itself, investigating the power of photography not merely to document, but to expand an object’s meaning. Pagani’s images, blending digital tools with an analog sensibility, are deliberately raw, imperfect. Objects appear in monochrome, stripped of context, becoming visual thoughts that invite us to release our certainty and embrace a slower, more poetic gaze.
In stark contrast to today’s dominant aesthetic, which favors fast and direct communication, RÊVERIE invites a slower, more poetic gaze. It is a discourse born from the alchemy of author and photographer, a visual rêverie where reality and imagination converge, without ever becoming one; a way of looking that doesn’t just aim to see, but to think through images. This philosophical framework underpins a new series of collectible works, each a radical experiment pushing the boundaries of what an object can be.
“Rêverie is a happy solitude. It is a state where imagination reigns, where the dreamer is no longer concerned with the reality of things, but with their poetic essence.” Gaston Bachelard, La poétique de la rêverie, 1960
Mirrorless: A Utopian Window on Reality
The inaugural chapter of this discourse is Mirrorless, a disruptive object that interrogates the phenomenological essence—both physical and symbolic—of the mirror. Conceived by Meneghello as a metaphysical piece, Mirrorless departs from rational logic to explore universes of meaning related to abstraction and utopia.
Its conceptual identity lies in the deliberate absence of a reflective surface, replaced by a void that transcends the object’s physical limits. This void is not an act of subtraction, but one of addition, opening infinite possibilities for experiencing reality. “The artistic world of reference is Lucio Fontana’s research,” Meneghello notes, “his instinct to force the flat dimension of the canvas as an act of construction, not destruction.”
The absence of the reflected image is a critique of ephemeral vanity, the culture of self-referentiality, and a standardized aesthetic. Instead, the object invites a slow, solitary, and introspective contemplative experience—a digitally disconnected yet fully engaged knowledge of the real world. Its highly polished steel surface reflects everything except the user’s face, creating a universal tableau where the human figure, light, and landscape merge into a single entity.
Entirely handmade, it embodies the values of Lombardy’s manufacturing tradition, and is produced in a limited edition of 111 pieces, a palindromic number that symbolically recalls the dialogue between humanity and nature.
Memorie: A Fragment of Infinity
Born from a minimal gesture, Memorie is a project by Meneghello and Davide Lanfranco that manifests as a carpet devoid of physical dimension, exploring the relationship between time, art, and transience. The work freely retraces the steps of Piero Manzoni’s search for an “infinite” artistic trace, which famously led to his Linee of 1959.
Memorie is a carpet in its textile origin, but its material consistency is so reduced that it relinquishes all utilitarian value to exist purely as a meditation on temporality. Like a ruined temple, its form suggests an irreversible consumption of matter, making time—or tempus edax rerum, the corrosive force that leaves ruins as testimony to the past—its most palpable dimension. “Once again, rational logic is not enough to understand the object,” state the designers, “a different look is needed that has to do with imagination, abstraction, metaphor.”
In this sense, Memorie is an “extreme act,” a reflection on the fatal transience of things that finds its only resistance in the world of memory. Its discontinuous and jagged form represents the uneven and fluctuating sequence of our own experiences. Produced in a single edition of 1959 linear meters, Meneghello and Lanfranco add the paradox of ‘divisibility.’ This allows one to possess a ‘fragment of infinity,’ with lengths ranging from the minimum of 1.23m—the start of the infinite sequence of natural numbers—to the symbolic limit of 1959m.
The carpet is crafted in Nepal, hand-woven from natural black silk yarn. Its production follows ethical codes of sustainability towards the environment and people, promoting inclusion and support for local communities. Each unique piece is identified by a progressive serial number.
Aldilà: A Performative Act of Sensory Awareness
Perhaps the most radical project is Aldilà (Afterlife), a collaboration with olfactory artist Spyros Drosopoulos that stages a radical reflection on sensory awareness. The project manifests as a transparent Murano crystal sphere, 50 cm in diameter, crafted in nine unique pieces by master glassmaker Simone Cenedese, a guardian of the centuries-old Venetian tradition of mouth-blown glass. Each sphere contains one of nine unique essences created by Drosopoulos, centered on the complex note of the rose.
Behind the glass, the precious contents are visible but cannot be fully experienced. The transition from the visual experience—described as rational, limited, and unfulfilling—to the olfactory—seen as dreamlike, absolute, and sensual—is marked by a profound, performative gesture. An iron hammer, included as an integral part of the concept, suggests an act of destruction.
Only by shattering the crystal sphere can the owner fully experience the fragrance as it envelops the senses. This act, however, is a permanent change: the perfume will forever lose its permanence, and the value of the work is instantly reduced to zero. The resulting dialectic is palpable, placing the choice between static preservation and ephemeral revelation entirely in the hands of its owner.
In his sophisticated approach, Meneghello transforms pure geometry into a hypersemantic object. The concept is a union of multiple symbolic realms: the eternal geometry of the sphere; the alchemical potency of perfume; the symbolism of the rose as the “perfect expression of the spirit” and a symbol of “sacred love”; and the mystical numerology of Dante Alighieri‘s Divine Comedy. In homage to Dante, the work comes in nine pieces (a number symbolizing rebirth) and contains 333 centiliters of essence, referencing the number three, which in Dante’s numerology is associated with “perfection, faith, and knowledge.”
This conceptual layering also reveals Meneghello’s deep respect for post-war Italian art movements, a recurring theme in his work. Aldilà makes spontaneous reference to Lucio Fontana‘s ‘La fine di Dio’ (The End of God) series (1963), whose punctured oval frames act as windows to another dimension. It also dialogues with Piero Manzoni‘s ‘Merda d’artista’ (Artist’s Shit) (1961), a work whose contents can only be known by violating the object and destroying its value.
As Meneghello suggests, the point of experience is synesthesia, a sensory short-circuit that achieves full knowledge, just as in the most mystical moments of Dante’s journey. Aldilà alludes to this possibility, acknowledging that the full truth is always to be found somewhere else, beyond the imperfections of the world.