Edited by Davide Crippa and Alberto Zanchetta

Simultaneously with the enrichment of the new collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Lissone, the exhibition Like the helmet for kamikazes is part of the programming of the Republic of Design, which in April will settle in the Bovisa area of Milan.

The idea for this project takes inspiration from a small collection of white vases, which one of the two curators keeps on a shelf in his mother's house. Since these household items have never served a utilitarian function, Crippa and Zanchetta wondered if, in fact, an empty vase is not the equivalent of the helmet worn by kamikazes. That is to say, a useless object.

The two curators have thus agreed that the container does not serve an ornamental function, on the contrary: it is appropriate to sacrifice the floral element so that each vase reflects its own semantic content.

Among the authors involved in this exhibition, there are representatives of both visual arts and design. Ivan Baj, Gianluca Codeghini, Alberto Gianfreda, Christian Gonzebach, Suzanne Kutter, Alberto Mugnaini, Marcello Panza, Andrea Salvatori, and Alessandro Zambelli have indeed accepted the invitation to exhibit vases forbidden for use, of which one can appreciate forms and intentions, techniques and materials.

Potentially destined to contain flowers, leaves, buds, and drops of water, these vases can be considered unfillable containers precisely because they do not need anything: they are self-sufficient.

The intention of the exhibition is to convert the concept of emptiness into a "vase to render", restored to its dignity as a self-sufficient and self-referential object. In this way, the public is called to discern function from aesthetics but, above all, is also forced to face a "trans-vase" of meaning.

Like the helmet for kamikazes, vases will also finally be able to free themselves from their conventions.