Fondazione Elpis presents Smooth Operator, the first solo exhibition in Italy by Villiam Miklos Andersen (Kalundborg, Denmark, 1995), curated by Gabriele Tosi, opening at the Lavanderia on February 27, 2026.

The project is produced by Fondazione Elpis with the support of the New Carlsberg Foundation, the 15. Juni Fonden, the Danish Arts Foundation, the Knud Højgaard Fond, and the Den Hielmstierne-Rosencroneske Stiftelse. The exhibition brings together sculptural works and installation environments that reflect on the concept of comfort as a cultural and infrastructural construction: understood as a condition produced in everyday spaces as well as in situations of movement, transit, and temporary stops. Crossing imaginaries related to workplaces, service areas, and travel infrastructures, Andersen observes how comfort is designed, organized, and circulated within systems based on efficiency, standardization, and control.

The title Smooth Operator, taken from the famous song by Sade, evokes seduction, adaptability, and social mobility, outlining a form of eroticism that relates individual desire to economic mechanisms. In this tension between pleasure and regulation, the exhibition constructs a path that questions the relationship between care, productivity, and body organization.

Central to the project is the journey of a mobile sauna through Europe, documented through new video and sound works. Acting as a truck driver, the artist transported the vehicle from Gotland to Milan. The journey moves a symbol of Scandinavian social status from its original context. The situations and unexpected events generated by the operation are documented in a road movie. This crossing takes the form of a "logistic cruising": a lateral and non-finalized movement that activates situations of proximity, celebration, and intimacy along networks designed for productive purposes.

Alongside this narrative, the exhibition presents over fifteen works - many of which are unpublished - that transform objects and devices of daily comfort into dense and ambiguous sculptures. Elements associated with rest, support, and care are translated into matter, making visible the structures that regulate ordinary gestures of pause and well-being. Through materials and techniques that introduce tactile, olfactory, and proximity dimensions, Andersen reactivates a bodily relationship with objects usually perceived as neutral and functional. Bronze sculptures, wood and acrylic works, modular structures, and cabins create tension between function and representation, suggesting how the "humanization" of the machine can reveal a more complex and ambiguous nature.