Metamorphosis in Motion: Lina Ghotmeh’s Milan Design Week Debut

This spring, Milan Design Week 2026 will be punctuated by an evocative architectural intervention by the French‑Lebanese designer Lina Ghotmeh, marking her first outdoor, site‑specific project in Italy. Set within the Cortile d’Onore of the historic Palazzo Litta, Metamorphosis in Motion stands as the central installation of MoscaPartners Variations 2026, the annual exhibition programmed by curators Caterina Mosca and Valerio Castelli for the city’s most discerning audiences.

Located on Corso Magenta, Palazzo Litta’s Baroque courtyard has, since 2014, become one of Milano Design Week’s most memorable venues — a ceremonial threshold between Milanese public life and the richly ornamented interiors of the palace. Ghotmeh’s commission transforms this context into a dynamic spatial experience that responds to its history without altering its architectural essence.

Metamorphosis in Motion unfolds as a playful labyrinth that invites visitors to become co‑authors of the space. Ghotmeh frames the installation not as a static object to be observed but as an active sequence of paths and pauses that animate the courtyard through movement and presence. As visitors navigate the subtle twists and encounters within the design, their own bodies become architectural elements in dialogue with the work’s volumes and geometry.

The architect describes the transformation as one of representation to participation: the courtyard shifts from a traditional stage of reception to a shared arena of engagement and interaction, where memory, spatial intelligence and human rhythm converge. In doing so, the work enacts a broader conceptual thread running through the 2026 Variations programme — the theme of Metamorphosis itself.

Ghotmeh’s architectural philosophy — which she terms an “Archaeology of the Future” — is founded on weaving memory, landscape and space into cohesive spatial narratives that resonate with a site’s cultural biography. At Palazzo Litta, this approach is evident in the installation’s capacity to listen to and reinterpret the courtyard’s baroque lineage, translating it into a sensory sequence that bridges past and present.

With Metamorphosis in Motion, the courtyard becomes more than exhibition space: it becomes a living architectural event that reframes how audiences experience both design and historical context. In the hands of Ghotmeh, Milan’s storied architecture is not merely observed — it is activated, reimagined, and made freshly relevant for a global design moment.