At Milan Design Week, this architect is inviting you to tour Palazzo Litta barefoot

MoscaPartners Variations at Palazzo Litta Nobody Owns the Land Earth, Forest, Mahk by Byoung Soo Cho ph Nathalie Krag

(Image credit: Nathalie Krag)

published 8 April 2025

Milan's Palazzo Litta comes alive during Design Week with a new collective exhibition by Moscapartners, centred on the theme of Migrations and featuring a site specific installation by Byoung Cho. This is the Korean architect's first foray in Italy and through the show's theme he explores ideas of cultural cross-pollination and a meeting of East and West through a series of philosophical notions. The piece, set in the building's generous main courtyard and surrounded by colonnades, is titled Nobody Owns the Land: Earth, Forest, Mahk.

MoscaPartners Variations at Palazzo Litta Nobody Owns the Land Earth, Forest, Mahk by Byoung Soo Cho

Tour Palazzo Litta and its transformed courtyard

Visually striking and deeply thought provoking, the courtyard piece is composed of a simple, low, geometric shape raised on a platform and filled with bright red soil. It creates a powerfully minimalist centrepiece contrasting Palazzo Litta's elaborate ornament and the city's blue skies.

This piece of constructed earth represents 'the object of conflict,' and visitors are invited to walk on it barefoot. Around it, a series of abstract paintings by Cho frame this experiential moment, like 'trees in a forest.' The phrase 'Nobody Owns the Land' is on display above the red flooring, written in both English and Korean, punctuating the composition. It all culminates in a mindful experience of mahk, the Korean concept for the 'imperfect and spontaneous approach to creation', also found in the country's traditional style of ceramics - mahksabal.

'The experience of the Earth has been conceived as a sanctuary in harmony with the sky of Palazzo Litta, delivering a message of peace,' Cho explains. 'In this time of conflicts surrounding the land, let us take a moment to reflect on the essence of land beyond occupation and ownership, and understand the meaning of peace. May we look up to the sky and reflect on our own existence as an opportunity to realize how fragile and small we are, yet how happy we can be in connection with the land.'

The architect continues: 'The installation came from my strong interest and belief in the Earth, nature, and mahk, the aesthetic that comes from Korean traditional concepts. Mahk is sensual and intuitive, celebrating the act of creation instead of adhering strictly to dogmatic principles. Impressed into its material form is the pure craftwork of a human creator without the hubris of perfection, like a potter leaving behind finger marks on the mahksabal, paying tribute to the perfection inherent in the messiness of nature.'

Elsewhere at Palazzo Litta 24 exhibitors from twelve different countries elaborate on similar themes. Their pieces are invaluably complemented by a showcase designed to address the needs of blind and visually impaired people.

bchoarchitects.com

moscapartners.it

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Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture & Environment Director at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018), Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020) and House London (2022).