An exclusive look at Flos’ mesmerising short films from Euroluce, each a love letter to lighting

Flos has form when it comes to collaborating with the best designers around, whether it is to create instantly sought-after lighting designs, or the spaces to present them in. Following on its 2024 ‘Icon’ project, which spotlighted some of its classic lamps and their creators through archive imagery and atmospheric videos, the Italian house has enlisted the help of Formafantasma, the winners of a Wallpaper* Design Award 2025, and director and producer Nicolò Terraneo, known for his fashion campaigns.

Together they created a set design and a video installation for ‘The Light of the Mind’, Flos’ exhibition at Euroluce during Milan Design Week, where new pieces by seven designers were on display, including the ‘Jam Session’ floor lamp by Piero Lissoni, ‘Linked’ by Michael Anastassiades, and a new version of Philippe Starck’s ‘Bon Jour Unplugged’. Formafantasma also contributed an installation based on its own ‘SuperWire’ collection at Flos’ showroom on Corso Monforte.

The seven short films for ‘The Light of the Mind’ are designed to reflect the essence of the products and what lies behind them: the thought, imagination, fragility, and strength of the creative process. ‘This means stripping away additional storytelling, because the lamp itself, with its charm and design intelligence, is the narrative,’ says Formafantasma.

‘Each new product had three films running simultaneously alongside it that gave us glimpses of the designer’s studio and the designer at work – it was a beautiful piece of creative direction,’ explains Wallpaper* acting global design director Hugo MacDonald. ‘I was impressed by their use of film as a poetic, suggestive communication tool to enhance our appreciation of the designers’ worlds and ways of working.

‘It was so much more engaging than the standard “to camera” interviews that people usually lump for. Weirdly, without any words, and with three screens playing, we learnt so much more about the designer, their process and their products. Sometimes saying less can be so much more in the visual overload of Milan.’

To create the videos, Formafantasma provided director Nicolò Terraneo with a selection of materials including custom footage, found objects, book excerpts, film clips, and snapshots of the prototyping process. Terraneo also visited the designers’ studios but avoided the traditional interview format. The result, say Formafantasma, is an ‘honest portrait of the creative process: a continuous flow of free associations and almost alchemical combinations of thoughts, techniques, technologies, and materials.’

Here we highlight three of these short films, which its authors say ‘require the viewer to use their imagination, offering intentionally fragmented stories and a plurality of layered imagery.’

‘Seki-Han’ floor lamp, by Tobia Scarpa

The renowned Venetian architect and designer Tobia Scarpa originally designed the ‘Seki-Han’ wooden floor lamp in 1963. It has now been re-edited with ash wood rotating blades rather than the original fixed slim Douglas fir panels.

‘The reissue of the “Seki-Han” lamp gave us an opportunity to enhance the performance of the light source, leading to an increase in the height of the lamp, which further highlights the slender proportions of the thin wooden blades that screen the light,’ writes Scarpa. ‘The name of the lamp comes from a symbol of good fortune: in Japan, “seki han” (red rice) is a traditional dish often prepared for special occasions, such as the celebration of a birth.’

‘Luce Sferica’ pendant, by Ronan Bouroullec

Ronan Bouroullec’s modular glass pendants, ‘Luce Sferica’, are defined by their lightness and poetry. Although they seek to capture a fleeting moment, they are also inspired by an industrial, functional spirit.

‘“Luce Sferica” is a lamp that seeks delicacy and the beauty of simplicity, like raindrops clinging to a thread or a soap bubble blown by a child,’ writes Bouroullec. ‘On the synthetic base of the extruded aluminum, mouth-blown glass spheres glide, as if a bubble were to rest on a thread. Here, it is softness, magic, and technical sophistication that prevail. An object of great technical precision that expresses delicate beauty and poetry, more than synthetic mechanics.’

‘SuperWire’ collection, by Formafantasma

Formafantasma’s ‘Superwire’ collection was the star of Flos’ site-specific showroom installation at its flagship on Milan’s Corso Monforte. Launched last year and now produced in four versions, the collection was presented with fabric partitions that acted as a portal revealing the lights’ key components or the videos.

‘A few years ago, while working on “WireLine”, we experimented with the illuminating filament of LED bulbs. We liked its aesthetic presence and its flexibility; we imagined using it as a removable light source, one that could be replaceable by anyone,’ write Formafantasma’s Andea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin. ‘“SuperWire” is the result of a journey that lasted years and owes a lot to the Flos research and development team, who managed to transform the functional detail of a mainstream product into a unique light source.’

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