The “home sweet home,” at once intimate and universal, is the space of everyday life. An architectural space that represents the possibility of re-establishing a direct link between our most authentic needs and the environments to be designed. A space that also represents the relationship between home and work, male and female, production and reproduction, public and private. Building on the history of our institution and its International Exhibitions, the show reaches into the contemporary, with the reconstruction of site-specific environments and installations by international architectural firms, groups and research centers in dialogue with thematic historical sections. From the transformation of gender roles to the evolution of the relationship with nature within the domestic space to the influence of technology on the way of living, the themes of the projects on display generate an open reflection on the idea of home and the inhabitants of a place whose experimentations are capable of conveying new languages, new ethical aspirations and new programs for architecture.

Many of the ornamental plant species with which we share the domestic space, taking care of them daily without wondering too much about their origin, were imported to Europe from exotic climes, generating what Céline Baumann defines as a “cognitive dissonance between the decorative aspect of potted plants and a brutal colonial history”. The installation sheds light on the origins of those species and the journeys they have had to make to intertwine with our lives and will prove useful for at least two reasons. On the one hand, it will help us to better understand that our way of relating to nature has profound political and ecological implications, even when we are at home. On the other it will make clear, yet again, that the notion of “home sweet home” is a cover – and has been for centuries – for much bitterness and countless daily abuses: expressions of the habitual domination of one gender over another and of one species over others, which today are no longer sustainable.

Photography: Melania Dalle Grave / Triennale Milano

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