On the occasion of Milan Design Week 2026, Delvis (Un)Limited presents The Romance of Fragility, an exhibition exploring the value and potential of fragility through uses and interpretations of the ultimate fragile material: glass.

The word ‘fragile’ is incredibly relevant when talking about a category of objects designed to inhabit our homes, with an attitude that goes beyond the function of the objects themselves. And it is relevant in its most positive meanings.
Fragile is not the opposite of strong. It is the opposite of inert. Something fragile reacts, responds, transforms. It requires attention. And for this reason, paradoxically, it triggers a form of care and desire. Many of the most attractive collectible design objects showcase forms of fragility: they shift around mere function, bypass it and then come back to it, pivoting on balances that seem precarious even when they are not.

There are many ways a piece of furniture can speak the seductive language of fragility. The most immediate and simple is linked to the materials they are made of. Glass is stereotypically at the top of the list of fragile materials, and this exhibition looks at it from many angles, in very different forms, subjected to various types of stress, compared to materials that contrast with it.

A group of international talents tells new stories around glass, questioning its conventions and common perceptions: Familiar Form, Serim Kwack, Johan Pertl, Inderjeet Sandhu, Tino Seubert, and Maria Tyakina.
Some pieces display it as if it were sculpted, transfigured – in imagery that references stone along with its strength and durability. Others couple it with metal, which paradoxically seems to succumb to its presence and become a feeble armour in the face of danger. Yet others evoke its liquid state, where glass becomes a simulacrum, a thin, translucent cast of the objects over which it has been melted. There are ones that toy with strange assemblages that deliberately challenge the impression of a stable equilibrium. Or others that feature whole, smooth surfaces bearing a crack within, made visible from the outside: a reminder of a fragility almost forgotten.

All are in some way irresistible, catalysing attention with their vulnerable beauty. And all vibrate with a sense of potential, elusive, invisible and transparent movement.

The exhibition is curated by Valentina Ciuffi, with creative direction by Studio Vedèt and exhibition design by Space Caviar.