At this year’s Milan Design Week, acclaimed Italian director Paolo Sorrentino presents La dolce attesa (The Sweet Waiting), an immersive installation exploring the suspended state of waiting. Open from April 8th to 13th in Pavilions 22–24 of the Rho Fiera fairgrounds, the work is a collaboration with set designer Margherita Palli and sound artist Max Casacci. Bathed in crimson light, the space is nearly bare—anchored only by two sculptural armchairs and a mysterious frosted glass form—yet emotionally charged with anticipation. Inspired by the experience of awaiting a medical response, Sorrentino reimagines the clinical waiting room as a place of quiet transformation rather than anxiety.
Rather than sterile walls and harsh lights, visitors are enveloped in warmth, rhythm, and reflection. Casacci’s soundscape pulses like a heartbeat, turning silence into presence and stillness into motion. The heart—hidden but vital—becomes a symbol of hope amid uncertainty, distorted and veiled by the central glass object. Costumes and subtle performance, developed in collaboration with the Piccolo Teatro di Milano, infuse the space with human presence. La dolce attesa offers an operatic meditation on time, where waiting becomes a fertile pause—a threshold between what is and what could be.
Photography by SAVERIO LOMBARDI VALLAURI