“Desacralized,” an exhibition held this April during Milan Design Week, was meant to explore the decline of religiosity in our contemporary culture. More than 20 designers contributed pieces displayed inside San Vittore e 40 Martiri, a deconsecrated church in central Milan. Morghen Studio created a chandelier composed of thin strands of light, a minimalist take on a once-ornate form. Andrés Monnier made a candelabrum that obliquely references the Holy Trinity. Rick Owens built a chair adorned with a moose antler — an artifact, perhaps, of a long-forgotten pagan cosmology.
There was no ambiguity about the exhibition’s theme: It was right there in the title. Yet when visitors entered this desacralized space, they responded with displays of religious reverence. They removed their
