The inside and the outside, divided by a thin line: That is the basic module Nendo designer Oki Sato explored for this year’s presentation at Salone del Mobile Milano. In the Jil Sander showroom, right next to the Castello Sforzesco, visitors were led through a whole series of installations engaging with the notion of invisible outlines.

The existence of items is blurred by manipulating outlines in various ways. Sometimes viewers can expose the nature of an object visually in their minds by making invisible outlines visible. — Oki Sato

Oki Sato created these hitherto invisible outlines by 3D printing the contours of paper sheets and aligning them, hovering, in space. He created a scenery of mountains using only outlines by cutting and elongating sheet material, and an array of billowing underwater vases that seem to only consist of transparent colour gradients. Added to this set was a collaboration with Jil Sander showing a range of fabric patterns which were informed by contours of 3D objects and presented in their full process, from animated object to textile to dress. There were even more objects to be found in a huge exhibition showing again that Nendo is at its best creating many different performances and products around one theme at a time.

Experiencing this exhibition in person actually felt like a deep insight into the universe of an individual structuring the world by carefully sorting it into concepts and aesthetics, explaining complex ideas by transforming them into minimal shapes. A true inspiration.