As partner of the 11th edition of Open House Milano, a city-wide event that invites the public to discover Milan through places, architecture and cultural spaces that are usually less accessible, NABA opens the programme with “Nel Paese delle Ombre”, an opera by Matteo Manzitti with libretto by Daniela Morelli, freely inspired by Haruki Murakami’s “Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World”. The project will be presented from 22 to 24 May 2026 at Centro Artistico Alik Cavaliere, in Via E. de Amicis 17, Milan, to mark the centenary of the birth of Milanese artist and sculptor Alik Cavaliere.
On Friday 22 May, the opera will be staged in two invitation-only performances, at 6:30 PM and 9:00 PM, with musical direction by Pilar Bravo and direction by Fred Santambrogio. On 23 and 24 May, from 12:00 PM to 7:00 PM, visitors will be able to explore the multimedia installations that complete the immersive route and document the performances.
“Nel Paese delle Ombre”: an immersive opera exploring memory, identity and emotion
“Nel Paese delle Ombre” is conceived as an installation and performance project that brings together stage, sound, image, costume and space in a walk-through experience. Students from the BA in Set Design developed the set design, creatinginstallations that engage in dialogue with Alik Cavaliere’s tree sculptures and with the trees in the Centro Artistico garden, under the supervision of Margherita Palli, NABA Set Design Advisor, together with lecturers Alessandro Pedretti, Marco Cristini and Matilde Casadei. The project also involved students from the Media Design and New Technologies Area, who contributed to the creation of video and sound content and to the documentation of the performance through photographs and audio recordings intendedto become part of the exhibition route.
The design and production of the stage costumes were entrusted to alumnae from the BA in Fashion Design, under the supervision of Colomba Leddi, NABA Fashion Design Area Leader, together with Salvatore Averzano and Anna Paola Dos Santos Silva, Fashion Design Area Laboratories Managers. Created through upcycling practices, with a sustainable and environmentally responsible approach, the garments contribute to the visual and symbolic construction of the opera.
“Nel Paese delle Ombre” develops a narrative suspended between a dreamlike dimension and existential reflection. The opera is set in a city separated from the world, whose inhabitants, deprived of their shadows, have lost touch with their emotions. In thissetting, the relationship between body and shadow becomes a metaphor for memory, identity and the very possibility of feeling.
The immersive route is completed by the multimedia installations documenting the performances, which can be visited throughout Open House Milano.
NABA Public Programme 2026: the Academy opens its cultural project to the city
The event is part of the NABA Public Programme 2026, which, until July, presents a rich calendar of events open to the city, taking place across the Milan and Rome campuses and in several cultural and artistic venues of national and international relevance.
Exhibitions, film screenings, talks, workshops, fashion shows, interdisciplinary projects and collaborations with institutional partners and organisations from the creative sector form a broad, dynamic and cross-disciplinary programme. Together, they confirm the Academy’s role as an active interlocutor and driver of culture, creativity and design, able to engage with authority and continuity in the main cultural circuits and events of the territories in which it operates.
NABA at Open House Milano 2026: the programme
Friday 22 May
Performances of “Nel Paese delle Ombre”
At 6:30 PM and 9:00 PM
Centro Artistico Alik Cavaliere
Via E. de Amicis 17, Milan
Access by invitation only
Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 May
Installation visit from 12:00 PM to 7:00 PM
Centro Artistico Alik Cavaliere
Via E. de Amicis 17, Milan
Access subject to registration on the Open House website