After nearly two decades of preservation within the Nilufar archive, 100 Chairs in 100 Days by Martino Gamper—widely regarded as one of the most significant and influential design projects of the past twenty years—will enter an international museum collection.
The complete series of one hundred chairs created in 2007 has been acquired by a major institution, whose name will be announced in the coming months.
The acquisition represents institutional recognition of a body of work that has profoundly shaped the discourse surrounding reuse, authorship, and the design process. For Nina Yashar, founder of Nilufar, this milestone marks the culmination of a journey that
began in 2009, when she decided to acquire the entire project and champion its presentation at Triennale Milano. A visionary and unconventional decision that ensured the preservation of the project’s integrity over time and safeguarded what is now widely
acknowledged as a landmark of contemporary design.
“From the very beginning, I believed that the strength of this project resided in its entirety. I never considered the individual chairs as autonomous works, but rather as parts of a single narrative. For this reason, I chose to preserve them together, accompanying their journey through time. Seeing them now enter a museum collection represents the recognition of a decision made many years ago and of the extraordinary relevance this work continues to hold within the landscape of contemporary design.” — Nina Yashar
“100 Chairs in 100 Days was an exercise in looking, making and reimagining. By taking apart existing chairs and recombining their elements, I was interested in discovering how far an everyday object could be transformed while still remaining a chair. The project was not about perfection, but about intuition, improvisation and the possibilities that emerge when working with what already exists. Each chair became a conversation between different histories, materials and functions, revealing new identities through unexpected
combinations.” — Martino Gamper
A PROJECT BORN FROM REUSE AND EXPERIMENTATION
Created in London in 2007, 100 Chairs in 100 Days emerged from a gesture that was as simple as it was radical: collecting discarded chairs from the streets, private homes, and second-hand markets, and transforming them over the course of one hundred
consecutive days.
Each day, Gamper intervened on a different chair through processes of cutting, joining, grafting, and recombination, creating one hundred unique objects that challenge conventional design categories and the very notion of originality.
More than a collection of chairs, the project functions as an open laboratory for formal and conceptual research. Through the reuse of existing elements, Gamper explores the possibilities of transformation, error, chance, and the contamination of different visual
languages, developing a reflection on the value of objects and their capacity to assume new identities over time.
AN INTERNATIONAL HISTORY
Since its first presentation in 2007, 100 Chairs in 100 Days has been exhibited at numerous international institutions and museums, including Triennale Milano, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, the Benaki Museum in Athens, MIMOCA in
Japan, the RMIT Design Hub in Melbourne, and City Gallery Wellington in New Zealand.
In 2009, Nina Yashar acquired the entire series, choosing to preserve its integrity, prevent its dispersal, and care for it through ongoing conservation and maintenance. Since then, the project has been safeguarded as a unified body of work while continuing to be featured in exhibitions, institutional loans, research initiatives, and publications.
Among these is 100 Chairs in 100 Days and its 100 Ways, published by Nilufar, which documents the history and evolution of the project and testifies to its central role within the international discourse on contemporary design.
AN OPEN WORK
Although formally completed in 2007, 100 Chairs in 100 Days has continued to evolve through a practice that has accompanied many of its major public presentations over the years.
On several occasions, Gamper has chosen to complement the original series with a new “hundredth chair”, created specifically for the host venue using locally sourced materials and found objects. This gesture symbolically extends the project beyond its original
conclusion, reaffirming its open-ended, experimental, and process-driven nature.
A FINAL OPPORTUNITY BEFORE THE TRANSFER
To celebrate this important institutional milestone, Nilufar will exceptionally bring together a selection of thel one hundred chairs at the Nilufar Warehouse on 30 June 2026.
The event will represent one of the final opportunities to experience the project before it is transferred to the collection of the acquiring institution, whose name will be announced at a later date.
During the evening, Martino Gamper will carry out a restoration intervention on the chairs, continuing a practice that has accompanied the public life of the work for years and that continues to sustain its transformative potential.
ABOUT NILUFAR
Founded in 1979 in Milan by Nina Yashar, Nilufar is the legendary gallery known for its ability to anticipate design trends and its exceptional selection of vintage design masterpieces. Guided by the unparalleled vision of founder Nina Yashar, Nilufar has
established itself as a point of reference for collectors, institutions and design enthusiasts by delving into the past work of the creative maestros of yesteryear while keeping an eye on the future by way of today’s contemporary talents.
“Discovering, crossing, creating” is the motto that Nilufar continues to follow. First opened at its distinguished venue in Via della Spiga, Nilufar inaugurated in 2015 a second exhibition space of 1,500 sqm in Viale Lancetti inspired by the La Scala opera house. The
two locations have become must-see attractions during Milan Design Week and boast an eclectic program of exhibits that draw in an international audience. Nilufar Edition, a unique project into the world of furnishings that rejects conventional thinking, is Yashar’s
latest venture, uniting design with the high-end traditional craftsmanship of the Renaissance workshop. With the addition of Nilufar Edition, Nilufar continues its journey towards new cultural horizons.
nilufar.com / @nilufargallery
ABOUT MARTINO GAMPER
Martino Gamper OBE (b.1971, Merano, Italy) started as an apprentice with a furniture maker in Merano and went on to study sculpture under Michelangelo Pistoletto at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna. He completed a Masters in 2000 at the Royal College of Art in London where he studied under Ron Arad, before setting up his London studio in the same year. Working across disciplines, he engages in a variety of projects including exhibition design, interior design, one-off commissions, and the design of mass-produced products at the forefront of the design industry. His design commissions range from the Prada store windows, Valextra Flagship Stores, to chairs for Rubelli and Dior, glassware for Lobmeyr, and restaurants in the Dolomites. In 2023 Martino was awarded an OBE for services to Design.
