Faux-Fur Carpet, Pink Sand & Distorting Mirrors: Inside Milanese Art Reuse Start-Up Spazio Meta

Tucked away in the once-industrial district of Bovisa, on the northern outskirts of Milan, is a 300-square-metre warehouse neatly filled with discarded materials from fashion shows, art exhibitions, temporary installations and photo shoots. There are carpets in every thickness – including the faux-fur olive one that covered the interiors of the Prada show during Milan Fashion Week in February 2022 – fabric in a plethora of hues, glass in a variety of shapes and everything is on sale at affordable prices. This is Spazio Meta, a start-up launched in spring 2021 by friends-turned-entrepreneurs Martina Bragadin, Margherita Crespi and Benedetta Pomini with the idea to create an alternative – and cost-effective – response to the overproduction and waste of resources stemming from the art, fashion and design sectors.

The three women share similar backgrounds: Bragadin and Crespi studied scenography together in Milan, while Pomini used to work in art galleries and exhibition spaces, overseeing production processes. “We all witnessed first-hand how unsustainable the creative field can be when it comes to temporary events,” Bragadin tells me, “from the huge amount of resources that go into a set design meant to last only a few hours, to the fact that most of the materials used for a fashion show or an art display are usually just thrown away once the event is over – even though they’re still perfectly fine and recyclable.” Founding Spazio Meta was their way to “counteract this culture of waste”, she says.

Their small team does so by assessing and selecting used materials from different clients and suppliers – including fashion brands such as Prada and design fairs including Salone del Mobile.

The offer is wide-ranging: besides conventional materials, there were also, at the time of writing, 600 kilos of pink sand, giant cabbage props and distorting mirrors up for grabs.

Unusually, Spazio Meta’s showroom is not just for industry insiders, it is also open to the public. “We want to serve as a community space for anyone who might have artistic inclinations,” Pomini says. “It’s all about fostering a more responsible, circular approach to making art in all its forms and facilitating the use and sharing of resources.”

Marianna Cerini is a freelance journalist writing about travel, fashion, the arts and cultural trends and has been published in Conde Nast Traveller, The Telegraph, Time Out Beijing, Forbes and Vogue Italia