Vessels of the Intangible by Richard Yasmine at 5Vie, Milan Design Week 2026 – Photos by BIZZARREBEIRUT.
Design. When Richard Yasmine made the journey from Beirut to Milan this year, it meant more than most Milan Design Week appearances. The Lebanese designer arrived at the 5Vie design district bearing Vessels of the Intangible, a five-piece lighting collection that sits at the crossroads of design and art — and carries the weight of the ‘war-scape’ in which it was made. “Each piece was produced in harsh circumstances, carrying within it not only craftsmanship, but also the strength and persistence of those who made it.”
The collection, as Yasmine describes it, “translates sensory organs into crafted objects, giving them presence, weight, and materiality. In a world saturated with noise, speed, and constant output, it invites a return to slowness, to feeling before reacting.” It doesn’t address conflict head-on, yet it is unmistakably shaped by it — the tension lives quietly in the work itself.
“Lebanon has lived through continuous instability,” Yasmine told Archipanic. “But today, the situation feels different.” Production timelines have been thrown into disarray, materials are increasingly difficult to source, and the human cost runs deeper still. “Many artisans are forced to relocate, carrying their tools, their knowledge, and their entire practice with them. At the same time, there is a profound exhaustion that is often invisible from the outside. Working under these conditions requires not only skill, but emotional endurance.”
It is within this context that the five pieces of Vessels of the Intangible take on their full meaning. Each one draws from the human body — a sensory organ rendered in craft, light, and material. The Eye is handcrafted in solid wood, with mother-of-pearl inlay and blue-toned wood marquetry. The Nose, entirely hand-stitched in leather, is pierced with steel doughnut-shaped elements that cast a subtle backlight, finished with spike detailing.
The Mouth, composed of embroidery, beads, silk flowers, delicate clay elements, and glass, holds a blown glass bubble that softly illuminates from within. The Finger, wrapped in rattan weaving and tipped with an exaggerated, high-polished red nail, becomes luminous in its entirety. The Ear, cast in aluminium and adorned with oversized macramé-style earrings, combines silk and blown glass to diffuse light.
Taken together, Vessels of the Intangible holds contradiction without resolving it. As Yasmine puts it, “The fragility of the pieces, the tension between presence and disappearance, and the focus on what cannot be fully held all echo a lived experience marked by interruption, resilience, and constant adaptation. There is a quiet insistence on continuing, on creating meaning and beauty despite instability. But there is also fatigue.”
All photos are by BIZZARREBEIRUT.
Vessels of the Intangible by Richard Yasmine at 5Vie, Milan Design Week 2026.
