Exploring the art of patience at Salone del Mobile 2025: Paolo Sorrentino unveils ‘La dolce attesa’

Take your time, but please make it quick! This is one way of describing the state in which we often feel torn between the desire for inner peace and the pace of our time. Have we forgotten how to wait or simply live in the moment in an age of hyper-connectivity?

During the upcoming Salone del Mobile. Milano 2025, a captivating exhibition will be devoted to this very subject. What should a world look like in which we are happy to remain patient? At the Milan fairgrounds, where people often wait due to high visitor numbers – at the entrance, at some coveted exhibition stands, at the bistro bar – none other than Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino will be staging just that: ‘La dolce attesa’, the sweetness of waiting.

In Italian, the term ‘La dolce attesa’ is used in connection with pregnancies. But, at the entrance to Pavilions 22 and 24, it is intended to whisk visitors away on a fascinating journey of exploration. ‘Waiting is agony,’ says Sorrentino. ‘The sweet anticipation is a journey. A stunning and mesmerising one.’ He chose the waiting area of a clinic as the setting, where waiting usually takes on a particularly emotional component.

‘When our future depends on a doctor, on a laboratory, we just have to hang on in there. In a state of distress. Perhaps, then, we should rethink the way we wait. Thus, perhaps, waiting can become less painful. Because it becomes something else. Our waiting room aspires to be something else,’ explains the filmmaker, who called upon the renowned set designer Margherita Palli for support.

‘With ‘La dolce attesa’, he invites us to live an experience that affects us all closely,’ says trade fair president Maria Porro. ‘Sorrentino is the director of emotional suspense, he is the narrator of ordinary lives made extraordinary through his unique approach, capable of exploring human beings with depth and lightness, together. This installation is not just a space, but a narrative made up of images, sounds and breaths, reminding us that waiting is a universal feeling.’

Visitors are invited to pause here to find the beauty in slowing down time and to be taught the value of patience while the hustle and bustle around us erupts. So, what are you waiting for?

Paolo Sorrentino, La dolce attesa
8th – 13th April 2025
Salone Internazionale del Mobile
Fiera Milano, Rho, Pavilions 22-24

© Architonic

Head to the Architonic Magazine for more insights on the latest products, trends and practices in architecture and design.