Villiam Miklos Andersen: Smooth Operator

“Smooth Operator” by Villiam Miklos Andersen, curated by Gabriele Tosi, takes its title from a song by Sade, where emotional detachment enables social mobility. Andersen works with sculpture, installation, and relational projects, examining contemporary economic systems from a queer perspective. Observing workplaces shaped by male-dominated norms, he treats products as agents that generate social rules and standardisation.

In his first solo exhibition in Italy, Andersen explores comfort as an institutional construct that defines belonging and its conditions, questioning the emotional labour required to sustain well-being. The exhibition unfolds across three floors, presenting the building as a sequence of spaces with distinct functions. Works juxtapose contexts that are usually separate – labour and festivity, care and recovery, back office and social space – while standardised objects shift through sensory materials such as light, transparency, rhythm, scent, and touch.

The exhibition includes works co-produced with Walter Bernath, M.B. Pedersen, Dayananda Nagaraju, Antonio Davanzo, Victor Miklos Andersen, Matteo Coluccia, and Abirami Logendran, and is produced by Fondazione Elpis with support from several foundations.