From 11 to 20 September 2026, Malgrate joins the Festival itinerary for the first time. At Hotel Promessi Sposi, Laura Santamaria’s site-specific installation creates a dialogue between contemporary art, materials, architecture and landscape.
For the first time, Lake Como Design Festival extends its itinerary to Lecco and the eastern shore of Lake Como. A significant step for an event that, now in its eighth edition, creates new connections each year between contemporary design and the places that shape the identity of the area.
Among the new locations for 2026 is Hotel Promessi Sposi in Malgrate, which hosts Bosco Sacro, a site-specific installation by artist Laura Santamaria, from 11 to 20 September.
The 2026 theme: “Confine”
Lake Como Design Festival is an annual event dedicated to design and creativity, created to establish a dialogue between Lake Como’s historical and architectural heritage and contemporary design culture. Exhibitions, installations, talks and events come together in a programme spread across the area, inviting visitors to experience both well-known landmarks and places waiting to be rediscovered.
The 2026 edition revolves around the theme “Confine” — “Boundary”, explored not simply as a physical limit, but as a space where different dimensions meet and interact.
A concept that finds a particularly evocative interpretation in Bosco Sacro.
“Bosco Sacro”: between material, nature and memory
Laura Santamaria’s research explores the boundary between the visible and the invisible, the earthly dimension and a sense of cosmic tension. In Bosco Sacro, hand-shaped clay and terracotta encounter wood, giving life to a landscape suspended between roots and ritual.
Terracotta faces emerge from tree trunks transformed into natural pedestals. The forms evoke artefacts unearthed from an imaginary excavation, fragments of an ideal archaeology in which matter seems to preserve traces of rituals, distant memories and ancestral connections.
The boundary therefore becomes one between nature and sculpture, spontaneous growth and human intervention, material and memory.
Credits: Nicolo-Quaresima
A dialogue with Hotel Promessi Sposi
The installation was also conceived in relation to the space that hosts it. Inside Hotel Promessi Sposi, a four-star luxury hotel overlooking the Malgrate lakeside promenade, the tactile, almost primordial quality of the artworks encounters contemporary architecture defined by precise, essential lines.
This contrast becomes an integral part of the experience: wood, clay and terracotta enter the hotel’s spaces, creating an unexpected dialogue between art, design and hospitality.
The setting adds another dimension to the interpretation of the work. Beyond the windows, the landscape of the eastern shore is defined by the meeting of the waters of Lake Como and the mountains surrounding Lecco, creating a natural connection with the themes explored by the artist.
Design enters the world of hospitality
Hotel Promessi Sposi is taking part in the Festival as part of Hospitality Visit, the programme that brings installations, exhibitions and screenings into some of Lake Como’s hospitality venues.
Alongside the Malgrate property are Hilton Lake Como, Hotel Villa Flori, The Lake Como EDITION and CASABIANCA, each hosting a project inspired by the theme Confine. In this way, hotels become more than places to stay: they open their doors as spaces for encounters with design, art and contemporary creativity.
Malgrate’s inclusion in the Festival itinerary also has a particular significance for the eastern shore: for the first time, Lake Como Design Festival moves beyond Como to reach Lecco, contributing to a broader narrative of Lake Como that brings together the different identities and landscapes surrounding its waters.
Bosco Sacro by Laura Santamaria can be visited at Hotel Promessi Sposi in Malgrate from 11 to 20 September 2026.
