Empyrius
Empyrius is a sculptural chess set that explores the expressive potential of industrial ceramics through a dialogue between surface and volume, tactility and abstraction. Developed in collaboration with Mirage, the project treats porcelain stoneware not as a passive architectural finish, but as a material for narrative form and symbolic function.
Rooted in the material's architectural character, the project uses slabs of different thicknesses, stacked and offset to create a topography defined by depth and contrast. Each chess piece becomes a totemic volume in which the finished outer surface and the raw inner core remain deliberately visible. Polished contours meet fractured edges, bringing industrial precision into tension with material honesty.
The board follows the same logic. Its grid becomes a stage for elevation, perception and ritual, with each square acting as both a playing surface and a material sample. By removing ornamental excess, Empyrius reveals the texture, density and sculptural potential of industrial stoneware.
Empyrius also reflects on opposition and duality: black and white, rough and smooth, elevated and grounded. Chess, a game of opposing forces within a fixed system, becomes a metaphor for design practice itself, where constraint and creativity remain in balance.
Within the collection, Mirage is not simply a material supplier but a design protagonist, with its identity embedded in every layer of the slabs. The project was presented in the Mirage Expansion installation at Via Cerva 24 during Milan Design Week 2023. Curated under the artistic direction of Giulio Cappellini and featuring eleven pieces by the Prisma Project team, the exhibition explored the boundary between material, digital and natural environments. The gallery-like setting presented porcelain stoneware as an expressive material shaped through collaboration, experimentation and spatial storytelling.