Progetto

The Air Conditioner (2016-2025) was produced in Lecce, Italy from iron ingots melted down from a decommissioned air-conditioning unit originally located in an insurance company in Tehran. The unit first appeared as part of a temporary public sculpture in Tehran in 2016. It was subsequently reassembled and returned to its original site in northeast Tehran, where it remained in operation until November 2018. The work was then transported to New York and melted into iron ingots, which were exhibited at the SculptureCenter in 2019 and again in 2021. In 2025, Emamifar brought the ingots to Lecce, where a local ironworker carved them into doorstops.

These were exhibited in Disjecta at Progetto, Lecce, where they functioned to hold open the gallery’s doors. At Emalin, the doorstop continues this operation: here it holds open a door not usually accessible to the public

Niloufar Emamifar
The Air Conditioner, 2016–2025
Mixed iron
2.5 x 8 x 4 cm

Niloufar Emamifar
The Air Conditioner, 2016–2025
Mixed iron
1.5 x 8.2 x 3 cm

Contour Fatigue II, Emalin, London, UK
17 April – 23 May 2026
Olga Balema, Adriano Costa, Niloufar Emamifar, Namio Harukawa, Stanislava Kovalcikova, Jac Leirner, Kate Spencer Stewart, Franco Vimercati

Courtesy of the artist and Progetto, Lecce.
Photos by Stephen James.

Marco Vitale
I am you,
you are me.
Let everything be
for our neighbor.
May 19, 2025, 6pm–sunset
Rooftop Space at Progetto

On Monday, May 19, 2025, from 6pm until sunset, Progetto inaugurated its new rooftop space with Marco Vitale’s work: I am you, you are me. Let everything be for our neighbor.

This durational, site-responsive work unfolded as an act of writing, witnessing, and intimate exchange. It began with a night spent alone writing inside Progetto and extended into a ritual shared with others—through a writing workshop.

Participants who had taken part in a writing process the day prior returned to guide one-on-one encounters throughout Progetto—a quiet choreography of voices, as performers read texts shaped by their time in the space. The rooftop became the place of arrival: a site of listening and shared reflection, as day turned to dusk.

The work closed with a projection of the writings in the Progetto library—a visual echo, both archive and offering.

Participants: Lara Gigante, Marco La Cava, Thomas Lanzellotti, Marvin Vese, Matteo Terzi, Danilo Billermann, Alba Cobo, Lauren Spedicato, Angelica Calabrese.


photos Gianluca Pisicchio

Artists and writers we have worked with at Progetto over the past years through exhibitions, short programs, symposiums, political dinners, and library publications. We look forward to continuing this work with many more artists and writers in the future.

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Artisti e scrittori con cui abbiamo lavorato a Progetto negli ultimi anni attraverso mostre, brevi programmi, simposi, cene politiche e pubblicazioni della nostra biblioteca. Non vediamo l’ora di continuare questo lavoro, in futuro, con molti altri artisti e scrittori.

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Sandra Abbate
Ambra Abbaticola
Hugo Bausch Belbachir
Grazia Amelia Bellitta
Alexander Ingham Brooke
Dora Budor
Nina Canell
Giacomo Cavalera
János Chialá
Cineteca di Bologna – Michela Zegna
Kyle Dancewicz
Aria Dean
Michael Dean
Niloufar Emamifar
Stefano Faoro
ektor garcia
Lara Gigante
Michèle Graf & Selina Grüter
Dan Graham
Ebony L. Haynes
E. Jane
Audre Lorde
Sara Magenheimer
Cecilia Mangini
Enrica Anastasia Marangio
Grant Mooney
Marco Musarò
Wyatt Niehaus
Amalie Svarre Nielsen
Winona Sloane Odette
Pat O’Neill
Lydia Ourahmane
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Q***r Market Show
Ser Serpas
SoiL Thornton
K. Verlag
Marco Vitale
Marina Vishmidt
Robin Watkins
Bri Williams
Michaela Züge-Bruton

Design by PEACH