Making A Show - Sabine Marcelis

Making a Show is a photobook with Dutch artist and designer Sabine Marcelis, published on the occasion of her first museum exhibition at Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, Sabine Marcelis—Light and Color, on view from October 30, 2026 to April 4, 2027. Photographed by Mattia Balsamini inside Sabine’s Rotterdam studio in the months before the opening, the book documents an exhibition in transit: light, colour, and material stretched, poured, altered, and refined until they reach the simplicity that is Sabine’s fingerprint. Smashed mirrors, pink resin slabs, perfect droplets—all part of a symbiotic world, where the work produced inside the studio is in constant conversation with the hands that supply it from outside. Alongside, curator Damian Fopp grounds the book with a written introspection on living inside her universe as the show took shape, declaring by the end that ‘what appears effortless is anything but’. Punctuated by WhatsApp messages and email snapshots between Sabine’s team and the museum’s, Making a Show distils the incantatory movement of an exhibition in the making and the infrastructure of people behind it.

Sabine Marcelis is a Dutch artist and designer based in Rotterdam. Working across installations, objects, and spatial projects, she explores light, colour, and material, collaborating closely with a network of local manufacturers to push each to its limits. For the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2026, Sabine designed one of the headlining large-scale art installations, an immersive temporary installation titled Maze. She has also received multiple Designer of the Year honours (2020–2024) and her works are part of permanent museum collections worldwide, including MoMA, the Stedelijk Museum, and the Vitra Design Museum. Sabine Marcelis was previously featured in Apartamento magazine issue #21. Find her story from our digital archive here.

Mattia Balsamini is an Italian photographer based between London and Milan. After joining David LaChapelle’s studio in 2010 as a studio assistant and archivist, Mattia went on to develop personal and editorial projects through collaborations with institutions including MIT and NASA. His work has been exhibited at the Triennale di Milano, MAXXI, the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation, and the Italian Cultural Institute in San Francisco.

• Published by: Apartamento Publishing S.L.
• First edition: October 28, 2026
• Dimensions: 24.00 × 29.50 cm / 9.45 × 11.61 in
• Binding: Hardcover
• Pages: 160