For some real mind-bending, Inception-style sights, lay your eyes on the surreal piece of art realised by British sculptor Alex Chinneck – which sees the front of a building “unzipping” off in the middle of Milan’s Tortona District.

Unveiled at Milan Design Week 2019, Chinneck’s jaw-dropping blend of architecture, art and theatre was created for smoke-free innovators IQOS, in an exhibition titled “World Revealed.”

In just four weeks, Chinneck literally opened up the fabric of the walls and floors of a historic Milanese building to playfully suggest the power of transformation, and to celebrate infinite routes to a newly imagined future.

Inside the space, a section of the floor was also unzipped, with the space behind emitting a hypnotic light – and the same again on an internal wall in the next room.

“By taking familiar materials and architectural forms and making them behave in extraordinary ways, we are working with IQOS to change visitors’ perceptions of what is possible,” explains Chinneck. “Through the repeated use of the zipper, we have opened up the fabric of a seemingly historic Milanese building to playfully re-imagine what lies behind its facade, floors and walls. Ethereal light pours through each opening, filling the space with color and filling the work with a sense of positivity and potential.”