There is a moment in every design process that never makes it to the showroom floor, just before an object becomes what it will be. Prototypes make up the vast majority of a designer’s work, but are rarely seen by the public. Mayicea Madrid-based studio founded by Marta Alonso Yebra and Imanol Calderón Elóseguithey chose to make prototypes the subject of their first solo exhibition.
Before the Lightpresented at the Ateneo de Madrid during Forma, part of the Madrid Design Festival, in March 2026, was an act of unusual honesty: a studio turning its own working process inside out and putting it on display. In bringing together this accumulated work, he asks us to consider what is lost when a design never reaches production.
Before the Light © Mayice
Albara lamps © Mayice
Before the Light © Mayice
Solán de Cabras © Mayice
Wish lamp © Mayice
Filament © Mayice
Originals for Gandia Blasco © Mayice
The exhibition is structured around a stark recognition: some of these pieces will never be made again. Their complexity, dimensions or cost place them beyond the economics of mass production. In this sense, Before the Light belongs to a movement of art design galleries that highlight the original, not as a failed precursor but as a complete object in its own right, whose difficulty in reproduction is part of what makes it interesting and worth considering.
With a strong focus on materials, each design from the duo is presented with its own inherent personality and aims to reflect what they call the soul of a material. For example, the Thread Light is a sculptural piece made from a single length of curved glass, a study of how light travels through hollow and curved forms. When lit, the effect is a laser-like filament of light that stretches from one end of the bulb to the other. Lit and unlit, it tells a different story about what glass can do.
Among the works presented in the exhibition, The Desire is a wall light hidden behind the last wall of the showroom, but stands out from the rest as the studio’s newest entry. The piece comes from a conversation with Pedro Almodovaras the director had fallen in love with the studio’s work years earlier, even featuring one of their lamps in his films. In a long discussion about lighting, Pedro suggested something specific: a wall light with indirect light.
Named straight after its producer, El Deseo stands out for its elegant simplicity. It requires only one wall mounting point, such as a picture frame, and two pieces of glass are pressed together, making the light source fully accessible and replaceable without tools and without interfering with the wall. In Madrid, the piece was presented in a neutral color, but is available in any shade variation.
For Marta and Imanolthe exhibition was a journey through their design processes: the people, entities and brands that accompanied them in each of their projects, all helped them take ideas from sketches to reality, crafting objects with history and emotion. Before the Light made these procedures specific and clear, showing visitors what is usually invisible in design.
