If coffee is experienced with all five senses, the very objects that hold coffee should please the eye.  Twenty years ago, illy considered how an everyday object like a coffee cup could be rethought – elevated, in fact, to meld the sensory pleasures of coffee and art.  

This insight gave rise to the illy Art Collection: small works of art, taking ceramic cup as medium, transforming the simple pleasure of drinking an espresso into an experience that fully engages the senses and the mind.

illy took its longstanding involvement in the arts to a level deeper in 2003, when it partnered with the Venice La Biennale, one of the world’s preeminent cultural events.  illy has participated in every Biennale since, with increasingly thought-provoking exhibitions, often in the form of visually striking spaces that stimulate the mind, while providing an  illymind space to relax and reflect.  A respite not unlike that of a beautiful coffee moment.

Each Biennale’s illymind space is created in collaboration with renowned artists, designers and other cultural forces, each in tune with the atmosphere it populates