Irenebrination: Notes on Architecture, Art, Fashion, Fashion Law, Science & Technology: March 2017

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
					1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28	29	30

Memory Really Matters: "Past Future - Craft Design in Sardinia" @ La Triennale, Milan

Milan Design Week is almost upon us and there are multiple appointments in the city that may be of interest to creative minds. Visitors into crafts, jewellery and fashion eager to learn more about traditions and history should head to the Triennale to visit the "Past Future – Craft Design in Sardinia" event (4th - 9th April 2017).

Curated by Giuliana Altea and Roberta Morittu, the event is aimed at promoting Sardinian contemporary crafts, through a series of initiatives showcasing both the work of designers and artisans.

The inspiration for this event actually came from Antonio Marras' A/W 17 show that, as you may remember, took place at the Triennale and employed his own exhibition as a fairytale set to tell a fashion story.

Rather than being just a holiday paradise, Sardinia is represented in this event as a makers' workshop, a place where the legacy of history, culture and shared traditions can lead to a solid future in design.

In Marras' show the designer combined his garments from his new collection with his personal story and background, and "Past Future" does the same through a wide range of items.

The exhibition presents indeed a series of objects, images, visual and sound atmospheres that try to establish connections and juxtapositions between craft and design in Sardinia in three historical moments.

Displays explore therefore the 19th century traditional craft production, the rebirth promoted by artists and designers during the 1950s and the more recent developments.

The past is explored first via a series of black and white pictures from the '50s showing women at work, making baskets for an artisanal course at the I.S.O.L.A. (the acronym sounds like the Italian word for "island", but stands for "Sardinian Institute for the Organization of Handicraft"; Marras himself has a line called "I'm Isola Marras" that echoes it in its name), a regional agency whose mission included artifacts' redesign, artisans' training, manufacturing and the sale of products.

The I.S.O.L.A. organised biennial exhibitions that attracted visitors and buyers from all over the world.

In 1957 products made by the I.S.O.L.A., including terracotta vases, rugs and tapestries were displayed at the 11th Triennale Exhibition in Milan. There are plenty of objects in this first section – from traditional gold filigree rosary beads to a rich silver chain with a heart-shaped reliquary and pieces of jewellery incorporating textile inserts; from intricately colourful tapestries, to a cork umbrella stand and several rugs and baskets by Eugenio Tavolara.

A sculptor, ceramicist, illustrator and designer Tavolara (1901-1963) was known for wooden puppets of Sardinian peasants and shepherds. He started co-directing the I.S.O.L.A. in 1957 and managed to bring Sardinian handicrafts to the attention of the international press.

The I.S.O.L.A.'s example inspired several recent projects such as DOMO, that enlisted more than thirty designers and sixty workshops, pointing at new possible scenarios for craft design.

The DOMO section of the exhibition includes a mix of products such as the Lina Bo Bardi-inspired "Gedda" chair designed by Angelo Figus and made by Maria Raimonda Pinna; Figus' "Sospiri" necklace made by Francesco Cadinu's Aurum; the "Cisto" rug, designed Marta Laudani & Marco Romanelli, and made by Maddalena Mula's historical family workshop Su Telarzu and the egg-shaped vase by Ugo La Pietra made by Terra acqua & fuoco.

Among the most interesting elements from the first section there is a textile wall dedicated to rugs, tapestries and fabrics hinting at the role of weaving in Sardinian craft.

The dialogue between the past and the present is represented by a textile and digital installation with graphic patterns by Stefano Asili proving that technology can take traditions and radically reinvent them for exciting future applications.

Quite a few items displayed in the event prove therefore that Italo Calvino was right when he stated: "Memory really matters - for individuals, for the collectivity, for civilization - only if it binds together the imprint of the past and the project of the future, if it enables us to act without forgetting what we wanted to do, to become without ceasing to be, and to be without ceasing to become."

Rediscovering local crafts, made following specific techniques and employing unique materials, can help us establishing new traditions. In the case of Sardinian handmade handicrafts the discourse also revolves around other themes such as sustainability and environmentally friendly designs.

The only disappointing thing about this event is the fact that it seems to last only for a few days, while they should have given it the opportunity to be on at least for a month.

"Past Future" will continue through a series of campaigns to promote the region in Italy and abroad: artisans registered on the Sardegna Artigianato website will for example be able to access the Amazon e-commerce platform, or be offered retail spaces in boutiques located in Cagliari and Olbia airports together with opportunities to exhibit in several venues.

Posted at 05:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Freedom of the Anti-Historical Neutral Surface: "Abet Laminati - An Imaginary City" @ La Triennale, Milan

Let's continue the Memphis Milano thread that started on Tuesday with a post dedicated to another exhibition linked with the Italian design group, an event that will celebrate Abet Laminati at Milan's Triennale during the local Design Week.

Curated by Paola Navone, "Abet Laminati - Una Città Immaginaria" (Abet Laminates - An Imaginary City, 4th - 9th April 2017) is conceived as a free exhibition that will offer visitors the chance to celebrate the 60th anniversary of this company.

A.B.E.T. (Anonima Braidese Estratti Tannici) was founded in 1946 as a tannin extraction joint-stock company. In the mid-'50s it was converted to the production of laminates, reinventing itself year after year. After creating in 1964 the trademark Abet Print, the company launched new collaborations with architects, artists ad designers.

In a 1972 exhibition Abet reunited projects and ideas by Sottsass, Archizoom Associati, Superstudio, George Sowden and Clino Trini Castelli, that focused on the concept of neutral surfaces. The event looked at one main characteristic of the laminates: being adaptable and versatile, they are indeed neutral surfaces without any well-defined tradition or historical implication - laminates can therefore be used to develop new stimuli and perceptions.

In the '70s Superstudio designed the texture "Quaderna" for Abet that was then applied to their "Misura" series comprising conceptual pieces of furniture in which a squared grid was recreated in a variety of scales.

Further innovations in the '70s included the Lumiphos laminate, a phosphorescent photo-luminescent decorative laminate created in collaboration with Clino Trini Castelli, the Reli-tech, the first three-dimensional laminate, and the Stratitex, a laminate with a textile surface that combined textile finishings with the ease of application of ordinary laminates.

At the beginning of the '80s Abet developed for Alessandro Mendini and Studio Alchimia the Infinite Furniture collection, pieces of furniture covered in magnetic laminates.

Between 1978 and 1980 Sottsass reunited a series of decorative motifs for furniture pieces in a notebook, some of them represent the starting point for his most famous textures such as bacterio, that became a reality in the early '80s together with the other Memphis Milan patterns and textures.

In Why a Film about Michele De Lucchi? directed by Alessio Bozzer the Italian architect, designer and member of the Memphis Milano movement remembers how Sottsass used to love plastic laminates because they reminded him of simple unpretentious furniture and of the interior design of the "latterie" (dairy shops) from the '50s.

Since laminates could easily be printed incorporating patterns and bright colours, they allowed Memphis Milano to play with new technologies while liberating their fantasy and imagination. This material became therefore the key to unlock a new figurative language for the design group.

Throughout the years Abet kept on constantly renewing itself, winning several awards and keeping on launching innovative materials including "Diafos" (1987) a see-through laminate with three-dimentional, decorations, "Tefor", a sort of recycled laminate and, in more recent years, a laminate that incorporated Swarovski crystals.

At the Triennale it wll be possible to see 60 years of laminates that characterised the history of Italian design through iconic pieces, such as the "Carlton" library by Ettore Sottsass, while designs made for this event will show the evolutions in the history of the company.

The installation inside the Triennale spaces will comprise a series of buildings opening onto a square (a set in some ways reminiscent of Archizoom's model for the 1972 "Neutral Surface" exhibition), each of them telling the story of a different decade of Abet products. This urban space will tell a series of tangible, fantastic and colourful design tales, but visitors will be reminded that these are never-ending stories as laminates can be endlessly reinvented.

Expect therefore the company to reappear soon in a fashion collaboration near you (could it be a collection or a feature/set for a runway show? Who knows...). Nothing is confirmed, but it's obviously in the air.

Posted at 06:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Optimism of Banality: Valentino A/W 17 Vs Nathalie du Pasquier's "Counting" (2014)

In yesterday's post we looked at two compact exhibitions that will bring back to Milan one of the co-founders of the Memphis Milano group, Ettore Sottsass. Among the members of the design collective there was also Nathalie du Pasquier.

The painter and designer developed an interest for textures and patterns while spending time in Africa in the '70s, but only started designing in 1979, joining the Memphis Milano group and creating strong visual graphics in collaboration with George Sowden.

After designing textiles, clothing, jewellery and furniture, in the last few years du Pasquier has mainly been focusing on creating decorative graphic patterns: her prints have been featured in an American Apparel collection in 2014 and her recent works, patterns and illustrations are instead collected in dedicated volumes published in limited editions, such as the 2014 "Counting".

The latter features a series of basic mathematical equations explained by fingers. The illustrations are more or less the same, but they are recombined in different ways, adding slight variations in terms of colours or background motifs.

Pierpaolo Piccioli at Valentino played with them further for the fashion house's A/W 17 collection. Showcased during Paris Fashion Week, the collection mainly consisted of evening dresses and outerwear such as luxury leather and wool coats, matched with thick-soled boots.

Piccioli was inspired by Victoriana for what regarded the details, shapes (see the high-necked style of long and slim high waisted dresses) and frilly elements. These feminine elements and decorations were turned into modern features as they were incorporated in the designs using modern techniques such as bonding and thermowelding.

The patterns of hands and numerals on halter gowns, knits, skirts, tops and intarsia fur coats were taken instead from du Pasquier's "Counting" series and there were moods and colour clashes inspired by George Sowden's pieces.

A romantic and at times monastic side from the late 1800s (at times reinterpreted in saccharine colours such as raspberry red and bright pink) was therefore mixed with a more modern inspiration to create a sort of anachronistic effect.

Du Pasquier's graphic prints were cut up, replicated and re-collaged on the evening dresses characterised by lean and elongated silhouettes that have become a Valentino signature in the last few years.

In some cases Piccioli seemed to add some extra fabric to create more fluid and loose effects in the dresses and maybe give more space to the graphics.

Other inspirations were provided by coral, incorporated into minimalist necklaces that all the models wore, while appliqued feathers forming delicate flowers on dresses and tiny ruffles cascading onto a panelled skirt were instead derived from Haute Couture techniques.

There seemed to be a strange déjà-vu sensation every now and then in this collection: the black-and-white squiggle print in the opening dresses called to mind classic du Pasquier-Sowden's patterns combined with Ettore Sottsass's 1978 bacterio (the latter was also used in Proenza Schouler's A/W 2013 collection View this photo) and many of the silhouettes seen on this runway already appeared in previous (recent) Valentino's collections.

Yet again one of the principles behind the Memphis Milano group was that of redesigning something, or recreating the banal in an extraordinary way: somehow this is exactly what du Pasquier's illustrations end up doing in this collection, adding an edge of modernity in classic designs.

"Counting" was also conceived as a way to escape from the banality surrounding us as du Pasquier invites people to concentrate on basic gestures such as finger-counting to liberate the visual marvels hidden behind non-verbal communication, and that's more or less what fashion should do as well - liberate the dream, the fantasy and the optimism from the banality of the garments.

Posted at 05:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Let Us Eat Cake: Ettore Sottsass's "Indian Memory" Pieces Return for Milan Design Week Exhibitions

In the last six years fashion obsessively borrowed patterns, colour combinations and shapes from the Memphis Milano movement. Every now and then fashion designers also mentioned Ettore Sottsass' interior design pieces as their starting point for a collection.

This connection is destined to continue in the next few days: two special events will indeed celebrate Sottsass (Innsbruck, 1917 - Milan, 2007) during Milan Design Week (4th-9th April 2017), marking 100 years since the birth of the interior designer.

Two different events at Galleria Carla Sozzani in Corso Como 10 (4th April - 1st May 2017) and at Galleria Antonia Janone in Corso Garibaldi 125 (4th - 13th April 2017) will focus on Sottsass' "Indian Memory" collection, made with Alessio Sarri.

Sottsass met Sarri, a ceramicist from Sesto Fiorentino, in the '80s. The designer and the artist soon realised there was a special bond between them, they both shared a special passion for details and Sottsass asked Sarri to turn into ceramics a series of drawings for teapots and fruit bowls he had created in 1973 (the drawings are currently part of the collection at New York's MoMA).

This collaboration generated a group of eight ceramic pieces - Cardamom, Pepper, Cinnamon, Basilico, Cherry, Lapislazzuli, Camomilla and Sugar - exhibited in 1987 at the Galleria Antonia Jannone.

Some of these pieces were characterised by a muted palette; others came in soft pastels or in vividly bright shades of pistachio and yellow.

All of them looked like spaceships, religious totems from a dystopic futures, sculptures or architectural models, rather than functional interior design pieces: Lapislazzuli calls to mind a ziggurat with round edges; Sugar may be a bizarre flying saucers; Camomilla reminds of a crown, while Cinnamon looks like an old school movie camera. In many ways the shapes of these objects liberate them from their immediate function.

"Indian Memory" represented for Sottsass a sort of new beginning: after this collection the designer launched a series of exciting experiments with glazed ceramic.

Thirty years have gone since this collaboration and Sarri recently decided to recreate the pieces and relaunch them: the event at the Galleria Sozzani will focus on the handcrafted aspects of his work, while the exhibition at the Galleria Jannone will introduce visitors also to the preparatory drawings for these pieces and to the original illustrations Sottsass did in 1973.

In a 1986 article published on The Chicago Tribune, Sottsass described Memphis Milano like "a very strong drug", adding, "You cannot take too much. I don't think anyone should put only Memphis around: it's like eating only cake."

We beg to differ: in the confusingly dark times we are living in, Ettore Sottsass and Memphis Milano's playfully ebullient pieces still seem to be the most inspiring and optimistic visual kick we may ever get from the postmodern design universe. Let us eat (only) cake, please.

Posted at 04:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Designed in the UK, Made in the EU: Fashion & The Brexit Conundrum

So the fatal day is almost upon us: British Prime Minister Theresa May is supposed to trigger Article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon on Wednesday. After that, the negotiations for the UK to exit the EU will finally begin. At the moment, many issues surrounding the Brexit remain rather vague, from border control and rules regarding international trade to the position of European citizens living and working in the UK and that of UK citizens residing in Europe, but, interestingly enough, the current position of Great Britain seems well-summarised, or rather, simbolised by the origins of certain fashion items and collections linked with a nationalistic sense of Britishness.

Last November Samantha Cameron, wife of former British Prime Minister David Cameron, announced she was launching her own fashion line. An ambassador for the British Fashion Council (BFC), Cameron stated she aimed at providing a "urban uniform for busy women who love fashion" (as long as they are size 14, because her line does not offer larger sizes, maybe because women above size 14 are not busy and do not love fashion...) at a relatively affordable price point.

Called Cefinn (the resulting and convoluted acronym of the first and last letters of the Cameron name, and the initials of the couple's children Elwen, Florence, Ivan and Nancy), the line was officially launched in February and went on sale online on Net-a-Porter and in Selfridges in London.

Thanks to a (terribly biased) article featured on British Vogue (having a sister who is also Vogue's deputy editor always helps...) enthusiastically supporting the brand, the collection (looking more or less like a more expensive and maybe trendier version of what you may find at Marks and Spencer), registered fast sales at the very beginning, with an initial rush that allowed certain items to go out of stock in 24 hours, though rhythms stabilised soon afterwards.

A while back Cameron worked with the BFC on the "Let's Make it Here" database listing and supporting local manufacturers in the UK, but her clothes are actually manufactured in Lithuania and Macedonia (on Net-a porter, Cefinn's garments are just described as "Imported", while the site indicates for other garments if they are "Made in England/France/Italy"; the actual labels on the garments reveal more about them).

Obviously, this choice is not Cameron's "fault": fashion companies regularly turn to low-wage European countries such as Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Poland and Romania and, in some cases, they take advantage of the European outward processing trade (OPT) scheme that allows to cut a product in one place, assemble it in a low-wage country and label it as made in the original country (quite a few Italian companies opt for this trick, it is certainly not a secret). There are actually many other British fashion labels and houses producing in Europe (or outside it) who do not seem to have a problem admitting that. for money or quality reasons, they manufacture their garments and accessories somewhere else, but what surprises in the case of Cameron's label is the way it seems to be marketed to make consumers believe this is a 100% British product.

Mind you, while Sam Cam turns to Eastern European countries to manufacture her stuff, Theresa May wears made in Europe fashion items: last week the British Prime Minister donned a pair of customised Charlotte Olympia red velvet kitten heel shoes (a unique version of the brand's trademark feline "Kitty" flats) that designer Charlotte Dellal created for her to mark the annual fund-raising initiative Red Nose Day (the shoes are currently being auctioned for charity here).

Charlotte Olympia's shoes are actually hand-made in Italy, so, again, here we have a product designed in the UK and made somewhere else.

Now, lingering on superficial aspects such as garments and shoes may sound like drifting away from politics and from more serious issues such as last week's Westminster attack to focus on more ephemeral aspects of life.

But, at the same time, these fashion items seem to have summarised pretty well the wider Brexit dilemmas: wanting to go solo and longing to be "liberated" (as Boris Johnson states...) from Europe, but being terribly and impossibly linked with it, and exploiting or benefiting from it (in the current global market it is impossible to think about an entirely "Made in the UK" fashion industry as it would be killed by the competition out there).

We're going to give Cefinn less than a year (max 9 to 10 months - first it will become an accessories brand and then it will disappear...the market is already too saturated). As for Brexit, we'll see, but May's efforts sound like Trump trying to reform Obamacare and failing, realising that healthcare is a terribly complicated issue.

For the time being, bizarrely enough, the sweater that Margaret Thatcher donned in 1975 in support of the European trade agreement (and she wasn't certainy pro-Europe...) and that featured the flags of the nine countries (Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, West Germany, Ireland, Denmark, and the United Kingdom) that made up the common market at the time, remains a more genuine example of a "Made in Britain" garment - it was indeed given as a gift to Thatcher by a Scottish mill.

Posted at 07:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Fashion Tips from the Past: Bustier Belt Pattern from 1959

If you're a crafty person or if you're just looking for a quick fashion project to make on a Sunday afternoon, leafing through a vintage magazine may provide you with some interesting inspirations.

Here's an example: this is a pattern for a bustier belt from an issue of Italian magazine Grazia from 1959. The belt had a nice feature, two vertical slits around the central area. A ribbon could be threaded through the slits and knotted on the front (and enriched with a flower as shown in the following image or with another decoration). The magazine suggested to make the bustier belt in pink silk satin and use it to revamp a simple monochromatic dress like the white one shown in the photograph. Enjoy!

Posted at 04:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Strange Parallelism Between Copyright and Trademark Infringements in the Garment and Porn Industries (Star Athletica v. Varsity Brands and Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. Inc. v. Pussycat Cinema, Ltd.)

On Wednesday the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that basic elements in cheerleader uniform designs can be protected by copyright. The decision - affirmed, 6-2, in an opinion by Justice Clarence Thomas - regarded a dispute between Varsity Brands Inc, the dominant cheerleader uniform maker, accusing Star Athletica LLC of infringing on five of its designs (Star Athletica v. Varsity Brands, No. 15-866; argued October 31, 2016 - decided March 22, 2017 - Download 15-866).

As most cheerleader uniforms look quite similar, a U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee sided with Star Athletica in March 2014, stating that Varsity's uniforms were not protectable, as the design elements could not be conceptually or physically separated from the uniforms. In August 2015, a split Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the lower court's ruling. Varsity's court documents argued that cheerleader uniforms can indeed be plain and that their decorative elements are graphic designs separate from the uniforms.

The high court put forth a two-part test to establish if design elements such as the lines, stripes, zigzags and chevrons that typify cheerleader uniforms - warranted copyright protection. According to Justice Thomas, while the uniforms can not be copyrighted, their elements can be protected.

Such creative elements become eligible for copyright protection (in accordance with § 101 of Copyright Act of 1976) when they can be perceived as a two- or three-dimensional work of art separate from the useful article, and when they qualify as protectable "pictorial, graphic or sculptural work", separately and independently from the useful article in which they are incorporated.

The court ruled that the two-dimensional work of art in the uniform met both the requirements of the statute. But this may not be the end of the case as the trial court will have to determine whether Varsity's lines, chevrons, and shapes are original enough to merit copyright protection.

There was another rather unique ruling regarding cheerleaders uniforms and a porn film that may sound relevant, even though in this case no stripes or chevron motifs were involved, but colours and stars and therefore trademarks.

In the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, Inc. v. Pussycat Cinema, Ltd (1979) case, the Appellee (Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders) brought an action against the Appellant (Pussycat Cinema) to enjoin the company from promoting their film "Debbie Does Dallas".

Wishing to join the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, the main character in the film engages in a variety of sexual acts to raise money and travel to Dallas. The Appellee stated there had been a Lanham Act trademark violation (the federal statute governing trademark infringement) as the Appellant had volated the distinctive Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders' uniform.

The main character in "Debbie Does Dallas" donned indeed a very similar uniform to that of the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders', comprising white boots, white shorts, blue blouse, and white star-studded vest and belt - elements that constituted a trademark and that may have generated confusion in the public. While the defendants argued that the uniform was purely functional, and thus common for use in cheerleading routines, the court disagreed, stating that if an item "serves or performs a function" it does not mean that it may not at the same time be capable of indicating sponsorship or origin, "particularly where the decorative aspects of the item are nonfunctional".

The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York held therefore that the Appellant violated the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders' trademark and that the injunction was proper.

Whle the "Debbie" case was mainly linked with trademarks, in the Star/Varsity dispute we are dealing with copyrights. Varsity's direct competitors tend to side with Star, claiming that Varsity wants protection for items that are ubiquitous and too generic to merit copyrights. Indeed, Varsity did not seek a design patent for its designs or copyright on a textile design, but claimed ownership of the treatment and arrangement of the chevrons and lines of the design as they appear at the neckline, waist, skirt, sleeves, and overall cut of each uniform. According to the law, the style or cut of a garment is not eligible for copyright, but a pattern on it can be protected; therefore you can't protect the copyright of a useful article like a shovel, but you can protect the graphic works incorporated in a "useful article".

At the moment clothing companies mainly use other methods like trademark to protect their products, but in future there may be more copyright protection for clothing designs as well. It will be therefore interesting to see if the decisions taken by the Supreme Court in the Star/Varsity case will have an impact in the fashion world: the Council of Fashion Designers of America stated that ruling in favour of Star would have deteriorated the protection available to fashion designers. But while the current ruling offers them a ground to defend themselves against fast fashion retailers and copysts, contemporary designers may have problems in borrowing patterns and motifs from other times/other designers, so things remain a bit confusing.

For the time being, though, at least when it comes to trademark-related issues, it looks like the garment industry (and the cheerleading uniform designers and manufacturers ...) may find unlikely help in a ruling linked with the porn movie industry.

Posted at 10:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Size Matters: "Alighiero Boetti - Minimum/Maximum" @ Fondazione Cini, Island of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice

The opening image in yesterday's post was a poster for brand Fioruccino with a drawing of planes in the sky. The main inspiration for that image did not come from fashion, but from art – the poster borrowed indeed an idea that came from Alighiero Boetti's early mural "Aerei" (Aeroplanes, 1978-1989) series.

The latter featured numerous modern and historical airplanes criss-crossing an intense blue background. Though simple, the series is etremely evocative and dreamy. The "Aeroplanes" triptych (1989) will be part of a new exhibition about Boetti opening in May in Venice (on loan from the prestigious Fondation Carmignac, Paris).

"Alighiero Boetti: Minimum/Maximum" at the Fondazione Cini, on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore (12 May - 12 July 2017), is not officially part of the Venice Art Biennale, but very aptly coincides with it.

Curated by the Director of the Institute of Art History at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Luca Massimo Barbero, in collaboration with the Archivio Alighiero Boetti and featuring a special project by Ulrich Obrist and Agata Boetti, the event will celebrate Boetti's art through works selected for the first time according to their format.

"The exhibition enables viewers to explore a non-anthological and highly unpredictable itinerary of relations, unique in its kind, created by bringing together Boetti's large-sized works from public and private collections", explains Luca Massimo Barbero in a press release. "It is the result of a coherent project specially conceived for Venice at a time of great international acclaim for one of the most important exponents of Italian art."

The main point of the curators is indeed to make a series of comparisons and juxtapositions between dimensions and in particular between the "minimum" and "maximum" concepts in Boetti's most significant series, while analysing at the same time the main themes of his output and the various techniques and materials the artist employed such as printing, embroidery, use of postage stamps and ballpoint pen drawings.

The event will be divided into sections with a total of over twenty works from his most significant series "Ricami", "Mappe", "Tutto" and "Biro" (Embroideries, Maps, Everything and Ballpoint pen), to lesser known works such as "Bollini colorati" (Coloured Tokens), "Storia Naturale della Moltiplicazione" (Natural History of Multiplication) and the "Copertine" (photocopied magazine covers).

There are also some previously never publicly shown works, such "Estate '70" (Summer '70) – loaned directly by the artist's family – and "Titoli" (Titles, 1978), while Prada fans will be happy to know that "Mimetico" (Mimetic, 1967), a very early Boetti series, will be on display on loan from the Fondazione Prada.

In Boetti's practice the format is linked to the concept of time, something that resonates quite well in our extremely fast times. The first work on display is indeed "Estate '70", a 20 metre long roll of paper on which Boetti stuck thousands of round coloured stickers. The work introduces the theme of time (to be interpreted as the time required to contemplate a work of art), a theme that returns in "Aeroplanes" (1989).

The area between the first and second rooms will offer visitors the chance to get a break and watch "Niente da vedere, Niente da nascondere" (Nothing to See, Nothing to Hide, 1978), a documentary made by Emidio Greco at the time of the Boetti retrospective at the Kunsthalle, Basel. The video features sequences from the Swiss exhibition with visits to the artist’s Roman studio and comments from Boetti.

The itinerary then resumes with the celebrated "Maps" and "Everything", introducing the themes of travel and nomadism combined with the concept of time and with multi-cultural collaboration, something we should definitely try to learn from Boetti's works. The "Embroideries" were indeed started by his assistants in Rome; then they were sent to Kabul and to Peshawar, following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Embroiderers from Afghan refugee families made the works by juxtaposing colours of their own choice but following the rules of the game dictated by Boetti and the works were then returned to Rome, where the artist saw the final results for the first time.

The section dedicated to comparisons ends with the large-scale work entitled "Covers" (1984), which points at obsessive media and the formula of the transmitted and reused image, introducing the special project curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director of the Serpentine Gallery, London, and Agata Boetti, Director of the Archivio Alighiero Boetti, and revolving around the theme of the photocopy.

This part of the show invites people to imagine the creative uses that Boetti would have found for today's means of communications and multiplication of images. As the artist himself commented in 1991: "Back in 1969 in Turin, when I used to go to the Rank Xerox showroom with coins in my pocket, I got lots of ideas. I used to think that the photocopier was not only an office machine. By the year 2000 we will all have one in our living rooms. Just give me one and I will show you how to put it to creative use. I didn't want to tamper with the mechanism or ink, as some people did from Munari onwards. What I was interested in was the standard application. But, for example, I might have put it outside on my balcony when it began to rain – one drop, ten drops, one thousand drops."

Obrist and Agata Boetti's project - entitled "COLOUR = REALITY. B+W = ABSTRACTION (except for zebras)" - explores Boetti's creative applications by bringing together for the first time a group of works made with the photocopier at various times in his career. According to Hans Ulrich Obrist, they illustrate Boetti’s passion for communication technologies, such as the Polaroid or the fax machine.

Visitors will be invited to use a real photocopier at the centre of the room and create art following the rules of a game specially created by the Mexican artist Mario Garcia Torres to pay homage to Boetti, discovering how the Italian artist, who sadly died prematurely in 1994, anticipated modern search engines and our collective passion for reproducing images.

There will also be some lessons for fashion fans: evoked (as you may remember...) in Valentino's Resort 2016 and Spring/Summer 2016 menswear collections, Boetti's colourful maps of a flattened globe are the product of textile artisans, but also point at a multi-cultural word without any barriers, while his obsession with photocopies mirrors the copy-and-paste world in which we are living now. From a journey into an artist's personal output, "Minimum/Maximum" turns therefore into an exploration of the themes and obsessions our of modern world that Boetti wisely and bravely anticipated.

Image credits for this post

Alighiero Boetti, Aerei, 1977.

Alighiero Boetti, Manifesto, Galleria Toselli, 1972. Photograph Paolo Mussat Sartor.

Alighiero Boetti, Anno 1984, 1984, pencil on paper mounted on canvas, twelve elements, each 39 ⅜ in x59 in). Detail Courtesy Tornabuoni Art.

Alighiero Boetti, Estate '70, detail.

Alighiero Boetti, Mappa, 1989-94, embroidery on canvas, 100x231,49 in. Courtesy Tornabuoni Art.

Alighiero Boetti, Mettere al Mondo il Mondo, 1975, pen on paper mounted on canvas, 62,99x136,61 in. Courtesy Tornabuoni Art.

Alighiero Boetti, Aerei, 1989, ink and watercolour on photographic paper mounted on canvas, 59 x 118 ⅛ in (three elements, each 59 x 39 ⅜ in). Detail. Courtesy Fondation Carmignac, Paris.

Alighiero Boetti, Tutto, 1992-94, embroidery on canvas, 100 ⅜ x 234 ¼ in, detail. Courtesy Tornabuoni Art.

Posted at 05:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When Kids Dressed Fiorucci(no)

In yesterday's post we looked at the reboot of Fiorucci. As a follow up, let's briefly focus on the kids' line – Fioruccino. The brand was clever enough to realise already in the mid-'70s that there was a wide market for children's clothes and accessories; many other designer labels added a kids' line in the decades that followed, proving that Elio Fiorucci was a pioneer in this as well.

While the first image in this post shows an advert included in the Fiorucci Panini sticker album, the second is actually a clothes label that doubled up as a sticker. Each garment was accompanied by this adhesive label that meant you could wear the clothes and then decorate your diary or notebook with a fun sticker.

Fioruccino mainly produced functional clothes and accessories for kids characterised by the same bright colours and bold graphics featured in the main line dedicated to grown-ups.

Accessories included fluorescent scarves with the iconic cherubs and collectible plastic hairpins like the one with a colourful planet in the next picture.

Prices varied, but stuff was pretty indestructible as this Olive Oyl by Fiorucci scarf (from my archive) shows (it came from a set that included gloves). In more recent years Elio Fiorucci also designed a young line aimed at teenagers for Italian retailer Oviesse (OVS) but the garments included in these collections weren't characterised by the same quality of the Fioruccino ones.

Posted at 08:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

And Deliver Us from a (Possibly Botched?) Fiorucci Remix & Reboot

As fashion fans may have heard, Fiorucci is currently being rebooted for a new generation. The rebirth will be led by new owners Stephen and Janie Schaffer who have taken over the company in 2015 shortly after founder Elio Fiorucci died.

Yet, relaunching the brand may be tricky without Elio's early brilliant ideas (stretch denim is an invention attributed to him) and crazy visuals from the '80s created in collaboration with cool creative minds, like the images for his iconic Panini sticker album infused with Memphis Milano references (absolutely one of the best sticker collections produced in those times; it sold around 100 million packets of stickers in just a few months turning into an '80s cult).

The reboot has materialised as a capsule collection - including archive hand-painted denim jackets, bombers, dungarees, graphic T-shirts and sweatshirts like the ones with the Fiorucci cherubs (free personalization is also possible on some garments) - launched as pop-up store at London's Selfridges (3rd floor -women's denim studio). The relaunch will continue with a 4,000-square-feet Soho store that will open in London in September.

The collection mainly features clothes, so, unfortunately, it doesn't include Fiorucci's scarves or bags (they were desirable and indestructible fashion pieces...) and they don't seem to have thought about affordable pieces of knitwear that were part of the Fiorucci offer (yes, we are going towards the Spring/Summer season, but the knitted offer can include summery pieces as well...). Yet each piece comes with a reproduction of a Fiorucci Panini sticker (did they read our post from 2010?).

New owners hope this will be an optimistic reboot, revolving around fun disco themes. But things may be a bit trickier than expected, Fiorucci was a brand and a live in-store experience and the fun and craziness of the original stores can not be easily recreated, plus there are other conceptual shops favoured by fashionistas (Colette, Dover Street Market, 10 Corso Como, Opening Ceremony...), not to mention online shopping.

Besides, there doesn't seem to be any need for more denim trousers or Fiorucci-inspired clothes as there are enough garments out there already copying, reinventing or paying homage to the brand (even Valentino's Pre-Fall 2016 collection was inspired by Elio Fiorucci while D&G included in their S/S 2010 menswear collection T-shirts with prints of iconic Fiorucci posters).

The saddest thing about this reboot, though, is that even Selfridges mispelt Elio Fiorucci's name in one of the descriptions of the garments included in this collection. In a way, they do not seem to have a clue about what they're selling.

Nostalgic about Fiorucci? In this post you find some images of Panini stickers, and a pair of over the top fur trimmed gold leather clogs that were on sale at Fiorucci in Milan in 1972 (they look rather "daytime Studio 54", as they used to call New York's Lexington Avenue Fiorucci shop...). Guess a reboot may bring back a print, a style, an iconic logo or graphic design, but it will never bring back the wearable Pop Art fun and the good times.

Posted at 03:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Irenebrination: Notes on Architecture, Art, Fashion, Fashion Law, Science & Technology

About

Recent Posts

November 2024

Archives

March 2017

March 31, 2017

Memory Really Matters: "Past Future - Craft Design in Sardinia" @ La Triennale, Milan

March 30, 2017

The Freedom of the Anti-Historical Neutral Surface: "Abet Laminati - An Imaginary City" @ La Triennale, Milan

March 29, 2017

The Optimism of Banality: Valentino A/W 17 Vs Nathalie du Pasquier's "Counting" (2014)

March 28, 2017

Let Us Eat Cake: Ettore Sottsass's "Indian Memory" Pieces Return for Milan Design Week Exhibitions

March 27, 2017

Designed in the UK, Made in the EU: Fashion & The Brexit Conundrum

March 26, 2017

Fashion Tips from the Past: Bustier Belt Pattern from 1959

March 25, 2017

The Strange Parallelism Between Copyright and Trademark Infringements in the Garment and Porn Industries (Star Athletica v. Varsity Brands and Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. Inc. v. Pussycat Cinema, Ltd.)

March 24, 2017

Size Matters: "Alighiero Boetti - Minimum/Maximum" @ Fondazione Cini, Island of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice

March 23, 2017

When Kids Dressed Fiorucci(no)

March 22, 2017

And Deliver Us from a (Possibly Botched?) Fiorucci Remix & Reboot