There are all sorts of problems in the world, from climate change debates to Brexit, from migration issues to a constant shifts towards nationalism that seems to erode multi-culturalism and create useless divisions. What to do in such bleak times? Turn to art, turn to beauty, turn to irony and surrealism. In a nutshell, check out Cinzia Ruggeri's exhibition "déconnexion" at Paris' Campoli Presti (until 16th March).
Irenebrination readers have learnt to discover (or re-discover) Ruggeri's uniquely extraordinary and extravagant world throughout the years when we looked at comparisons between her early works and the creations of contemporary designers or her collaborations with the students at the Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti Milano (NABA). "Déconnexion" at Campoli Presti is a postcard to Ruggeri's Paris-based fans.
Decades ago, Ruggeri lived and worked in Paris at Carven, but this event is not focused on her fashion creations. The exhibition, occupying the ground floor of 6 rue de Braque and the recently inaugurated first floor of 4 rue de Braque, is indeed a celebration of Ruggeri's journeys through art, fashion and design.
Our beloved "Homage to Lévi Strauss dress", with its three-dimensional ziggurat-like motifs is safe in the collection of the Victorian & Albert Museum, so it is not part of this show, but here you can admire more iconic pieces, including several surreal gloves and the yellow organza ziggurat dress with matching shoes that fans of Italian electro band Matia Bazar may remember seeing on their singer Antonella Ruggiero in 1983.
Ruggeri had a special connection with the band as she designed the staircase-shaped ties the band member wear in the picture on the back of the "Aristocratica" album; Studio Alchimia did the cover for that album that also featured a model in the "Homage to Lévi Strauss dress".
Fashion-wise you may not see here too many behavioural garments with integrated LED lights (early examples of wearable technology...), wonderful crazy ideas to signal you were alive, but you will see Ruggeri's iconic boots from the '80s, shaped like Italy with the Gargano sticking out, accompanied by Sicily and Sardinia clutch bags.
Among the screened videos there is also "Per un vestire organico" (1983, originally shot in Ruggeri's showroom and screened at Palazzo Fortuny in Venice): it features an octopus woman (dancer Valeria Magli) who very slowly (to remind us to readjust our internal rhythms to the surrounding spaces) walks across a room, becoming entangled with the objects and pieces of furniture she finds in her path (among the pieces there is also an aquarium table designed by Ruggeri where tiny fish used to live).
At Campoli Presti there are also some timeless interior design pieces that reveal an affinity with Alessandro Mendini and Studio Alchimia including Ruggeri's "Shatzi" mirror that doesn't reveal to the person standing in front of it harsh truths about how they look, but gently offers multiple hands to hold different objects.
Ruggeri's dog is integrated into a carpet that seems to reproduce a mosaic in classic Pompeii style, or it is transformed into a shadow sofa, a perfect match for her "Colombra" (a sort of hybrid word fusing "colomba", Italian for "dove", and "ombra", meaning "shadow"), an elongated black velvet sofa, replicating the shadow that a human figure would cast on a wall, its crossed hands projecting the shadow of a dove on the wall.
In Ruggeri's universe there are always these moments of poetry and tenderness, that's why she dressed a humble bulb with a beaded ornament, almost to give it a new dress and turn it into a piece of jewellery.
Walking among the installations you get the impression that Cinzia's fashion designs may be lost among the memories of an early '80s video; but then you make connections between what you see on the walls, a detail from an accessory or a shape and a silhouette, and contemporary pieces on a recent runway show, and you realise that her essence is still there, somewhere in the design world and that throughout her life Ruggeri never followed the herd (even though she's always loved animals).
Yet among all the surrealist atmosphere at Campoli Presti, there is space for an ultimate gesture of violent humour: Ruggeri's "Schiaffo Bag" (Slap Bag) is on a wall. The red leather round flat bag with an integrated glove is there almost ready to be used, to be carried in a glamorously fashionable way or to be symbolically slapped in the face of those ones who spread hate, arrogance and divisions.
There's a personal lexicon in Cinzia's grammar, learn to read it to discover the energy, fun and laugh that the fashion industry has sadly lost, and finally find the uncanny antidote - bless her - to the unbearable misery of this bleak world.
All images in this post courtesy of the artist and Campoli Presti London/Paris.
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