{"id":5142,"date":"2024-12-09T12:30:15","date_gmt":"2024-12-09T11:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazine.lineapelle-fair.it\/?p=5142"},"modified":"2024-12-16T16:46:09","modified_gmt":"2024-12-16T15:46:09","slug":"museums-have-a-new-full-time-star-fashion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazine.lineapelle-fair.it\/en\/focus-en\/museums-have-a-new-full-time-star-fashion\/","title":{"rendered":"Museums have a new full-time star: fashion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fashion and art have always had a symbiotic relationship. In recent years, however, fashion exhibitions in art museums have multiplied. For brands, they are no longer just a communication tool but also an opportunity to question the future of the system. <\/em>As Maria Luisa Frisa, curator of Memorabile.Ipermoda, recently inaugurated at the MAXXI in Rome, explains to us<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

by Domenico Casoria<\/em><\/p>\n

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It is no longer news that a large museum <\/strong>hosts an exhibition on fashion<\/strong>. Yet, only a few years ago, it seemed unthinkable. That is why the new exhibition staged at MAXXI<\/strong>, the National Museum of 21st Century Arts in Rome, reignites the debate. But Memorabile. Ipermoda <\/strong>does more. It investigates the last ten years of fashion through objects that restore its aspiration towards the memorable. It is not just about clothes but also the need to narrate the (fragmented) contemporary through fashion.<\/p>\n

Museums and fashion<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In its relationship with art, and when it enters a museum, does fashion still suffer from the name of ‘little daughter’?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The relationship between fashion and museums in Italy has changed in recent years, undoubtedly thanks to the increasing focus on fashion exhibitions. Even for brands, they are no longer just a communication tool but an opportunity to reflect, ask questions, suggest visions, and develop concepts. The fact that institutions such as MAXXI welcome Memorabile. Ipermoda<\/em><\/a> marks a change. It is an important signal to move away from the rhetoric on the ancillary role of fashion.<\/p>\n

Today, fashion is the protagonist of many artistic projects. What has changed in the relationship with art compared to ten years ago?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The relationship between art and fashion is, above all, a sharing of practices and processes. It is not a question of identity. That is, whether fashion is art because we are now aware that these are two separate disciplinary fields, with their own rules, that look at each other and relate to each other. But they support each other (also from an economic point of view). As the critic and curator Richard Martin said about Viktor & Rolf’s work – they share a common horizon, that of contemporary visual culture.<\/p>\n

What changes in a museum for fashion<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In order to enter a museum, does the dress have to have a different posture than on the catwalk or in the shop window?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I am convinced that when fashion enters the museum, it must not lose sight of the relationship between the commercial dimension and the window display. It is part of the way we are used to perceiving it. Therefore, a museum display must also take this into account when choosing an obviously different exhibition approach. The way one decides to display the pieces is also profoundly connected to the themes running through the exhibition. For Memorabile. Ipermoda<\/em>, I chose sartorial mannequins that would highlight the constructive and material qualities of the selected garments. To emphasise the objects, almost absolutes. But there is no set rule: it is a curatorial choice.<\/p>\n

At what point is the \u201cmusealisation\u201d of fashion in Italy? Shouldn’t the crisis of the system also be \u201cmusealised\u201d?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Certainly, exhibitions and books that take into account and investigate the reasons for the crisis are important. However, a cultural policy on fashion is not just a museum issue: it is, first and foremost, an awareness of the need for actions (policies, in fact) that take into account the economic dimension, the changes taking place regarding the twin transitions (digital and sustainable), and university education and research. This, in my opinion, makes it possible to articulate a proper, solid, polyphonic cultural discourse of and on fashion.<\/p>\n

The idea of memorability<\/strong><\/h3>\n

What makes a dress non-memorable? <\/strong><\/h3>\n

I don’t think there are any clothes that are not memorable at all. For me, the dimension of the memorable has more to do with a desire to indelibly interpret contemporaneity. In recent years, fashion has been very much characterised in this sense. It has worked on this, both in the production of objects and in the production of imagery.<\/p>\n

How does leather fit into the memorability of a fashion creation?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

There are a number of pieces on display that make clear the memorable strength of leather and its use in fashion. Leather goods are synonymous with the highest quality in the design and production of an object. The objects, for example, by Bottega Veneta, under the creative direction of Matthieu Blazy, are extraordinary design elaborations that, through leather, transfigure clothes, uniforms and accessories into sophisticated elements that redefine the everyday. The Kalimero bucket bag looks like an elaborate ceramic sculpture but has the lightness of leather worked with the foulard weave motif, an extraordinary invention and an expression of the absolute quality of our Made in Italy.<\/p>\n

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Maria Luisa Frisa<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Memorabile. Ipermoda<\/strong><\/h3>\n

How did the idea for Memorabile. Ipermoda and its setup come about?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The exhibition stems from a reading of a book on the object-person by the anthropologist Carlo Severi, who has also worked on the theme of the ‘chimaera’. The Object-Person. Rite Memory Image (Rito Memoria Immagine) is a very complex book. Severi speaks of the dress object as something that also possesses a significant force on us, outside of us, and that is fashion. Hence, I came up with the idea of constructing an exhibition that would address this theme and, at the same time, record the present moment, in which fashion is shot through with an urge for gigantism and wants to be memorable at all costs.<\/p>\n

Here, then, are images that must strike the imagination: stratospheric outfits in fashion shows, which are, in fact, no longer even fashion shows but actual events, performances, and happenings in extraordinary places. All these actions are very strong emotionally and give back a wonderful elsewhere. For the set-up, I worked by choosing, as I always like to do, a young studio, Supervoid, which is not familiar with fashion. The dialogue with them started from the space of Gallery 5 at MAXXI, which is a gently sloping room that is difficult to tame and overlooks the city. The set-up project took the form of a sequence of scenes defined by a base and a backdrop.<\/p>\n

Is there a piece you would have liked but could not get?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

There are never any regrets in my curatorial projects. When I close an installation and finish positioning the mannequins, what is in the exhibition works perfectly. The conversations between objects in this installation, in my opinion, are evocative and very powerful.<\/p>\n

Fashion and the body<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Can fashion transcend bodies?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Fashion is always a project of the body, of bodies. It is part of its DNA. I am thinking of modelling, of moulage, and of the importance of gestures in the design of accessories. The Ipermoda <\/em>concept does not want to forget the body and gender expressions. Rather, it serves to highlight the power that the objects on display have to transcend time, the here-and-now of fashion, and the apparent immediacy of the proposals we see in fashion shows and fashion films. The pieces become almost monumental presences, and not just in terms of size and materials, but in a conceptual sense. Because they allow us to tell the story of today, interpret it, and question it. And to imagine the trajectories of tomorrow.<\/p>\n

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