An exhibition playfully exploring uniforms.
Devised and curated by Milan-based architect, designer and artist Alessandro Guerriero, Workwear features the work of 40 Italian and international artists, designers and architects, including Alessandro Mendini, Issey Miyake, Erwin Wurm, Vivienne Westwood, Elio Fiorucci, and Coop Himmelb(l)au.
Public Opening Party from 6-10pm.
Exhibitions run through April 23.
Some time ago, the cowl did make the monk, th emetal worker, the lawyer… Our clothes were the direct representation of our role in society and of our relevant image. Originally, however, clothes were something else. After the case of the apple, when man was thrown into the world, “the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and this wife and clothed them”. When delivering man to a hostile world, God says, “go but remember that you are just a man and that you need protectio because you are limited”. Therefore the original garment derives from a love gesture that on one side protects us and on the other underlines our condition. However, when society defined the power balance, this two meanings were upset and clothing changed from benig a mark of our fragility into a social function and sign. Nowadays, our individualism changed once again this meaning and clothing became above all the expression of power onself. It is a way of disguising our thoughts and of giving them a new shape. Once it was the image that the world gave us but now it is the image of what we want it to be in the world.
Alessandro Guerriero
Alessandro Guerriero founded Studio Alchimia in 1976 – one of the most important groups involved in the evolution of Italian post avant-garde. In 1982 he was awarded the “Compasso d’oro” for his design research. In 1987, he founded Domus Academy, a post-graduate industrial design and fashion design school. In 1998, he was editor for the magazine OLLO. At the end of 1996, after opening the new atelier “Radiosity” with Alberto Biagetti, he started to design the new Benetton Museum with Olivero Toscani. This year he has designed a small city near Rome after the Happiness House for the Alessi Family in Omegna; the Torre Civica di Gibellina; and Groingen’s Art Museum in the Netherlands. Finally, with the inmates of Milan’s San Vittore jail, he has designed the “Nuova Arca.”