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

Luminous Optical Fiber Tapestries to Dispel the Darkness: Daniel Buren X Bergamo

Lombardy was the Italian region hit the hardest by the spread of Coronavirus. In March Bergamo turned into the epicenter of the tragedy: pictures and footage of the convoy of military vehicles carrying hundreds of coffins away from the city at night as the local graveyard was full, were the most shocking and moving images of the pandemic in Italy. While nobody will ever manage to forget those terrifying moments and the sorrow, pain and anxiety felt during those long weeks of lockdown, Bergamo is trying to stand up again with an art project that will hopefully bring back lights and colours to the city.

The exhibition "Daniel Buren per Bergamo. Illuminare lo spazio, lavori in situ e situati" (Daniel Buren for Bergamo. Lighting up the space, on site and situated works; on until 20th November) opened indeed last week at the Palazzo della Ragione.

Organised by Galleria d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo (GAMeC), the exhibition features works that move from Buren's first experiments in 1965 with outdoor sun shades.

The French artist used at the time sun shades conceiving them as backgrounds for his minimalist "degree zero" paintings characterised by vertical white and coloured 8.7 cm strips that then turned into the artist's trademark.

There is something unusual for Buren in this Bergamo-based installation - for the first time in his life Buren didn't work in situ. Because of the Coronavirus restrictions he had to reinvent his modus operandi and, like many of us, had to work remotely, providing his instructions from France to the team in Italy.

The installation combines the outdoor shade format with Buren's passion for lights and colourful landscapes. Visitors stepping into the of the Medieval Sala delle Capriate will indeed find themselves in a futuristic environment filled with optical fiber canvases, showcased for the first time in Italy after they were displayed in a number of major European galleries and museums.

The luminous fabrics, in soft pink, grass green, lemon yellow, burnt orange and sky blue and characterised by Buren's trademark stripes and geometrical motifs, create a new spatial dimension and an unprecedented dialogue with the space where they are installed.

The Palazzo was indeed the place where the administrative and judicial functions of the city were performed, but the canvases represent a contrast in this historical location.

The works should be considered as paintings and sculptures from the future that talk to the past, represented by the architectural elements of the palazzo and the frescoes that were removed from the city's houses and churches to be preserved in this space in the 1980s.

Buren's works recontextualise the historical space, while they are also used in a conceptual and metaphorical way: they are here to dispel the darkness of a global pandemic and a local tragedy, they aren't white burial shrouds, but bright fabrics, shining through the night, reminding visitors that the light always follows darkness.

As optical fiber fabrics have already been used in fashion, you naturally wonder if these works will inspire some kind of fashion collaboration in the future.

Time will tell, but, in the meantime, let's hope that these shiny striped canvases and tapestries of minimalist light will bring visitors hope and rekindle a collective sense of wonder that too many of us lost in the worst months of this global pandemic.

Image credits for this post

Images 1, 5 and 10
Daniel Buren, Fibres optiques tissées.
Illuminare lo spazio, lavori in situ e situati, GAMeC, Palazzo della Ragione, Bergamo, 2013 - 2020
© Daniel Buren by SIAE 2020
Photographs by Lorenzo Palmieri

Images 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8 
Daniel Buren, Fibres optiques tissées. Detail
Illuminare lo spazio, lavori in situ e situati, GAMeC, Palazzo della Ragione, Bergamo, 2013 - 2020
© Daniel Buren by SIAE 2020
Photographs by Lorenzo Palmieri

Image 9 
Daniel Buren, Fibres optiques - Vert. K1, Detail
Illuminare lo spazio, lavori in situ e situati, GAMeC, Palazzo della Ragione, Bergamo, 2013 - 2020
© Daniel Buren by SIAE 2020
Photographs by Lorenzo Palmieri

In Embroidery, a Record of Violence: Majd Abdel Hamid's "Tadmur Prison" (2018)

In yesterday's post we looked at an artist who may inspire us how to create works that preserve our memories. Let's continue the thread via the work of another artist who employed a craft to process memories of violence, Majd Abdel Hamid.

Born in Damascus in 1988, Majd Abdel Hamid works between Ramallah and Beirut and employs a wide variety of media in his work, including embroidery, video, installation and sculpture and often tackles complex themes such as national identity and trauma. 

Among his most interesting works there is the series entitled "Tadmur Prison" (2018), inspired by Mustafa Khalifa's book "The Shell: Memoirs of a Hidden Observer". In the latter its author describes the horrors of the Tadmur desert prison in Palmyra, where he spent a decade before being transferred to a different state security jail.

Many entered this prison, but very few left it, then, in 2015, ISIS destroyed it. The news of the destruction of this place did not resonate that much in the international news, but the loss of this brutal place linked with Assad's regime represents for Syrians a negation of memory for those ones who died within its walls.

Hamid created his "Tadmur" series as a way to remember those who never left the prison and to provide a way to process pain for those who survived its horrors.

Moving from the embroidery patterns Palestinians passed down from generation to generation and paying homage to traditions undertaken by women, Hamid embroidered the outline of the prison's architectural blueprint on different pieces of fabric and objects that are usually displayed in exhibitions accompanied with an audio recording of a monologue.

The outline is meticulously repeated on kitchen towels, squares cut out of colourful scarves or random fabric pieces and small objects like a tea sieve. Dimensions may change, but the horror remains through that constant repetition.

There are quite a few parallelisms and juxtapositions in these pieces: the beauty of the craft has been turned into a way to chronicle violence and torture; domestic objects are transformed into sinister maps, while the unseen parts of the embroidered pieces, the back of the cloths with their tangled threads, are conceived as metaphors for the bowels of the prison where lives were destroyed. 

These meditative works invite us to consider the power of crafts to chronicle modern events, but they are also an invitation at embracing a folk art as a way to slow down, decelerate things and process difficult, painful and traumatic memories.

Domestic Architectures as Memories of Time & Space: Füsun Onur's "The Dollhouse"

Our houses - our private spaces - turned into the centres of the universe under the long months of Coronavirus lockdown. As we all know, things can get incredibly claustrophobic when you spend too much time in a confined space. But that same space where we have lived in loneliness or that we have shared with our families or flatmates, could maybe inspire us personal and artistic projects revolving around the themes of memory, time and space. Among the contemporary artists who have explored these theme through an architecturally domestic perspective there is Füsun Onur.

Born in 1938 in Istanbul where she lives and works, Onur has played a key role in the development of modern Turkish art, introducing the avant-garde into the country's artistic landscape in the '70s. Among Onur's most mesmerising pieces there are her maquettes that recreate scenes from her childhood.

"The Dollhouse" (1970s) for example consists in a miniature doll's house, recreated in its finest details. On the outside you can admire the delicate stucco elements over the door and windows that are also characterised by stained glass motifs. The see-through ceiling is a way for Onur to invite viewers in the house, allowing them to peer inside and see handmade furniture and rugs, the kitchen table arranged with plates, cutlery and crockery. 

But the clear ceiling has also got a metaphorical meaning, it is indeed a way for the artist to share her private and domestic sphere, but also her memories, from the happy ones to the saddest, like the loss of her father when she was twelve. Besides, though everything has been perfectly recreated, the final structure proves fragile, a quality that mirrors the fragility of the human condition, while the house becomes also a nostalgic ode to the transitory qualities of childhood.

Memory is also the main subject of another miniature piece by Onur, "Musical Chair" (1976), that features a bright red chair that looks as if it were falling, but suddenly was frozen in time and space. The chair turns slowly thanks to a music box mechanism that reveals a painted figure underneath the chair through small, square windows, almost a ghost-like presence. 

Onur has lived and worked in the same house in Istanbul that overlooks the waters of the Bosphorus where she was born, so incorporating in her artworks childhood memories and objects (clothes, toys, furniture, photographs) as well as found objects collected from its vicinity comes as something natural to her. We could maybe take inspiration from her practice and do the same, collecting objects that have been dear to us in these terrible pandemic, in this year of loss, fear and anxiety, to tell our personal stories of lives suddenly suspended in times and space.

Vintage Mood: A Balletic One-Piece Suit from 1960

Let's continue the thread that started with yesterday's post about overalls and jumpsuits with another "tuta", but with a less casual and more elegant one.

The jumpsuit featured in this post was created by Emilio Pucci in 1960 and, while it still looked practical dynamic (something emphasised by the flat shoes matched with the design in this picture), it was mainly designed for the evening. The jumpsuit featured indeed a top decorated with colourful gems and embroideries and was inspired by ballet and ice skating costumes, but it was essentially the summer version of Pucci's more famous one-piece ski suits (Pucci was the first to design the one-piece ski suit and was a keen sportsman and skier).

"Tutti in Tuta" with Lellasport

When Italian painter and sculptor Ernesto Michahelles, better known as Thayaht, launched his "tuta" (T-shaped overalls), he accompanied this functional garment with a slogan, "Tutti in tuta" (Everbody in overalls). While at the time not everybody opted for his design (yet he still sold over 1,000 "tuta" paper patterns in the first weeks after the launch of this garment), the tuta (with or without sleeves) became a timeless design that never went out of fashion.

One popular producer of this item was the Italian ready-to-wear brand Lellasport. In the '50s this boutique was based in the heart of Milan, in San Pietro all’Orto and it was founded by former ski champion Domenico Lella, with his wife Valeria Carema and his sister Francesca, also known as Cicci. The boutique was a way for Domenico to continue the family tradition since his parents, Michele and Gemma Lella, moved from Bari to Milan where, after the Second World War, they managed a series of popular fashion shops that sold bags and accessories (it may be worth remembering that Domenico's brother Pino had an adventurous life since, as a young man, he joined an under­ground rail­road help­ing Jews escape over the Alps and secretely acted as a spy while working as a driver for a German general - his life is told in Mark Sullivan's novel Beneath a Scarlet Sky).   

The boutique then opened a small workshop in Corsico, followed by a proper factory that started producing its own collections focusing on casual garments and sportswear, including anoraks, jackets, trousers, jumpers and colourful shirts, swimwear and equestrian clothing.

Cicci continued working for Lellasport when Domenico died in 1974 and also founded her own brand Cicci R. Lella. Lellasport ceased to exist in 1998 when it was incorporated in another company. 

The two jumpsuits, published in this post were produced when Lellasport was extremely popular, in 1960, the first one was dedicated to dynamic women who loved bright colours, it came indeed in a bold sherbet yellow shade, it was cinched at the waist with a belt and characterised by an ample sailor collar (in this picture the design was accessorised with a large wicker basket bag by Sala).

The second image featured in this post shows instead another Lellasport design, a sleeveless and fitted jumpsuit in denim blue, but with a twist added - the fabric chosen for this garment was indeed shantung that subverted the basic minimalism of the design and made it look more elegant.

Comics & Fashion Photography: Mike Allred Vs Ormond Gigli

Yesterday we looked at a vintage advert for a Milan-based boutique by an illustrator who became a comic book artist. So for today let's continue the same thread by looking at a comic book cover inspired by an iconic fashion photograph.

Mike Allred's Batman ‘66 style variant cover for Justice League #31 (August 2014; reused for the Italian edition of the Universo DC anthology, View this photo), features Superman, Flash, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Batman and Atom all standing on the window ledges of a building, while Robin waits in the Batmobile downstairs.

The neatly composed cover in bold and bright colours is an homage to Ormond Gigli's iconic "New York City (Girls in the Windows)". A photographer for Time, Life, Paris Match among the others, Gigli took this picture in the summer of 1960 on New York's East 58th Street.

From his studio he saw this brownstone building that was being prepared for demolition and, by looking at the open windows, he thought it would have been nice to have a woman in colourful clothes standing there to fill that empty void.

The demoltion supervisor granted him the permission to shoot as long as they cast his wife (which they did) and the next day models, socialites and also Gigli's wife turned up in their best dresses (so nothing was styled) and the photographer took the picture standing on the fire escape of the opposite building.

The result was an impressive shot that looks beautiful even now, 60 years after it was taken, and that is still an inspiration not just for photographers and creatives working in the fashion industries, but also for comic book artists as Mike Allred's artwork proves.

Early Guido Crepax Art in a 1960 Swimwear Advert

It is always exciting to spot examples of early works by illustrators who then went on to become well-known artists. This advert from 1960 was for example created by Guido Crepax. 

Born in Milan in 1933, Crepax was an architect and first started working as an illustrator, creating artworks for magazines, record covers, adverts and books and giving life to his most famous character - Valentina - in 1965. He was known for his adverts for Dunlop tyres and Terital textiles, but this specific advert was for swimwear sold at the Biraghi boutique in Milan.   

This is a very architectural drawing in a way: it is indeed a vertical advert with the figure of a woman sunbathing on an inflatable floating bed, occuping the entire space. This scene would have been maybe depicted in a more traditional way using a horizontal layout or portraying the woman standing in an ordinary pose. Yet that would have been less entertaining and eye-catching, so Crepax subverted this simple concept, making the figure more interesting, turning her around and matching to her graphic swimsuit a spiky swimming cap that looks like an extravagant headdress. The advert layout anticipates the architectural frames of Crepax's Valentina graphic novels, while his attention to the most fashionable details developed throughout the years into his famous heroine's passion for fashion.

A Vintage Pattern for June

Since April we started posting one vintage sewing pattern a month. For June let's opt for something super simple in case you were caught off guard by the sudden heatwave and you didn't have time to shop because you were in a Coronavirus lockdown.

This short tunic dress (a pattern from 1960) is ideal for the beach and you can opt to make it in a light fabric such as cotton, linen, jersey or shantung (if you want to go for a slightly more elegant option). If you opt for a boatneck you will avoid having to put a zip or buttons in the back and you can also add some side slits to make the dress in record time.

The following pattern, published on an issue of the Italian magazine Annabella, was designed for an Italian 46 size (size 14 in the UK; and 12 in the USA) and each square corresponds to 10 cm. [Parts: 1. Sleeves; 2. Half back; 3. Half front; 4. Belt]. Enjoy the June project!  

Vibrant Florals in a 1960 Cole of California Summer Dress

Let's continue the Summer inspiration that started with yesterday's post with a dress from 1960. This model characterised by a white bustier with green flower stems and a floral print of bright red and pink carnations on the ruched bra and skirt was produced by Cole of California. 

As you may remember from a previous post, the company was launched by Fred Cole in 1923 and brought excitement to swimwear, collaborating with Hollywood costume designer Margit Fellegi, and even producing swimwear for Christian Dior. 

The Cole of California products were mainly influenced and inspired by the lifestyle of sunny California, as proved by this dress that was ideal for the day thanks to its energetic colours and perfect for the evening as well, maybe enriched with a necklace with semiprecious stones or crystals in bold and bright colours à la Coppola e Toppo. And you, what will you be wearing this Summer?

An Exotic Inspiration for the Summer (with a Question about Design Education)

The summer season has finally arrived, maybe confusing most of us who have come out of lockdown between May and June, leaving us under the impression that we went from Winter to Summer, with Spring lost in digital whirlwind of Zoom meetings, online classes and Instagram stories. It is hard to think about Summer in a post-Coronavirus (are we really in a "post" phase?) world, as while some countries seem to be coming out of the worst, others are still struggling or have relapsed into it.

So, let's try at least to get into the summer spirit with this vibrant parrot silk satin textile from 1920. It was designed by Paul Poiret and manufactured by La Maison Martine (it is currently preserved in the Met Museum archives).

Owned and operated by Poiret, La Martine opened in April 1911 (so maybe it would be worthy to celebrate its 110th anniverary next year with an exhibition...). It included an experimental school for working-class girls, the École Martine; the design studio Atelier Martine, producing textiles and wallpapers, carpets, lighting, hand-painted glassware, ceramics, and even dolls dressed in Poiret's designs; and the retail and interior design service of the business called La Maison Martine.

While the shop at first only opened in Paris, by the early 1920s, there were branches in Marseille, Cannes, Biarritz, Deauville, La Baule, London, and Vienna, and the products were promoted and sold in department stores in America and Germany. The story of the Maison Martine could actually be inspiring to think about the future of education and of the design disciplines. Coronavirus has had an impact on education, with students all over the world staying at home and following classes online, and on retail as well as shops closed down. In future and to put emphasis on the physical, rather the digital environment, would it be worth it to reform the education and create schools with design studio and retail options attached? Maybe this could be an interesting topic for a debate that could be developed over the summer season.