Rather than just focusing on runway shows, people going to fashion weeks should try and find the time to visit some exhibitions as well (in some of the previous posts we already previewed some events that may be of interest to creative minds who are into fashion and design and that will coincide with the September shows). People heading to Milan will get the chance to visit "The Last Days in Galliate", showcasing the works of Leonor Antunes (14th September 2018 - 13th January 2019), an event that has a connection with fashion or rather with some of the techniques behind fashion.
Antunes is known for her sculptures inspired by the Modernist tradition in its most radical and experimental instances. The artist's modus operandi is based on a research on different projects of artists, architects and designers: after studying the proportions and dimensions they use and taking into consideration details and fragments sampled from them, Antunes creates her own work.
Antunes' works are therefore enriched with two powerful forces, memory and tradition: her sculptures are indeed based on existing elements that connect a specific time and cultural context to the society and historical moment we are living in.
The artist favours in her works natural and organic materials such as rope, wood, leather, brass, rubber, and cork, among others, as the traces of time passing remain visible on their surfaces.
The techniques employed by Antunes are borrowed from the artisanal tradition: the braiding methods used by South America's native tribes, the Murano glass-blowing technique, the patterns of the fishermen's nets from her homeland, Portugal, as well as the specific skills of saddlers, carpenters, or blacksmiths. Through her pieces the artist hopes to preserve and hand down knowledge and traditional skills.
In Antunes' works it is indeed possible to spot a wide range of references often pointing at women's artists, including Anni Albers and her avant-garde graphic and textile art; Italian-born Brazili-based architect Lina Bo Bardi, well-known for the SESC Pompeia and the Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP); and the Cuban artist Clara Porset, a pupil of the artist Josef Albers, who moved to Mexico and undertook an in-depth research into the country's local folklore.
At Pirelli HangarBicocca Antunes' works are going to fill the 1,400 square meters of the Shed, a space transformed by an intervention covering the floor with a linoleum intarsia, inspired by a design by Anni Albers with colours evoking floors by architect and designer Gio Ponti.
In other sculptures Antunes employed an immaterial material - light: the opening of eight skylight windows on the roof of the exhibition space letting natural light in will be juxtaposed to the artificial lighting provided by a series of brass lamp-sculptures inspired by some of Anni Albers' designs.
Milan and its rich Modernist tradition, in particular the work of architects Franca Helg and Franco Albini, inspired Antunes with a research into a collaboration from the 1950s-'60s between the Studio Albini-Helg and Vittorio Bonacina, an interior design company kown for its production of rattan and rattan-core furniture.
The influence of Franca Helg and of the pieces of furniture conceived by the designer for Bonacina is also clear in the suspended sculptures made in rattan, conversing with a group of brass works featuring similar shapes.
There is actually an even stronger connection with Helg in the title of the exhibition - "The Last Days in Galliate": Helg had planned and built a house for her parents overlooking Lake Varese and the Alpine foothills, where she spent the final years of her life.
The title represents also a sort of sequel to another event Antunes held at the Kunsthalle in Basel in 2013 that was dedicated to Clara Porset who spent the last years of her life in the Chimalistac district of Mexico City (and that was titled "The Last Days in Chimalistac"; Porset is also homaged at the Milan event via a series of sculptures in wood and rope placed directly on the floor of the exhibition space).
But there's more to see at the Pirelli HangarBicocca – from hanging and modular sculptures made in black, green, ochre, white and gold-painted brass which introduce the exhibition route (alterated climbing form I, II, III, IV, 2017) and are inspired by a small 1954 relief, "Climbing Form" by British artist Mary Martin, to knotted abstract sculptures in leather and rope homaging Eva Hesse.
While the techniques employed by Antunes may be intriguing for fashion designers and fans (how long till she will be co-opted by brands à la Loewe?) and Leonor Antunes's works are currently very trendy being part of the group exhibition entitled "Machines à penser", now on at the Fondazione Prada in Venice (until 25th November 2018), the artist's pieces should also be studied from a conceptual point of view. They could indeed be interpreted as an exploration of the moment we are living in and of the social role of art and design as means of emancipation and improvement in the quality of life.
Leonor Antunes' "The Last Days in Galliate", Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan, Italy, from 14th September 2018 to 13th January 2019.
Image credits for this post
1.
Leonor Antunes
villa Mallet-Stevens, 2011 (detail)
Installation view, Fundação de Serralves, Porto, 2011
Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin
Photo: Teresa Santos & Pedro Tropa © Fundação de Serralves
2.
Leonor Antunes
villa Mallet-Stevens, 2011
Installation view, Fundação de Serralves, Porto, 2011
Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin
Photo: Teresa Santos & Pedro Tropa © Fundação de Serralves
3.
Leonor Antunes
a secluded and pleasant land, in this land I wish to dwell, 2015
Installation view, 8th Berlin Biennial, 2015
Courtesy of the artist and the 8th Berlin Biennial
Photo: Nick Ash
4.
Leonor Antunes
Exhibition view, "the last days in chimalistac", Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, 2013
Courtesy of the artist and Kunsthalle Basel
Photo: Nick Ash
5.
Leonor Antunes
Exhibition view, "discrepancias con C.P.", Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, 2018
Courtesy of the artist, Museo Tamayo and kurimanzutto, Mexico City
Photo: Nick Ash
6.
Leonor Antunes
porta, 2011
Installation view, Fundação de Serralves, Porto, 2011
Courtesy of the artist and Air de Paris, Paris
Photo: Teresa Santos & Pedro Tropa © Fundação de Serralves
7.
Leonor Antunes
porta, 2011 (detail)
Installation view, Fundação de Serralves, Porto, 2011
Courtesy of the artist and Air de Paris, Paris
Photo: Teresa Santos & Pedro Tropa © Fundação de Serralves
8.
Leonor Antunes Exhibition view, "Leonor Antunes: I Stand Like A Mirror Before You", New Museum, New York, 2015
Courtesy of New Museum, New York
Photo: Maris Hutchinson
9.
Leonor Antunes
so then we raised the terrain so that I could see out, 2017
Installation view, 57a Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, 2017
Courtesy of the artist; Air de Paris, Paris; kurimanzutto, Mexico City and Luisa
Strina Gallery, São Paulo
Photo: Nick Ash
10.
Leonor Antunes
so then we raised the terrain so that I could see out, 2017
Installation view, 57a Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, 2017
Courtesy of the artist; Air de Paris, Paris; kurimanzutto, Mexico City and Luisa
Strina Gallery, São Paulo
Photo: Nick Ash
11.
Leonor Antunes
so then we raised the terrain so that I could see out, 2017
Installation view, 57a Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, 2017
Courtesy of the artist; Air de Paris, Paris; kurimanzutto, Mexico City and Luisa
Strina Gallery, São Paulo
Photo: Nick Ash
12.
Leonor Antunes
Exhibition view, "the pliable plan", CAPC musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, 2015
Courtesy of the artist and the CAPC, Bordeaux
Photo: Nick Ash
13.
Leonor Antunes
Exhibition view, "the pliable plan", CAPC musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, 2015
Courtesy of the artist and the CAPC, Bordeaux
Photo: Nick Ash
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