LOVE SITUATIONS BY MUSTAFA SABBAGH

Posted on May 16 in NEWS by costanza_v

For the first time in his career, Jordanian artist Mustafa Sabbagh will be visiting Milan at the Format Gallery exhibiting his works of medium and large format, some unpublished, and specially produced for this occasion. Mustafa, through a clever use of portraits and landscapes depicts a harmony of relationships. His images tell the story of individuals but also of couples. He blends a harmonious knowledge of the other partner as they are portrayed living together, separated, absent or neglected.

The images of Mustafa Sabbagh, mainly autobiographical, share an intimate perspective on relationships with their audience. The artist has developed an aesthetic of emotions in their sublime depiction: troubled, anxious and fascinating at the same time. The dresses and costumes are like a second skin which dramatize his images containing and corrupting the senses. In his world, objects are an integral part of the language that is the vessel of relationship with others.

His art is never limited to a game of meanings but instead shows the abyss – staring into the melting pot on the horizon. In observing the images of landscape, nightlife, beaches, forests, skies and mists, and also of his nudes, we are dealing with pure expressions of void. Mustafa Sabbagh’s focus on unconscious emotions continues to create an abstract view of the physical and mental health of objects to reflect the inner soul of his images.

Federico Poletti

VINTAGE ERGO SUM

Posted on May 7 in NEWS by costanza_v

Il fascino del passato e la moda oggi

“Il “vecchio”, reale o apparente, salverà questo mondo troppo assetato di nuovo.” (James Hillmann)

Ormai è un dato certo che la memoria crea stile. Il cosiddetto “effetto nostalgia” ha contaminato ogni aspetto della contemporaneità ed è sufficiente digitare la parola magica “vintage” su qualsiasi motore di ricerca che i risultati sono talmente numerosi , tra blog, siti e forum, da rischiare di farci perdere la strada nei meandri della rete.

Questo termine, accolto nel gergo comune della moda negli anni ’90 per sostituire le più datate e conosciute definizioni di “usato” e “seconda mano”, introducendovi il concetto di rarità o comunque di selezione tra gli indumenti retrò, oggi è un fenomeno che esce dalla sua dimensione di nicchia, che agli esordi individuava un segmento specifico di mercato, per abbracciare significati semantici e di prodotto molto più ampi e complessi.

Infatti una delle tendenze di costume sociale ed economico più oggetto di studio del terzo millennio è proprio il vintage marketing[1], che oggi esamina con estremo interesse la spinta  verso questa tensione critica sempre più invasiva tra passato e presente, sfociata in una sorta di melting pot globale postmoderno saturo di forme comunicative eterogenee, oscillanti tra innovazione e continui sguardi al passato. Mode e tendenze provenienti da ogni decennio del secolo scorso e anche da epoche precedenti, vengono incessantemente analizzate, scannerizzate, fagocitate e riproposte in ovvi oppure in inediti déjà-vu, che hanno contagiato molte aree del contemporaneo. Moda, architettura, design, cinema, musica, televisione, gastronomia, tecnologia, obbediscono alla nuova formula matematico-simbolica “uno più uno uguale tre” vale a dire: “prendere il meglio dal passato per fonderlo col meglio del presente ed avere come risultato qualcosa di superiore.” [2]

In quest’ottica il fenomeno del “vintage” vero e proprio e dello “stile vintage” da esso derivato, attraverso la tecnica del “copy and paste” e del rapporto emozionale con il tempo, diventano pura espressione dell’estetica postmoderna.

Vari spunti di riflessione sono stati offerti da due importanti eventi culturali che si sono svolti  tra il 2011 e il 2012: le rassegne “Postmodernism. Style and Subversion, 1970-1990” tenutasi al Victoria and Albert Museum di Londra e “Schiaparelli & Prada. Impossible Conversations” da poco conclusa al Metropolitan di New York. [3] Senza volerlo le due mostre sono collegate fra loro da un fil rouge semantico e culturale, nell’esplicitare il trionfo del gusto citazionista/revisionista e nel sottolineare che il tempo e la storia procedono sempre di più secondo uno sviluppo circolare e non sequenziale, con continue deviazioni di percorso e di scarti cronologici, che ci proiettano all’interno di una trama spazio/tempo “reticolare”, immagine stessa della complessità contemporanea. [4]

Il postmodernismo nell’esibizione londinese viene presentato come un movimento di reazione e di opposizione all’ortodossia del razionalismo modernista fondato sul perpetuo rinnovarsi dei linguaggi, assumendo una presa di posizione epocale contro il purismo del “moderno”, percepito come totalitario ed univoco. La produzione artistica postmoderna vi appare più come ‘campo’ consapevolmente aperto a interferenze culturali che come uno stile preciso, fenomeno spiazzante basato sulla molteplicità stilistica, che riscopre la valenza liberatoria di pratiche precedentemente condannate quali l’eclettismo e il revival,  sia nella sua fase più “storica” (dagli anni 70 agli ’80) che nel sua fase di dilatazione temporale che giunge fino all’oggi.[5]

Leggi tutto il testo Vintage Ergo Sum [.pdf].

Aurora Fiorentini

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[1] C. Meo, Vintage Marketing. Effetto nostalgia e passato remoto come nuove tecniche commerciali, Milano, Il Sole 24 Ore  2010; cfr. S. Brown, Post Modern Marketing, New York, Routledge 1995

[2] C. Meo, Vintage Marketing, cit. pag. 23

[3] G. Adamson, J. Pavitt, Postmodernism. Style and Subversion, 1970-1990, London, V&A Publishing  2011; A. Bolton, H. Koda, Schiaparelli & Prada. Impossible Conversations, New York,  Yale University Press 2012

[4] A. Giannone, P. Calefato, Manuale di comunicazione, sociologia e cultura della moda, Volume V. Performance, Roma, Meltemi 2007, pag. 114

[5] G. Fabris, “Modernita addio? La genesi del nuovo consumatore”, in Il Nuovo consumatore: verso il postmoderno, Milano, Franco Angeli 2003, pag.13

VISIONICA

Posted on April 24 in EVENTS by costanza_v

During the event Fuori Salone 2013, the media library of Santa Teresa in Milan hosted the most interesting lab of Milan Design Week, presented by VisionLab – Triennale Milano, curated by Alberto Pizzati Caiani.

The theme was “the ability to see what is not visible, but is there …”.
VISIONICA aims to “uncover different places and visionary senses in otherwise unexplored scenarios” involving the public in new sensory experiences, experimenting participation and reactions to image, sound and technology proposed by artists and scientists who work with their facilities, ensuring high levels of engagement and interaction.

One of the most interesting projects for the contest was definitely Brainwave – a Torrevado project by Roberto Dal Bosco. The Meditative Video Device (DVM) is an innovative installation designed to conduct people into a state of total relaxation and contemplation. The DVM reveals the state of mind of the viewer, training them to control it in order to achieve peace and relaxation. The DVM is based on non-invasive technology and is immediate, acting as a simple “game” where the joystick function is replaced by brain waves.

Federico Poletti

MAURER & MELNIKOV @ MILAN DESIGN WEEK 2013

Posted on April 18 in EVENTS by costanza_v

Two interestingly distant worlds trying to communicate with the Krizia exhibition space during Design Week 2013. On the one hand the work of Ingo Maurer, with its magical light creations that combine LED and synthetic materials. His new designs: Candle in the Wind, presented as an LED chandelier and table lamp; Zak Zarak, an articulate LED table lamp composed of magnets, plastic and aluminum; Biotope, a one-off installation where nature meets illumination and acoustics, and a new exploration of the OLED technology.

On the other hand, the exhibition is dedicated to the preservation of the architectural heritage left by the great Russian avant-garde architect Konstantin Melnikov, in order to generate interest in his work, not only among young architects and designers, but also for the wider creative community . The exhibition presents the buildings built by Melnikov in Moscow in the years 1924-1936, among which there is also his home. The exhibition presents contemporary photographs of the buildings, but also original Melninkov sketches and drawings. Part of the exhibition is dedicated to the works of the participants in the architectural competition “Avangard”, a project for a new type of stop station of urban transport in Moscow, scheduled for introduction in the near future on the major arteries of the city.

Federico Poletti

HYERES 2013

Posted on April 11 in EVENTS by costanza_v

28th International Festival of Fashion & Photography Hyères THE FESTIVAL

Through parallel fashion and photography competitions, the Festival International de Mode et de Photographie à Hyères, directed by Jean-Pierre Blanc since its creation 28 years ago, gathers every year under the spotlight ten young fashion designers and ten young photographers under the patronage of an international jury.

An observatory of trends as well as an international launching pad, the Hyères festival has showcased, more than 300 first-time collections by new fashion designers from all over the world and exhibited the works of over 130 young and innovative photographers. On every edition, the festival presents at the Villa Noailles —the landmark cubist villa built in the 1920’s by Mallet-Stevens — several exhibitions that explore the permeating boundaries between art, photography and fashion.

The festival’s aim is to offer young talents a genuine professional opportunity by providing them with material and logistical support, as well as profitable contacts and intensive media exposure. The general public is invited to vote after the fashion shows for an audience award.

All exhibitions are admission-free and remain open until end of May.

Festival – April 26-29, 2013
Exhibitions – until May 26
competition / exhibitions / encounters

www.villanoailles-hyeres.com/fr/actualites

SCROLL, CLICK, CROP…

Posted on March 3 in NEWS by linda loppa

TEXT BY CHELSEA KOZAK

Life Number One:

Wake up and your daily ritual commences. Go to sleep and the cycle continues. This is your sequence; all of the physical and mental experiences that fabricate who you are and divide you from who you are not… the period from birth until death, the period of your existence.

Life Number Two:

Scroll, click, crop, upload, repeat. This is your assembled reality just how you adore it, as clean and sophisticated or as chaotic and anarchic, as you want to be. Perfect digital snapshots of who you think you are, the you that you deserve. Say hello to your alter ego and welcome to your second life.

At its most basic level, a glitch is the result of digital miscommunication from sender to receiver during the transcoding of information. Glitches are random and chaotic; a temporary malfunction or irregularity; an error in a structured system; an unexpected setback in your plan, a hitch, a snag. While glitches theoretically refer to computing, electronics and circuit bending, I comprehend something else entirely.

Your manipulated digital life is promoted impeccably on all of your social media platforms daily. This is your digital idealism. The more we fabricate ourselves into the screen, the more blurred the pixels of truth become. We pick and choose what we want our lovers, our acquaintances and our rivals to imagine. We have forgotten how exquisitely beautiful the truth really is; the sweet delicacy of the everyday errors in our lives; the curious and lovely psychological glitches that have hacked our living software. The jagged lines, the inverted colors and the misplaced squares that shadow every step we take. There are too many buttons in the world and they are begging to be pressed, start pressing the right ones. Start transmitting the signals of your truth from the pavement onto the screen. No content, just imperfection. Indulge the flaws and embrace the errors.

-Photo taken and work written by Chelsea Kozak