Fashion as social energy

At Palazzo Morando, Milan, 14 artists represent clothing a a form of social energy, able to act as catalysts for change encompassing desire, needs, and critical angles on the present.

4. Kimsooja, <i>Mumbai A Laundry Field</i>, ProductionStill, 2007, courtesy Galleria Raffaella Cortese

The exhibition “Fashion as social energy” presents at Palazzo Morando the work of fourteen international artists who are particularly sensitive to contemporary transformations in society: Luigi Coppola and Marzia Migliora, Rä di Martino, Mella Jaarsma, Kimsooja, Claudia Losi, Lucy+Jorge Orta, Maria Papadimitriou, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Kateřina Šedá, Nasan Tur, Otto von Busch, Wurmkos and Bassa Sartoria, Andrea Zittel.

Michelangelo Pistoletto, <i>Venere degli Stracci</i>, 1967, cemento, mica e stracci, 150x280x100cm. Courtesy Cittadellarte Fondazione Pistoletto, Biella — **Top**: Kimsooja, *Mumbai A Laundry Field*, Production Still, 2007, courtesy Galleria Raffaella Cortese. **Above**: Michelangelo Pistoletto, *Venere degli Stracci*, 1967, cement, mica and rags, 150x280x100cm. Courtesy Cittadellarte Fondazione Pistoletto, Biella

In these works clothing does not merely represent the possibilities of individual and social identification but stimulates reflections on many current issues such as: mobility and migrancy, ethnic hybridization, the transience of beauty, the fragmentation of communities and relations between individuals, working conditions in a globalised world, the freedom to disengage from all absorbing cycles of consumption, the potential of shared practices.

When interpreted by artists, fashion reveals a world of untold stories, between ethics and aesthetics, activates for new creative and social energy, of forces able to unhinge habits, undermining conventions and generating new visions and possibilities.

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Wurmkos and Bassa Sartoria, Vestimi, performance, Farmacia Wurmkos, 2014. Photo Antonio Maniscalco

Left: Marzia Migliora, Luigi Coppola, Io in testa, 2013, lamba print 110 x 180 cm. Photo Francesco Niccolai. Courtesy the artists and Teatro Valle Occupato, Nomas Foundation Roma. Right: Rä Di Martino, The Show MAS Go On, HD Video 31', 2013

Left: Mella Jaarsma, The packing Order, 2015, stuffed chicken, chicken skin, self-supporting structure in stainless steel, 180x80x80cm. Right: Claudia Losi, Balena Project, Letter Jacket, George Hollander, 2012/2015, Photo Andrea Rossetti, jackets, fabric and mixed media, dimensions variable

Nasan Tur, Demonstration-Backpack, 2006, installation: backpacks, fabric, mixed media, 100x40x50

Maria Papadimitriou, The Costume of Yorgos Maga, silk fabric, cotton fabric, gold and white thread, beads. Installation view, “DESTEFASHIONCOLLECTION: 1 to 8”, DESTE Foundation in collaboration with the Benaki Museum, Athens (June 25 – October 12, 2014), Photo Matthew Monteith. Courtesy DESTE Foundation Athens

Andrea Zittel, Raugh Furniture; Consumption and Expulsion, Artifacts from David's Back Yard, Joshua Tree California, 20072 dummies, aluminum, spruce laminate, mat, bowl felt, found objects, 183x368cm and 72x145cm, Courtesy Galleria Massimo De Carlo, Milano/Londra

May 29 – August 30,2015
Fashion as social energy
curated by Anna Detheridge and Gabi Scardi
promoted by Comune di Milano | Cultura, Servizio Musei Storici
organized by Connecting Cultures
under the patronage of Camera Nazionale della Moda
in partnership with Ermenegildo Zegna
Palazzo Morando | Costume Moda Immagine
via Sant’Andrea 6, Milano

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