Art and fashion, in Forlì the two universes in eternal dialogue

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An immediate association for those who do this job, art and fashion, fashion and art, and the question of questions Is fashion art?
The doubt is legitimate, the answer that appears less obvious today, in an age in which creativity is a certificate acquired more for notoriety than for experience and talent even outside one’s own field.

Overcoming the easy controversies, the evidence is the answer: the two areas chase each other, overlap and mirror each other in the centuries in which clothes have represented real aesthetic constructions, micro-architectures, representations of power, expressions of cultural revolutions, the story of a era.

San Domenico Civic Museum in Forlì

In a rich journey through this double story, the exhibition The art of Fashion. The Age of Revolutions, 1789-1968 at the San Domenico Civic Museum in Forlì, until 2 July 2023, like in the mirror, it connects art with fashion: from the French Revolution to Pop Art, up to the contemporary. Over 200 masterpieces of art and 100 dresses from the most important Italian and international museums together with the masterpieces of the most prestigious Italian fashion houses interact in an impressive exhibition from a visual point of view but also in terms of meaning. An exhibition itinerary designed by the Lucchi&Biserni studio which develops in the former church of San Giacomo towards the rooms on the first floor of the ancient convent library.

Over the centuries the relationship between painting, sculpture and fashion becomes more intense and significant, across three centuries: from the Ancien Régime to the second half of the twentieth century. Art represents fashion, fashion represents society and relationships, aspirations and social changes, the idea of ​​femininity that will become feminism and awareness. An exchange in which fashion is “formalized” by art until it becomes art itself. Gianfranco Ferrè’s Orlando A/W 2001-02 shirt clarifies intellectual doubts with the mastery of the fabric cut that recalls the drapery of Bernini’s Pietà , of the Veiled Christ who in turn have recreated the fabrics in their movements as well as in their most intimate meaning. The creations of Dior, Armani, Lanvin, Balestra, Gucci, Maison Valentino, like austere ancient statues anticipate, follow and dialogue with works such as the elegant portrait of Selene Taccioli Ruga by Francesco Hayez, Une Soirée by Jean Beraud, the surface by Giuseppe Capogrossi which inspired the cape by Renato Balestra, Woman and anemones (1920-1921) by Henry Matisse, next to the Waistcoat by Marinetti ( 1923 – 1924) by Fortunato Depero, the colors and geometries of Mondrian. And then Boccioni, the Great composition A with black, red, gray, yellow and blue (1919) by Piet Mondrian, the Delphos in silk with velvet surcoat (about 1920) by Mariano Fortuny in dialogue with a Kore from ancient Eleusis, and the “Linea Assira” day dress (1961) by Germana Marucelli and an original evening dress by Elsa Schiaparelli.

Colossal and intimate, the exhibition is the first of its kind. Gorgeous is the right term. Conceived and created by the Cassa dei Risparmi di Forlì Foundation in collaboration with the Municipality of Forlì and the San Domenico Civic Museum, the exhibition is directed by Gianfranco Brunelli and curated by Cristina Acidini, Enrico Colle, Fabiana Giacomotti and Fernando Mazzocca.