Emiliano Maggi. The Club
26 March 2019
Emiliano Maggi, Velvet Gloves on Ribbon Bows, 2019. Courtesy Operativa, Roma. Ph. Sebastiano Luciano
Emiliano Maggi, Doublet Silk Sleeve, 2019. Installation view, Nomas Foundation, Rome. Courtesy of Operativa, Rome. Ph. Claudia Caprotti
Emiliano Maggi, Purple Heart, Silk Glove, 2019. Installation view, Nomas Foundation, Rome. Courtesy of Operativa, Rome. Ph. Claudia Caprotti
Emiliano Maggi, Lady in Green Silk, 2019. Installation view, Nomas Foundation, Rome. Courtesy of Operativa, Rome. Ph. Claudia Caprotti
Emiliano Maggi, Lady in Pleated Collar, 2019. Installation view, Nomas Foundation, Rome. Courtesy of Operativa, Rome. Ph. Claudia Caprotti
Emiliano Maggi, Green Silk Sleeve with Black Moth Glove, 2019. Installation view, Nomas Foundation, Rome. Courtesy of Operativa, Rome. Ph. Claudia Caprotti
Emiliano Maggi, Pink Satin Petals Sleeve, 2019. Installation view, Nomas Foundation, Rome. Courtesy of Operativa, Rome. Ph. Claudia Caprotti
Emiliano Maggi. The Club. Installation view, Nomas Foundation, Rome. Courtesy of Operativa, Rome. Ph. Claudia Caprotti
Emiliano Maggi. The Club. Installation view, Nomas Foundation, Rome. Courtesy of Operativa, Rome. Ph. Claudia Caprotti
Emiliano Maggi. The Club. Installation view, Nomas Foundation, Rome. Courtesy of Operativa, Rome. Ph. Claudia Caprotti
Emiliano Maggi, Pink White Satin Sleeve, 2019. Installation view, Nomas Foundation, Rome. Courtesy of Operativa, Rome. Ph. Claudia Caprotti
Emiliano Maggi. The Club. Installation view, Nomas Foundation, Rome. Courtesy of Operativa, Rome. Ph. Claudia Caprotti
Emiliano Maggi, Blue Silk Jabot, 2019. Installation view, Nomas Foundation, Rome. Courtesy of Operativa, Rome. Ph. Claudia Caprotti
Emiliano Maggi. The Club. Installation view, Nomas Foundation, Rome. Courtesy of Operativa, Rome. Ph. Claudia Caprotti
Emiliano Maggi. The Club. Installation view, Nomas Foundation, Rome. Courtesy of Operativa, Rome. Ph. Claudia Caprotti
Emiliano Maggi. The Club. Installation view, Nomas Foundation, Rome. Courtesy of Operativa, Rome. Ph. Claudia Caprotti
Emiliano Maggi, Purple Doublet Actor, 2019. Installation view, Nomas Foundation, Rome. Courtesy of Operativa, Rome. Ph. Claudia Caprotti
Emiliano Maggi. The Club. Installation view, Nomas Foundation, Rome. Courtesy of Operativa, Rome. Ph. Claudia Caprotti
Emiliano Maggi, Red Armour, 2019. Installation view, Nomas Foundation, Rome. Courtesy of Operativa, Rome. Ph. Claudia Caprotti
Emiliano Maggi, Imperial Blue Sleeve, 2019. Installation view, Nomas Foundation, Rome. Courtesy of Operativa, Rome. Ph. Claudia Caprotti
Emiliano Maggi. The Club. Installation view, Nomas Foundation, Rome. Courtesy of Operativa, Rome. Ph. Claudia Caprotti
Emiliano Maggi, Velvet Gloves on Ribbon Bows, 2019. Installation view, Nomas Foundation, Rome. Courtesy of Operativa, Rome. Ph. Claudia Caprotti
Emiliano Maggi, Velvet Mauve Trunk Hose, 2019. Installation view, Nomas Foundation, Rome. Courtesy of Operativa, Rome. Ph. Claudia Caprotti
Emiliano Maggi. The Club. Installation view, Nomas Foundation, Rome. Courtesy of Operativa, Rome. Ph. Claudia Caprotti
Emiliano Maggi. The Club. Installation view, Nomas Foundation, Rome. Courtesy of Operativa, Rome. Ph. Claudia Caprotti
Emiliano Maggi, Alla Modo, Tiles series, 2019. Installation view, Nomas Foundation, Rome. Courtesy of Operativa, Rome. Ph. Claudia Caprotti
Emiliano Maggi, Alla Modo, Tiles series, 2019. Installation view, Nomas Foundation, Rome. Courtesy of Operativa, Rome. Ph. Claudia Caprotti
Emiliano Maggi, Lady in Blue Silk, 2019. Installation view, Nomas Foundation, Rome. Courtesy of Operativa, Rome. Ph. Claudia Caprotti
Emiliano Maggi, Lady in Pink Satin, 2019. Installation view, Nomas Foundation, Rome. Courtesy of Operativa, Rome. Ph. Claudia Caprotti
Curated by Raffaella Frascarelli
The Club is part of the Grand Tour Contemporaneo, an initiative created on the occasion of the 58th Venice Biennale by the Committee for Italian Contemporary Art Foundations.
April 16 - September 20, 2019
July 16 - August 2, 2019 opening by appointment only, writing at info@nomasfoundation.com within 48 hours before your visit
August 6 - September 10, 2019 summer break
opening: April 15, 2019, from 6.00 pm
Nomas Foundation, viale Somalia 33, Rome
As Judith Butler writes “If the body is not a 'being' but a variable boundary, a surface whose permeability is politically regulated, a signifying practice within a cultural field of gender hierarchy and compulsory heterosexuality, then what language is left for understanding this corporeal enactment, gender, that constitutes its ‘interior’ signification on its surface?â€
The artistic research of Emiliano Maggi crosses the question and expands to reveal a personal linguistic strategy in which the body acts as a device to explore the socio-cultural potentiality of gender fluidity. Eluding the hegemonic boundaries imposed by the binary vision, the body is transformed into a domain able to experiment not one, but infinite technologies of the self that manifest themselves in the mutability of clothing and masking.
The artist's imagination creates experiences of embodiment made of fabrics that enfold, undress, transform, free, clothes that become skin. Costumes, masking, music, dance, sculpture to access forms of knowledge that go beyond body barriers and lead to the discovery of the symbolic dimension of the world and of the unconscious mechanisms influencing our construction of society to the point of legitimizing inequalities and power relations.
During this process of unveiling, a metamorphosis devoid of authority takes place subverting the space of habitus, and creating the eros of a social game free from any rule and determined not to mark any territory: the effects of the simulacrum society nullified, imagination and body return human to the real, appeal to the participation of the personal and collective unconscious, expand the art into the social space.
The artist has recognized the aesthetic vocabulary of The Club in the creativity of Alessandro Michele for Gucci. The Club's material vocabulary is Gucci's fabrics and clothing, a living matter already in the moment it is imagined by fashion designers. This vitality grows exponentially through every step that will bring the original creation closer to the metamorphosis resulting it to be a Gucci dress: in the alchemical/archaic moment of weaving, in the geometric/algebraic phase of cutting, in the body/philosophical time of sewing, in the magical instant when it becomes a second skin capable of manifesting the inner horizon of the wearer.
Thanks to the support of Gucci, technical sponsor of The Club, a series of special events:
April 15th performance of Emiliano Maggi his band
May 2nd workshop of fashion drawing along with students of the academy
June 5th performance of collective sewing with Gucci fabrics
Emiliano Maggi (Rome 1977) lives and works in Rome. Rooted in his family’s history that revolves around the world of cinema, his aesthetics merges sculpture, painting, music and dance. Overcoming the limitations imposed by gender, the artist's body performs changes allowing, as Orlando, to recast the perspectives of the human gaze. Disguise as a technique for exploring the unconscious, the humanization of nature, the search for sound as a language, the archetypes, the rituality of myth, the deep relationship with time are among the issues prompting his artistic research.
The Club, curated by Raffaella Frascarelli, will be held at the Nomas Foundation from April 15th to September 20th 2019. The Club is part of the Grand Tour Contemporaneo program, a series of exhibitions and events dedicated to contemporary art and promoted by the Contemporary Art Foundations Committee. Conceived on the occasion of the 58th edition of the Venice Biennale of Art, the Grand Tour Contemporaneo is aimed at an international audience. Grand Tour Contemporaneo proposes personal and collective exhibitions of emerging and established Italian artists, a map that intends to bring out the aesthetic horizon of young Italian artists and Italian contemporary art more generally.
Grand Tour Contemporaneo confirms the research’s spirit inspiring the institutions participating in the Contemporary Art Foundations Committee and their support to the post-modern historicization of an artistic heritage that continues to flourish in the imagination of the Italian artists.
According to this special event, each foundation proposes exhibitions, performance, workshop, in-depth studies, and focuses on Italian contemporary art. A joint preview is scheduled for Monday, April 15th 2019: Fondazione Baruchello (Rome), Fondazione Brodbeck (Catania), Fondazione Giuliani for Contemporary Art (Rome), Fondazione Mario Merz (Turin), Antonio Morra Greco Foundation (Naples), Nomas Foundation Onlus (Rome), Palazzo Grassi - Punta della Dogana (Venice), Pastificio Cerere Foundation (Rome), Fondazione Pistoletto Onlus (Biella, Turin), Antonio Ratti Foundation (Como ), Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (Turin), Fondazione Spinola - Banna per l'Arte (Poirino, Turin), Fondazione Nicola Trussardi (Milan).
In collaboration with: Accademia di Belle Arti, Roma; Accademia di Costume e Moda, Roma
Technical Sponsor: GUCCI
Press office: Studio Martinotti
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