A poetic and evocative homage to Futurism through one of its main and most multifaceted exponents, Fortunato Depero, to tell of a creativity that still today proves fruitful, innovative and revolutionary. From May 31st Alda Fendi Foundation – Experiments presents “futurBella”an exhibition conceived and curated by Raffaele Curi in the spaces of Rhinoceros, the spectacular building in the heart of Rome designed by Jean Nouvel for Alda Fendi as a place of intellectual and artistic exchange. The exhibition, scheduled until November 30th with free entry, it winds vertically along the 6 floors of the building and is inspired by the many aspects of the activity of Depero, painter, sculptor, illustrator, set designer, costume designer and designer.
The exhibition itinerary opens with reproductions oficonic bottle of Campari Soda, conceived by Depero in 1932, and then became part of the Italian collective imagination. Afterwards, in a video wall, the public will be able to discover the “Balli Plastici by Fortunato Depero”, with the reconstruction and staging of 2009, directed by Franco Sciannameo. In the name of Depero’s artistic versatility, “futurBella” offers a tribute to the costumes of Poor creatures by Yorgos Lanthimos, which Holly Waddington, winner of this year’s Oscar for best film costumes, created taking inspiration from the aesthetics of Futurism, as well as from Schiaparelli and Futurist Courrèges. Along the way, with the soundtrack of Poor Creatures in the background, shots by the still photographer Atsushi Nishijima will be exhibited. “It was Jean Nouvel’s desire when he designed this palace – Alda Fendi tells Adnkronos – It had to be an art district that when one entered one could sleep, eat, but was absorbed by art and in fact this is the air that breathe. There are also vertical shafts set up for a theatre.”
To admire Raffaele Curi’s evocative installation, again inspired by Futurism, visitors will have to raise their eyes: suspended in the air, 60 pairs of vintage underwear will hang from the ceiling, the same ones that “caressed” women like Bella Baxter – the role that earned Emma Stone the 2024 Oscar Award in Lanthimos’ film – lived between the Victorian age and the beginnings of Futurism, born in 1909 in Paris with the publication of the Futurist Manifesto in the newspaper Le Figaro. “I wanted to pay homage to this magnificent designer by saying that in Italy artists have also done design, making it a greater art. The first of them was Depero, with the iconic bottle of Campari, which should be even more famous than that of Coca Cola”, Raffaele Curi explains to Adnkronos.
The third floor will be dedicated to the series of Marionettes of Balli Plastici, created in 1918 and part of the Mart Museum collection, where four puppets by Depero, measuring between 47 and 75 cm in height, will be displayed inside display cases. and, as Raffaele Curi explains, “mirrored on their double, asphalted and shrill”. In the atrium, the heart and center of rhinoceros, the posters of the numerous advertising campaigns created by Depero will be projected.
On the fourth floor there is also a tribute to Futurist literature, with the text of the poem “La Fontana Malata” written by Aldo Palazzeschi, which reproduces the sound of drops of water from a fountain through a series of onomatopoeias and musical words. The poem is from 1909, the year of birth of Futurism: the text, in Italian and English, will be shown on the walls and broadcast in audio, interpreted by the voice of Raffaele Curi.
And again, the skaters of “futurAlda” will travel the length and breadth of the building on rollers wearing t-shirts with the writing futurBella, futurBalla, futurBilla, futurBolla, futurBulla, in different colours. “Nothing is more fascinating than an artistic movement that makes a ‘clean sweep’ of every traditional expressive form, providing the structure to all subsequent avant-gardes”, prefaces Alda Fendi when presenting the new project, “We are still immersed in futurism (and surrealism) There are almost no artistic experiences that do not take inspiration from these ‘isms’! A futurist joke that Raffaele Curi ‘sings’ in this new adventure of my Foundation… and the minor arts become protagonists together with the most recent cinematographic successes… and in a sea of underwear…”. Like every past experiment, “futurBella” also fully reflects the spirit of a building in which Alda Fendi wanted to create a real “city of art”: the building is a center of innovation and creativity, a place where art , archeology and contemporaneity meet in a fruitful dialogue between the eternal city and the world.
The “experimental exhibition”, again with free entry, will therefore involve the building in its entirety: every floor, staircase, lift, even every single visitor will be permeated with the energy of the futurist spirit. A widespread, engaging and full of references, which Curi, artistic director of the Alda Fendi Foundation, conceived perfectly for rhinoceros: the six-storey building, designed on the model of Walter Benjamin’s Passages of Paris, in fact offers the visitor distributed exhibition spaces vertically, which integrate seamlessly into the architecture, in a continuous mix of artistic languages, experiences, opportunities, breathtaking views of the heart of Rome. Here the visitor can experience first-hand the relationship between the suggestions of yesterday and those of today. A connection triggered by an innovative collaboration with the Hermitage Museum, which gave life to historical and contemporary dialogue through “hospitality” to masterpieces of geniuses such as Michelangelo, El Greco and Picasso.