Mariuccia Casadio & Jacopo Bedussi are the curators of the Valentino exhibition "RE-SIGNIFY PART TWO" currently taking place in Beijing. An interview about Valentino's connections to contemporary art and two equal worlds, that of fashion and art.

November 7, 2021

Interview Directory 

ART

Name: Mariuccia Casadio

Occupation: Curator, Art consultant Vogue Italia

Name: Jacopo Bedussi

Occupation: Editorial & Copy Writer. Content Consultant.

Joint project: Valentino's past and present, memory and fantasy materialise in a single space.

"The desirable thing is that this type of relationship between Fashion and Art changes the perception of Fashion, making it a more permeable system in people's eyes, showing it as an authorial language and not as a productive system that can only be approached by those who have the power to buy it. At the same time, fashion should abandon the inferiority complex that it has historically carried with it in relation to art, because, as we said before,

they are two worlds that each have their own dignity.“

Mariuccia Casadio & Jacopo Bedussi

Valentino Re Signify Yeesoo Kyong ©Courtesy of Valentino

"Two different worlds based on different systems of rules that do not overlap but can dialogue with each other."

Can you say how this exhibition came about?

It is part of a broader process that Pierpaolo Piccioli has been pursuing on different levels and for several seasons with his work at Valentino. It is a way of projecting the values and signs of Valentino into fields other than just fashion and of projecting possible readings of what Valentino means as a brand and as a system of signs, both historical and contemporary.

What do you want to communicate with this Exhibition and which target group do you want to reach?

There is no narrative or educational intent, this exhibition is an authorial proposal (by Pierpaolo Piccioli and us curators) of possible connections between Valentino's world and the world of Contemporary Art. Two different worlds based on different systems of rules that do not overlap but can dialogue with each other. We have called it an Experience rather than an Exhibition, because the intention and ambition is to remain as open and free as possible from the limits and fixities of showing. There are links of empathy, assonance, affinity, but also generational, geographical, cultural, aesthetic and language differences.

Taking for granted that fashion and art express themselves through different means and with different aims, the Re-signify experience investigates possible ways of meeting, confronting and interacting. Valentino, its memory, experience and imagery, the history and contribution of Pierpaolo Piccioli in the present day, its re-signification and innovation of archive models and style identities.

But also its ways of intercepting, investigating, absorbing the moods and key themes, large and small, of contemporaneity. Themes that art interprets, of which it becomes a spokesman and a reflection. We have brought together various suggestions and possible meeting points in a single space.

What impact do such curated exhibitions have on fashion or even society?

The desirable thing is that this type of relationship between Fashion and Art changes the perception of Fashion, making it a more permeable system in people's eyes, showing it as an authorial language and not as a productive system that can only be approached by those who have the power to buy it.

At the same time, fashion should abandon the inferiority complex that it has historically carried with it in relation to art, because, as we said before, they are two worlds that each have their own dignity.

"Fashion must propose new and better perspectives, and this has to do not only with clothes but with the complex world that a creative director can imagine and communicate. "

What was it like working with Pierpaolo Piccioli?

Pierpaolo has a sort of gift that is to create connections that go beyond the achievement of an output among the people working on a project, and then to trust the group completely, working almost as a single individual. This ability to trust the various sensitivities of people is not taken for granted and leaves a freedom of imagination and action to all participants.

How do you see the future of fashion and what role does Valentino play in it?

The challenge for the fashion system is to remain, or perhaps even return to being, relevant as a producer of dreams, of possible worlds, of human possibilities. Fashion must propose new and better perspectives, and this has to do not only with clothes but with the complex world that a creative director can imagine and communicate.

When Pierpaolo Piccioli borrows the words of Pasolini saying that 'We don't want to be dreamless right away', I think he is making a programmatic statement in this direction.

What are your next plans?

The fact that we are not working on a past story but on opening up new possibilities for reading Valentino as a brand means that virtually the chapters of this re-signification are infinite, so I would say that our plans for the future are to continue analysing and then projecting parallel worlds... Because it's something we consider important, and something we really enjoy.

"RE-SIGNIFY PART TWO" Beijing, November 2021

© Courtesy of Valentino