EXPO ‘Ultrabody’ – Milano (IT) – 19 Avril-17 Juin 2012

Ultrabody – 208 opere tra arte e design

ULTRABODY. 208 opere tra Arte e Design è una mostra tematica, dedicata all’influenza che il corpo umano ha esercitato nella creatività contemporanea, spaziando tra l’arte e il design, ma anche tra l’architettura, l’arredamento, le arti applicate, la moda e i gioielli.
L’iniziativa, curata da Beppe Finessi, promossa dal Comune di Milano – Cultura, Moda, Design,  presenta una ricca selezione di lavori realizzati dai più significativi protagonisti della scena internazionale del design e delle arti visive che, a partire dal “corpo”, riescono a coinvolgere altre discipline come l’antropologia, la sociologia, il costume, la società, la tecnologia e l’estetica del nostro tempo.
Il percorso espositivo, ideato da Peter Bottazzi, è organizzato in 3 grandi gruppi tematici corrispondenti ai 3 ambienti delle Sale del Castello Sforzesco: Alludere al Corpo, Assecondare il Corpo, Superare il Corpo.

 

ULTRABODY. 208 WORKS FROM ART TO DESIGN, a thematic exhibition devoted to the influence exerted by the human body on contemporary creativity, ranging from art to design, but also taking in architecture, furniture, the applied arts, fashion and jewellery.
Curated by Beppe Finessi, promoted by the City of Milan Department of Culture, Fashion and Design, brought about together with Peugeot and organised by Civita, the exhibition shows a rich selection of works by leading names on the international design and visual arts scene that, starting from the “body”, manage to involve such other disciplines as contemporary anthropology, sociology, costume, society, technology and aesthetics.
Devised by Peter Bottazzi, the exhibition experience is organised in three macro thematic groups, one in each of the Sforza Castle’s Visconti Rooms: Alluding to the Body, Humouring the Body, Overcoming the Body.
The graphic identity for Ultrabody is the work of Leonardo Sonnoli, the internationally celebrated graphic designer and winner of an ADI Compasso d’Oro Award in 2011, who created a new custom font for the event, calibrated to match the topics expressed by the works selected.
Download the brochure

 

Alluding to the Body, from representation to metaphor features some venerable icons…… Here, visitors can also find bracelets with traces and body prints by the maestro of contemporary jewellery Gerd Rothmann, the enigmatic proposals by Iris Eichenberg and Bruno Munari’s Talking Forks that repeat the gestures we habitually make with our hands, transmuting from tools for eating into elements of communication.

Bracciale Quattro-dita (Impronta d’artista) di Gert Rothmann

Iris Eichenberg

 

Humouring the Body, from form to function contains works that take their starting point from correctly matching the needs expressed in an object’s use to giving it the right form, suggesting possible new relations between those objects and the body : like (for jewelry) gloves/jewels by the group Bless, or Matteo Ragni’s Patch bookmark-ring for De Vecchi, which readers can use to keep the book they are reading open with just one hand.

gloves/jewels by the group Bless

Patch bookmark-ring – Matteo Ragni for De Vecchi

 

Overcoming the Body hosts the more experimental designs and works, including several that are irreverent and even provocative, capable of leaving visitors with an uncanny, disturbed feeling. These range from Naomi Filmer’s many experiments with the idea of original jewellery, to the crash helmet-monitors designed by James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau, which play with the principle of identity between partners to a dialogue, a variety of body ornaments created by Imme van der Haak

Naomi Filmer

Naomi Filmer

Beatrice Brovia  (Ex voto – on initiation- , 2009 – courtesy Beatrice Brovia, Galerie  Caroline Van Hoek).

This collar which alludes to human entrails is one of the first works by Beatrice Brovia in the world of designer jewellery. Her steps are sure and definite, and show no trace of the prevailing conformity. Her careful reflections are expressed as visually striking ornaments to be worn.

Florence Lehmann  (Naissance bien tournée – Birth necklace adjusted to my head, 2003-2008 Photo Enrico Bartolucci, Paris)

Bringing together conceptual modes and formal value: in these sculptures to be worn, the modules which make up the collar have
been designed around a face, thus establishing a close emotional relationship between the jewel and the body wearing it.

Doppelgänger di Didier Fiuza Faustino, Courtesy the Artist & Galery Michel Rein Eleonora Todde (Spina senza rose, 2011)

A real hula-hoop is transformed into a perverse toy, adding rose thorns to its inner circumference. A pertinent exercise on the borderline between matter and emptiness, with a smile that is transformed into a wound.

 

Castello Sforzesco
Piazza Castello
20121 Milan
Italy
tel [phone]
http://www.ultrabody.it

 

L’Idée de beauté, selon Imme van der HAAK

Imme Van der Haak is showing a  work where she  discusses the “normal”and the ideal beauty

in O Fortuna! , the 7th biennale exhibition that happens in Gelderland, Netherlands (Oct.2010- Janv.2011). The curator Tiziana Nespoli, a ‘science exhibitionist’ as she calls herself, tries to show the links between art en science. Her theme for O Fortuna! is ‘serendipity’, the role ‘luck’ or ‘chance’ plays both in science and in art. Often scientists and artists are looking for something and in the process they discover all kinds of other things. If they are willing to keep their eyes open that is. In the first six editions of the biënnale there were only visual artists in the show; this time it is also open in other  areas of the arts. On the other hand, in Brazil, the Bienal de Artes de São Paulo is completely focused in Art.  Jewelry due to its oscillations (some are industrial products, some craft ones and a few, art pieces) has found some space in the Bienal de Design that this time happens in Curitiba. Some jewellery pieces can be found in the show « A Reinvenção da Matéria » that comments ecological issues. (blog NovaJoia)

 

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