Venice: Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa – Moroso Award for Contemporary Art 2013.

 

Venice: Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa – Moroso Award for Contemporary Art 2013. At the Bevilacqua la Masa Foundation in Piazza san Marco, on display, until May 5, works by the twelve finalists of the Moroso Award for Contemporary Art. Now in its third edition, the aim of the award is to give emerging and mid-career artists based in Italy a genuine opportunity to gain international recognition. The three winners will each create a site-specific installation for three Moroso furniture showrooms during prestigious art weeks: Armory Show in New York, the Frieze in London and the MiArt in Milan.

Above: one of the three winners, Luca Trevisani who will create a site-specific installation in the Moroso New York showroom during the Armory show.

President of the Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Angela Vettese, art historian, curator and creator of the award Andrea Bruciati and Moroso’s art director and soul of the company Patrizia Moroso. The twelve artists, on show were chosen by a jury composed by Andrea Bruciati, Patrizia Moroso and international artist Olafur Eliasson.

Winner Linda Fregni Nagler’s Snow and Rain, five photographs gelatin silver prints, selenium toner, 2009-2011.  Fregni Nagler will create a site-specific installation in the London Moroso showroom during Frieze week.

 

Patrizia Moroso and winner Linda Fregni Nagler whose five photographs are pictured above.

 

Design superstar Patricia Urquiola.

 

South American author Mario Paoletti.

Mancino, Portugese Hound. 

Dealer Jacopo Jarach wearing an elegant black cashmere Prada coat and hand-made black leather gloves with white stitching.

Winner Nico Vascellari, Bus De La Lum, paper, color, wooden frame, 2011, his site-specific works will be shown in the Milan Moroso showroom during the MiaArt.

Note: The jury for final selection of the three winners was composted by Giulio Cappellini, art director and design talent scout of Cappellini, Lorenzo Fluxa, owner of Camper Spanish shoe company, architect Greg Lynn, design superstar Ross Lovegrove and Angela Vettese, president of the Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa.

 

Angela Vettese and Andrea Bruciati.

  

  Artist, Riccardo Muratori.

 

 

 Architects Verdiana Durand de la Penne and Ricciarda Belgiojoso.

Laura Scarpa editor in chief of Venezia da Vivere.

 

Artist Alek O. and her new born baby.  Alek O. is one of the twelve finalists of the Moroso Award for Contemporary Art.

 

Funky make-up and piercing, art student at the IAUV, Marzia Avallone.

 Moroso’s press director Daria Triolo with Hugo, designer Steven Burke and Moroso’s Emiliano Calderini.

 

Boston Terrier Hugo.

Venice: Correr Museum – Agatha Ruiz de la Prada exhibition

 

Venice: Correr Museum – Agatha Ruiz de la Prada exhibition. To celebrate International Women’s Day with an exhibition, the city of Venice invited an exceptional ambassador, the Madrid-born fashion designer, Agatha Ruiz de la Prada to the Correr Museum to display thirty-one garments reinterpreting a series of icons dear to Agatha – from the “Cage” and “Umbrella” dresses to the “Heart” and “Star” – which have accompanied her throughout her 31-year career.  The exhibition, curated by Agatha Ruiz de la Prada herself, exhibits her “Spring-Summer 2013” collection, presented at the latest edition of the Mercedes Benz Fashion week in Madrid.

Above. The extraordinary setting of the Empire Style ballroom of the Correr Museum, is the venue for the exhibition, Agatha Ruiz de la Prada, (until May 5). Agatha Ruiz de la Prada first made her entry into the fashion scene in 1981 in Madrid, where she presented her first women’s collection. She was so well received that soon after, she opened her first shop in the Spanish capital and began to appear in the fashion shows of Barcelona. Her creations were soon transformed into what was a wholly artistic expression, thanks in part to their being exhibited in leading art galleries throughout Spain.

Agatha Ruiz de la Prada stands beside her iconic Umbrella dress “The Umbrella dress dates from 1989, Pep Guerrero used it as a canvas in 1999 and ten years later it appeared upside down, it’s an umbrella suit where it rains inside; it cries and the drops hang down while the bells hide to imitate the sound of water.  The latest one is very different, more poetic and less surrealistic.” Agatha writes in the catalogue.

 

Correr Museum – Agatha Ruiz de la Prada – Cage dress.  “The Cage dress is one of the icons that features in all the exhibitions and retrospectives. It’s like the color fuchsia, which always appears, as if it were Agatha’s DNA. The first birds were real, they flew over the year 1994. In 2013 they are synthetic and colorful, but that doesn’t prevent them flying.”

 

Beatrice d’Orleans

 

Recyclying dress and Flowers dresses “ It flowers in any season. No need for a watering can.  The flower dress is planted and watered with the sweat at the brow. It opened its petals in 1987 and has never withered."

 

Agatha Ruiz de la Prada holds a mini press conference as Gabriella Belli, director of the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia  and Tiziana Agostini, Venice’s cultural attaché listen in.

 

 Ring, Ensaimada and Swim Ring dresses. Ensaimada “One of my biggest successes. Even commercially. I don’t know where the first ensaimadas are but there are plenty of the second ones… As I used to spend my summers in Mallorca, I got to eat lots of ensaimadas and it’s beautiful as well.”

Note: Ensaimadas are spiral-shaped pastries typical of Mallorca.

 

Agatha’s muse and first client Piluca Beltram

Tangle and Ribbons dresses. Ribbons “She recycles in many ways and makes Campana dresses out of ribbons. A ding-dong song that sounds like an ecologist symphony with childish lyrics and a chorus with a surprise.  She once arrived at a photo session wearing a design made of ribbons of luxury firms. Unique.”

 

 Juan Carlos Mesa, better known as just Mesa, has been Agatha’s assistant for twelve years.  He is photographed besides the Mouth dress.

 

 

Messa wears skull earrings and a Mazinger robot silver ring bought at the Mercado Fuencarral a flea market in Madrid.

 

Messa haircut was designed the best hair stylist in Madrid, Carlos Castellano and represents a flame because “At the last runway show I was busy and ‘heated’ up with work and the tattoo is a 1960’s Scottish wool fabric logo which I liked.”

  Cake, Mirror and Star Dresses. Cake “A girl stepping out of a cake.  She’s already wearing the cake.  It’s the cake and it moves.  Volume is nothing to be afraid of.  But women are terrified to experiment with volumes on their own bodies.  A real pain.”

 

Beatrice, Salome and Mesa chat.

Self-Portrait and Heart dresses. Self-Portrait “Everyone portrays themselves.  The self becomes art.  I portray myself in my outfits.  Olivier Saillard says that I am the only designer who wears her own clothes.  More POP influence.”

Agatha Ruiz de la Prada’s Milan based Linda Brun.

Star dress. Star “To be a star.  To be the star of the party. One of the characteristics of the MADRID SCENE - the movida - was that we all wanted to be famous, not rich, FAMOUS. STARS.”