MOSCOW.- Moscow Museum of Modern Art presents FENDI ROMA: Artisans of Dreams, a unique exhibition project that explores the creativity of one of the oldest European fashion brands working with fur. Eight exhibition rooms in MMOMA Petrovka will introduce the viewer to FENDI’s core values: innovation, expertise, creativity, and experiment. The exhibition will take place in conjunction with the opening of a FENDI boutique in Stoleshnikov Pereulok.
The history of the luxury brand is a story bringing the past together with the present. FENDI has always encouraged innovation while cherishing — and building on — the Italian artisanal tradition, which has shaped the brand’s unique image. The exhibition opens with Prelude featuring a unique FENDI fur object. The following sections, Rome and Handmade Beauty focuses on some of the landmark events in the history of the brand.
Led by the exceptionally talented Karl Lagerfeld and Silvia Venturini Fendi, the brand has always aimed to create masterpieces that would blur the line between art and fashion. If the painter’s main tools are a pencil and a brush, FENDI has chosen fur as its primary medium. In Labyrinth, the audience will find a selection of fur panels, spirals and reliefs that explore the world of colour and shapes just like painterly works. The next chapter, Obsession, immerses the viewer in a psychedelic jungle of FENDI’s signature charms, where the lines of black and silver mirrors on the walls celebrate the iconic Astuccio design created by Kark Lagerfeld in 1971. The double “F” logo, dating back to the same era, has come to symbolize the brand’s ironic and creative attitude.
The unique long-term collaboration between Karl Lagerfeld and FENDI furriers is examined in The Craftmanship section. Lagerfeld designed his first FENDI collection in 1966. Then, like now, his paper projects required innovative technology to be transferred into fur, but the competence and creativity of FENDI furriers have always matched his boldest designs. If they follow the Astuccio pattern of the floor, the visitors will find themselves in the room that explains the craft behind FENDI: here they will learn why a craftsman cannot be replaced by a machine and why even the most complicated traditional techniques are of vital importance today. The Essentials, the neoclassicist room reminiscent of Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana — FENDI’s new headquarters in Rome — features some of the brand’s iconic designs, most representative of FENDI’s elegant aesthetic. The journey continues in Experience, a fur corridor for tactile exploration split into three zones allowing for different ways of interacting with the medium. After the tactile experience in the corridor, the visitors continue to the Dream room, which introduces the first design from Haute Fourrure 2015/16 collection inspired by Anna Karenina and Late Victorian style and presented against a background of Russian winter and classicist architecture.
FENDI ROMA: Artisans of Dreams is an ode to the lifestyle that is deeply rooted in Italian culture and continues to inspire many contemporary designers. With its attention to tradition and its willingness to experiment, FENDI has become a mirror for the contemporary culture, defined by an alliance of tradition and advanced technology.
