Azzedine Alaïa, Galleria Borghese

Opening 10 July 2015, Azzedine Alaïa’s soft sculpture take their place at Rome’s Galleria Borghese. It is in this venue – characterised by white and coloured marble, stone in diverse tones,various plaster and bronze coated and chromed – Alaïa’s exhibition makes its debut. The work is presented with a coherence of themes and colours that form a sense of continuity with permanent pieces featured in each room, generating unexpected congruencies. The fashion designer is know for his attention to shape and silhouette, that only such a locale could host – a historic venues that continues to promote the transformation of raw matter into perfect forms. The designer’s “soft sculptures” highlight a baroque or post-barqoue poetic vision, deluding and seducing the viewer’s gaze with his novelty and effects. Such allows one to spot the curls and folds with the clothing, that enhance the shapes of the body. This exhibition grows from the ongoing relationship between designer and place; a collaboration that has enlivened many facets of the maestro’s craft. Alaïa perceives the exuberance of the gallery’s sculptures as myths of the body, and the sculptures themselves as a progressive ways in which to discover these energies, releasing them from shadows, another subversive way of dressing the body. Alaïa translates the chisel into scissors, altering the body and its lines, playing with cuts. Painting colours and folds reflect throughout Galleria Borghese’s galleries .

The exhibition runs until 25 October 2015 at Galleria Borghese.