Ramon Ros: “Una vita per diventare noi stessi. Saremo ancora più Fendi”
Apre in via Montenapoleone a Milano la nuova boutique del brand. L’ad spiega perché l’ha voluta piena di opere d’arte
C’è una frase di David Bowie che mi piace molto. Dice che ci vuole una vita per diventare chi siamo veramente. Noi vogliamo essere ancora più Fendi». Ramon Ros, amministratore delegato della maison romana dallo scorso luglio, usa queste parole per raccontare il nuovo inizio del marchio che apre mercoledì Palazzo Fendi. La boutique di via Montenapoleone 1, all’angolo con Corso Matteotti, debutta durante la settimana della moda milanese. Gli oltre 900 metri quadrati del negozio sono distribuiti su quattro piani all’interno di un palazzo razionalista del 1936, firmato dall’architetto Emilio Lancia. Accolgono tutte le collezioni Fendi — dal prêt-à-porter alle borse, dai gioielli alla linea Kids — e moltissime, eccezionali, opere d’arte di Arnaldo Pomodoro, Nick Cave, Anton Alvarez, Roberto Sironi, Roger Cal, Levi Van Veluw e tanti altri. Tutte scelte dallo spagnolo Ros che, prima della nomina a Ceo di Fendi, ha ricoperto ruoli importanti in vari brand Lvmh, tra cui Givenchy e Louis Vuitton, spostandosi tra Cina e Francia.
Quando è arrivato in Italia, i lavori nella boutique di Milano erano già cominciati. Lei però non era soddisfatto.
«In due mesi non ho potuto cambiare tutto, però sono intervenuto su alcuni aspetti come la parete della prima sala. Ho studiato le pieghe delle vesti delle statue romane e, con il team degli architetti, abbiamo cercato di trasferire questo panneggio sul muro. Immaginavo un grande lenzuolo che cade dal cielo. Oggi è diventato un muro scultureo in travertino. Mi piace il modo in cui le sue curve dialogano con le nostre borse e con le opere d’arte esposte al piano terra».
È vero che le ha scelte personalmente?
«L’arte contemporanea mi appassiona molto, perfino troppo: sono un collezionista e a volte esagero. Per la boutique ho collaborato con Fondazione Officine Saffi, Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro, Mazzoleni e Secci. Molti pezzi sono stati realizzati apposta per il negozio perché l’arte non deve essere solo arredamento, ma rispecchiare e raccontare l’anima del marchio: per esempio, le due sculture annodate in ceramica giallo Fendi e rosa bubblegum di Roger Cal. E i lavori di Edoardo Piermattei, degli affreschi tridimensionali colorati che decorano i soffitti. Il mix di opere nella boutique rispecchia un eclettismo creativo in linea con i nostri prodotti».
Piermattei firma anche una borsa Peekaboo in edizione limitatissima che sarà realizzata nel laboratorio ospitato al terzo piano. È un vero atelier?
«Sì, è il cuore del negozio. Ci lavorano in pianta stabile sette giovani artigiani di Fendi. I clienti possono venire qui e farsi realizzare un modello su misura, scegliendo tra quelli storici. Gli artisti invitati all’interno del progetto Rock the Craft, invece, collaborano con i nostri maestri per creare insieme, scambiandosi competenze e tecniche sullo stesso piano. Piermattei è il primo a esibirsi in una performance live. Le sue opere in cemento pigmentato realizzate per le volte del negozio si traducono in una tavoletta di pelle e pelliccia con la lavorazione a intarsio degli artigiani e poi in una Peekaboo per la quale sono stati utilizzati materiali di scarto di collezioni precedenti».
A proposito di scarti, il lusso oggi può essere sostenibile?
«Prima il lusso implicava la distanza, l’inaccessibilità. Oggi vuol dire credibilità, tracciabilità, artigianalità, autenticità e sorpresa. Se decido di comprare una borsa luxury, lo faccio perché mi ha trasmesso un’emozione».
Come sarà il futuro di Fendi?
«Brillante. Pieno di creatività e di grandi ambizioni. Sogniamo in grande: vogliamo portare un po’ d’Italia in ogni angolo del mondo».
Che cos’è l’italianità oggi?
«Artigianato, qualità assoluta, estetica mediterranea».
Al di là dei cliché?
«Certo. Per questo puntiamo molto sulle giovani generazioni: artigiani e artisti che sappiano parlare un linguaggio nuovo. Quest’anno celebriamo cento anni: nel passato, ma anche nel futuro».
Born in Ancona in 1992, Edoardo Piermattei currently lives and works in To- rino, where, after opening the off-space SpazioBuonasera, together with other five artists in 2015, he opened his first studio in 2016.
His work origines from the shapes – pittorical first, architectural after – be- longing to the medieval and baroque imaginery, moving from the study of the missing fragments in the frescoes inside the Basilica of Assisi. The shapes that the artist traces through his works, mainly made of concrete and pigments, re- present suggestions of vanished or invisible images: the empty space fills itself, the absences become presences.
In April 2018, within the framework of the Italian Villages Project by Airbnb, Piermattei painted a vault with concrete and pigments and created a canopy for a house in Sambuca, Sicily. During Supersalone 2021 in Milan, he presented his first collection of rugs Dagallà in collaboration with the brand CC-tapis.Among his solo shows: Patroni, Galleria Brambilla, Bergamo (2017); Portici, pale, piaz- za, Arte Fiera Bologna (2018); Appunti per un miracolo permanente, Quartz Studio, Turin (2021). Among his group shows: Amore 200 Kulturbanhof, Kassel (2022); Sabaudade, Las Palmas, Lisbon (2019); Innesti, Studio Nucleo, Turin (2018).
Born in Ancona in 1992, Edoardo Piermattei currently lives and works in To- rino, where, after opening the off-space SpazioBuonasera, together with other five artists in 2015, he opened his first studio in 2016.
His work origines from the shapes – pittorical first, architectural after – be- longing to the medieval and baroque imaginery, moving from the study of the missing fragments in the frescoes inside the Basilica of Assisi. The shapes that the artist traces through his works, mainly made of concrete and pigments, re- present suggestions of vanished or invisible images: the empty space fills itself, the absences become presences.
In April 2018, within the framework of the Italian Villages Project by Airbnb, Piermattei painted a vault with concrete and pigments and created a canopy for a house in Sambuca, Sicily. During Supersalone 2021 in Milan, he presented his first collection of rugs Dagallà in collaboration with the brand CC-tapis.Among his solo shows: Patroni, Galleria Brambilla, Bergamo (2017); Portici, pale, piaz- za, Arte Fiera Bologna (2018); Appunti per un miracolo permanente, Quartz Studio, Turin (2021). Among his group shows: Amore 200 Kulturbanhof, Kassel (2022); Sabaudade, Las Palmas, Lisbon (2019); Innesti, Studio Nucleo, Turin (2018).
Kevin Francis Gray was born in Northern Ireland in 1972. He currently lives and works between London and Pietrasanta.
Kevin Francis Gray has generated bodies of work which address the complex relationship between abstraction and figuration. At the core of the artist’s practice is an interrogation of the intersection of traditional sculptural techniques and contemporary life. Rather than working towards ideals of beauty or memorial, Gray attends to the psychological effects, often relying on textural surfaces rather than facial or bodily expressions. Furthering Gray’s decade of working with marble, his new work pushes the possibilities of the artist’s sculptural practice into new territories of physical and psychological expression.
He received his BA from the National College of Art & Design in Dublin (1995) and the School of Art Institute in Chicago (1996), and then went on to earn an MA in Fine Art from the Goldsmiths College in London. He works closely with the Giannoni marble studio in Pietrasanta, renowned for its use of sculpting techniques that date back to Canova and Michelangelo. His works have been included in exhibitions at the Royal Academy, London, UK; Sudeley Castle, Winchcombe, Gloucestershire, UK; Museum of Contemporary Art of the Val de-Marne, Paris, France; Nieuw Dakota, Amsterdam; Palazzo Arti Napoli, Naples, Italy; Musee d’art Moderne, Saint-Etienne, France; ARTIUM, Centro-Museo Vasco de Arte Contemporáneo, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain; Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel; and Art Space, New York, USA.
Kevin Francis Gray was born in Northern Ireland in 1972. He currently lives and works between London and Pietrasanta.
Kevin Francis Gray has generated bodies of work which address the complex relationship between abstraction and figuration. At the core of the artist’s practice is an interrogation of the intersection of traditional sculptural techniques and contemporary life. Rather than working towards ideals of beauty or memorial, Gray attends to the psychological effects, often relying on textural surfaces rather than facial or bodily expressions. Furthering Gray’s decade of working with marble, his new work pushes the possibilities of the artist’s sculptural practice into new territories of physical and psychological expression.
He received his BA from the National College of Art & Design in Dublin (1995) and the School of Art Institute in Chicago (1996), and then went on to earn an MA in Fine Art from the Goldsmiths College in London. He works closely with the Giannoni marble studio in Pietrasanta, renowned for its use of sculpting techniques that date back to Canova and Michelangelo. His works have been included in exhibitions at the Royal Academy, London, UK; Sudeley Castle, Winchcombe, Gloucestershire, UK; Museum of Contemporary Art of the Val de-Marne, Paris, France; Nieuw Dakota, Amsterdam; Palazzo Arti Napoli, Naples, Italy; Musee d’art Moderne, Saint-Etienne, France; ARTIUM, Centro-Museo Vasco de Arte Contemporáneo, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain; Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel; and Art Space, New York, USA.
Daniel Crews-Chubb was born in Northampton, England in 1984 and now lives and works in London.
He studied at the Turps Art School in London and Chelsea College of Arts in London.
Crews-Chubb is rapidly gaining international recognition for his innovative and experimental collage paintings, which draw on the legacies of Art Brut, Arte Povera and Abstract Expressionism and interrogate symbols and archetypes from art history. As David Pagel of the Los Angeles Times writes: “If Crews-Chubb’s paintings were billboards, they would stop traffic. But there is more going on than immediately meets the eye.To look closely is to see how deliberately, even carefully, each is made … You don’t have to know what stands out to come face to face with their beauty, which is dirty and grimy and so far from pretty that you might start to think that beauty without a touch of grunge or even ugliness isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Crews-Chubb’s first institutional installation opened in June 2021 at Wellington Arch in collaboration with English Heritage, and his first major institutional exhibition will open in autumn 2022 at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. The artist has had solo exhibitions at Roberts Project, Los Angeles (2018); Vigo Gallery, London (2016); and Galerist, Istanbul (2014). Recent group exhibitions include Telescope, curated by Nigel Cooke, Hastings Contemporary, Hastings (2019); Tree, Vigo Gallery, London (2018); and ICONOCLASTS: Art out of the Mainstream, Saatchi Gallery, London (2017). His work is represented in international public and private collections including the Denver Art Museum, Colorado;The Long Museum, Shanghai; Saatchi Gallery, London; The Bunker Artspace and Beth Rudin de Woody Collections, Palm Beach and New York;
Daniel Crews-Chubb was born in Northampton, England in 1984 and now lives and works in London.
He studied at the Turps Art School in London and Chelsea College of Arts in London.
Crews-Chubb is rapidly gaining international recognition for his innovative and experimental collage paintings, which draw on the legacies of Art Brut, Arte Povera and Abstract Expressionism and interrogate symbols and archetypes from art history. As David Pagel of the Los Angeles Times writes: “If Crews-Chubb’s paintings were billboards, they would stop traffic. But there is more going on than immediately meets the eye.To look closely is to see how deliberately, even carefully, each is made … You don’t have to know what stands out to come face to face with their beauty, which is dirty and grimy and so far from pretty that you might start to think that beauty without a touch of grunge or even ugliness isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Crews-Chubb’s first institutional installation opened in June 2021 at Wellington Arch in collaboration with English Heritage, and his first major institutional exhibition will open in autumn 2022 at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. The artist has had solo exhibitions at Roberts Project, Los Angeles (2018); Vigo Gallery, London (2016); and Galerist, Istanbul (2014). Recent group exhibitions include Telescope, curated by Nigel Cooke, Hastings Contemporary, Hastings (2019); Tree, Vigo Gallery, London (2018); and ICONOCLASTS: Art out of the Mainstream, Saatchi Gallery, London (2017). His work is represented in international public and private collections including the Denver Art Museum, Colorado;The Long Museum, Shanghai; Saatchi Gallery, London; The Bunker Artspace and Beth Rudin de Woody Collections, Palm Beach and New York;
