To inspire artists and creatives to give voice and shape to social and environmental justice through art: this was, in summary, the goal of the call to action Artivism, launched in December 2020 by Fashion Revolution Italia and Fondazione Pistoletto. The two institutions invited participants to express themselves in total freedom to redefine the narrative and paradigms of sustainable fashion, thus providing inputs to create relevant works and prompt useful reflections to understand how to outline a more constructive present, in which inspiration is urgently followed by a collective action. The initiative, as reported in our previous article, was aimed at those who wish to show the profound connection between environmental and social sustainability in the fashion sector through their art.
The exhibition and the residency
Artivism, the digital exhibition resulting from the call to action, opens on 24th April 2021 at 6:30 pm, on the occasion of Fashion Revolution Week 2021. The exhibition, curated by Stella Stone, will feature forty selected works, which will be on display on the digital platform Ikonospace until the end of October 2021. The top 10 finalists will be announced on the opening day in the course of a digital vernissage on Zoom also broadcasted live on the Facebook page of Fashion Revolution Italia; moreover, they are invited to participate in an in-house residency at Cittadellarte in Biella sponsored by Fondazione Pistoletto. The authors of the 10 selected works will in fact take part in a UNIDEE residency dedicated to analysing in depth the topics covered by their works and their possible developments together with the collective of Cittadellarte Fashion B.E.S.T. Biella Ethical Sustainable Think-Tank and Fashion Revolution.
The experience will last five days and will take place in the second half of 2021 at Cittadellarte*. “This opportunity,” the organisers specify in a dedicated press note “will offer moments of training, discussion and experience with the participation of experts from the world of art as a means of social transformation and of sustainable fashion and its manufacturing, philosophy, international policies and activism. Events will be created in which all participants in the competition will be able to connect virtually and share in the workshops of the residency and the contributions of the specialists”.
The selection
The selection was made among more than 90 artists who responded to the initiative presenting original works. A technical commission composed of Paolo Naldini (CEO and director of Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto), Olga Pirazzi (project manager of Fashion B.E.S.T. – Fondazione Pistoletto), Juan Estefan Sandoval (director of the Art Office – Fondazione Pistoletto) and Marina Spadafora (national coordinator – Fashion Revolution Italia) assessed the semantic coherence, originality, technical quality, potential ability to inspire social activism, aesthetic yield for digital usability and value manifested as a solution for the fashion system of all the projects entered in the competition.
Paolo Naldini’s comment
“High school youths and internationally acclaimed artists, fashion design students and Canadian activist collectives, and all of you who have participated in great numbers and in unique ways, thank you! We have travelled through the horizons of your projects,” said Paolo Naldini, “tattoos on humanity’s second skin: fashion. In your works, we have seen our dreams and needs, nightmares and yearnings. And now? If the art system can make a contribution to these researches to impress the collective imagination, the real challenge lies in the practice that awaits you outside the studio or atelier or gallery. It starts with you getting involved, in the field of fashion or in any other possible sector, to activate these powerful devices that you have created. It is in the contexts in which you live and work, in the communities of practice in which you spend your lives that artivism produces social transformation. That’s where operativity operates”.
Marina Spadafora’s comment
Social transformation and interdependence of social and environmental sustainability dimensions which, as Marina Spadafora stressed, are evident in the participants’ artistic creations, a manifesto for a society ready for a change of direction to bring the real interests of man and the planet back to the centre of our actions. “In a moment of uncertainty, and social and personal tension that concerns all of humanity,” explained Marina Spadafora, “we decided to talk about sustainability through the artistic production. Art and creativity are an expression of the soul, and with Artivism this expression activates to convey personal meanings of sustainability. Through their images, colours and sounds, the works submitted speak of the artists’ personal and unique yearning for environmental and social justice, values that are deeply interconnected in the works presented”.
An insight into the exhibition and Stella Stone’s comment
As reported in the press release, the works will include RIGHTFULRULA, which uses the collage technique to question the meaning of beauty, diversity and consumerism that feeds the so-called ‘Tyranny of Gorgeous’ and imposes a standardised and not very inclusive aesthetics. Or the work by Patrizia Fratus, who expresses the fragility and diversity of the female body by proposing sacred icons of fertility as a model of harmony and communion with mother earth. “The material element of the hand-made knitting,” added Spadafora, “the technique used for the creation of Fratus’s work, makes these figures even more warm, vivid and real“. Through their works, the ‘artivists’ on display become a means to inspire everyone to produce positive change with our actions. As Stella Stone, curator of the exhibition, explained, “for the first edition of Artivism we have selected heterogeneous works that call us to action with different cultural approaches, moral and ethical messages, and digital and artisan expressions. We wanted to prioritise quality and the representation of diversity. We believe that each selected artist is a manifesto for a truth capable of triggering curiosity and dialogue, the first steps for a collective change“.
