RITMO 22

11 months ago

AlbumArte presents
RITMO 22

Solo show Paolo Di Landro
curated by Alessio de’ Navasques

Ritmo 22, born at the invitation of Cristina Dinello Cobianchi and AlbumArte, becomes a point of arrival in a path of tireless experimental practice, which distills an ambivalent and – as Di Landro himself defines it – fierce with the creation of fashion, but also with the concept of fashion itself is understood almost as an abstract entity and with the system it ruptures. Affirmation/negation, order/disorder run through his absolute independence, becoming a double register. The starting point of the project is his manifesto, a deliberate stream of consciousness, in which he returns the sensations and thoughts that run through the contradictory process of constructing a dress understood for him as a word, a form of voracious and profound expression, a measuring lens of the world.

As in the System of Fashion by the structuralist philosopher Roland Barthes, the garment for Di Landro becomes language, as he himself says: “Black \ white, word \ writing, in a word a dualism that does not oppose but reinforces and communicates not verbally but with a text: being a designer I chose to do this on a garment and not on a canvas, but that garment is my canvas”. In the process of continuous metamorphosis, the fabrics in Di Landro’s hands seem to stop and dance to a new rhythm, which he describes as one of ‘supreme simplicity’. A tragic, martial order made up of different weights and measures, as this project is intended by the designer as a rite of passage to create a new arrangement between the many souls expressed through fabrics and shapes. As he says: “I forced myself to take some limits, prohibitions, in order not to lose my compass and not to destroy myself in my chaos, I thought I wanted to learn to celebrate the sensible, to return to rootedness, as Simone Weil said in Prima Radice, respect for the plurality of life and choices and ways of existing, as Montaigne said, a plurality that is man’s greatest wealth, varied and swaying’.

words by Alessio de’ Navasques

Considered a leading name in Upcycling, with a punk poetics that embraces the concept oferror and reshaping an existing garment to give it new meaning, Di Landro has always worked in the intersection with the visual arts. From his association with Miltos Manetas, which makes him part of the Neen group, as the most interesting designer among contemporaries, to the exhibitions he created for the Gloria Maria Gallery of Gloria Maria Cappelletti, a pioneer of digital art, to his collaboration with Milovan Farronato for the Fiorucci Art Trust in Stromboli, to those with Martin Margiela or with director Emma Dante.

For this project, which traces the point of arrival in a path of tireless experimental practice, Di Landro started from the circadian rhythm that marks the times of sleep and wakefulness, to reflect on the attempt to homogenize minds, needs, personalities and consciences, exercised by capitalist society and power.
The dresses designed and created for RITMO 22, are of a single form – among the simplest – that of the sheath dress. Apparently identical, they are actually different in what for a dress is the substance: the fabric and its different weights, in an analysis that seems to fully restore that strength that springs from itself, a recognizable characteristic of Di Landro’s style. Other garments in the installation, used as screens or masks, contain words that transform them into carriers of
messages. The representation of the garment, its reiteration, are thus part of the designer’s process of transformation, to arrive at visual, material and social abstractions.

The RITMO 22 project is dedicated to Domenico De Masi (Rotello, Molise 1938 – Rome Sept. 9, 2023) sociologist, lecturer, scholar, researcher and consultant, professor emeritus of Sociology of Labor at the University of Rome “La Sapienza,” where he was also dean of the Faculty of Communication Sciences, for his generous discussion and support during the preparation of the exhibition.

Biographical note

Paolo Di Landro (Ravello 1972 lives and works in Milan). After classical studies he moved to Milan, where he won a scholarship to Naba. He graduated in Fashion and Textile Design with highest honors. He participated in a Master’s degree at the Royal College on Fashion-London, a Master’s degree in Accessory and Footwear at Domus Academy- Milan and a Master’s degree at Textile in Como. He has always been involved in Re-use and Recycling. He has been involved in Research for many Brands. Produces his own Clothing Collection of unique garments that he distributes in Italy in a closed circuit. Defined by Neen Group, as one of the proponents of Anti-Fashion and Digital Fashion. He works as a researcher for large international Brands and has collaborated with Artisanal Intelligence, for Limited Unlimited, first with the brand Joseph and then as a sustainable designer with the Albertina Academy of Turin, directing a Workshop with Fashion Design students of Upcycling techniques, of which he is one of the early proponents. He collaborates with several newspapers on trend research (I-d, Trend, Mood etc). Since 2022 he has been teaching Sustainable Fashion Design at the Unidee Academy in Biella (Pistoletto Foundation).