Biennial of Florence

Festival of contemporary culture. It proposes to explore and relate, at the highest international level, and through the most innovative form and content, the affinities, the mutual influences, and the creative relationships between fashion, the visual arts, design, architecture, photography, cinema, music and communications. By the end of the millennium, it had been held twice: the inauguration in 1996 and then in 1998. Starting from an idea of Luigi Settembrini (with the cooperation of Roberto Rosati) and promoted by, among others, the Florence Center for Italian Fashion, the Region of Tuscany, and the Municipality of Florence, the Biennial of Florence (also known as the Biennial of Fashion), has perhaps been the first event in which the work of designers has been met on the same level by different creative languages in an attempt to define the central themes of contemporary life. A new chapter in the culture of fashion was thus opened, going beyond the usual low opinion of its role and its most superficial traits. This was particularly evident during the first festival, which took place from September 1996 to January 1997 under the artistic direction of Germano Celant (art historian and art critic, curator at the Guggenheim Museum in New York), Luigi Settembrini, and Ingrid Sischy (journalist and director of Interview). Entitled Time and Fashion (Il Tempo e la Moda), the first Bienniale was divided into seven exhibits. More than 140 people, among them fashion designers, artists, architects, designers, photographers and musicians from all over the world, participated, often with work created expressly for the occasion. There were three main exhibits, organized in various museums and places around the city. The first, Art/Fashion, consisted of seven large structures designed by Arata Isozaki at the Forte di Belvedere and was a joint project with couples each consisting of a designer and an artist: Gianni Versace/Roy Lichtenstein, Helmut Lang/Jenny Holzer, Azzedine Alaïa/Julian Schnabel, Jil Sander/Mario Merz, Miuccia Prada/Damien Hirst, Rei Kawakubo/Oliver Herring, and Karl Lagerfeld/Tony Cragg. The second, New Persona/New Universe, at Stazione Leopolda and organized by Denis Santachiara, was a meditation on the new boundaries of the human being and of the universe with more than 30 participants split between artists and designers: Robert Mapplethorpe, David Bowie, Cindy Sherman, Kiki Smith, Tony Oursler, Giuseppe Penone, Jurgen Teller, Studio Azzurro, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Ines van Lamsweerde, Vito Acconci and Giorgio Armani, Vivienne Westwood, Calvin Klein, Alexander McQueen, Yohij Yamamoto, and Moschino. The third, Visitors, curated by Franca Sozzani and organized by Gae Aulenti, was a remarkable meeting between the works and atmosphere of some of the most beautiful and important museums in the world and original projects by fashion designers: Armani at the Uffizi, Valentino at the Gallerie dell’Accademia, Ferré at the Medici Chapels, Dolce & Gabbana at the Museum of Anthropology, Gaultier at La Specola, Miyake at the Galleria d’Arte Moderna di Palazzo Pitti, Galliano at Casa Buonarroti, Blahnik at Palazzo Vecchio, Atkinson at the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Donna Karan at the Museo del Bargello, Lacroix at Orsanmichele, Margiela at Museo Bardini, Ozbek at Museo Horne, Saint-Laurent at Palazzo Vecchio, Treacy at Museo degli Argenti, Tyler at the Museum of the History of Science, Gigli at Museo Marini, and Marc Jacobs, Todd Oldham and Anna Sui at the Civic Museum of Prato. After Florence, the exhibit Art/Fashion, which also presented a historical section about the relationship between the two languages, opened in March 1997 at the Guggenheim Museum Soho in New York. The other four exhibits were: a retrospective on Emilio Pucci in the Sala Bianca at Palazzo Pitti, an exhibit of photographs by Bruce Weber at the Museo Salvatore Ferragamo, an exhibit about Elton John’s wardrobe at the Royal Postal Office in the Uffizi, and an exhibit-event by Michelangelo Pistoletto with the participation of, in addition to Pistoletto himself, Tina Bepperling, Andrea Branzi, Peter Kogler, Pietra, Enrico Rava, Chris Sacker, Oliviero Toscani, and Franz West, at the Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci in Prato. More than 100,000 visitors, a strong impact on the international level, the presence of forty fashion designers and as many artists, and heavily favorable critical reviews (with some dissent in Germany and Italy, but enthusiasm in France and the English-speaking countries) testify to the great success of the initiative. The second Bienniale, managed by a different staff headed by Leonardo Mondadori, was dedicated to the relationship between fashion and cinema, and was divided into the exhibits Cine-Moda, curated by Richard Martin, at Palazzo Strozzi; Riflessioni curated by Dante Ferretti and Gabriella Pescucci, also at Palazzo Strozzi; and 2001 (meno3) curated by Terry Jones at Stazione Leopolda; Costumes of thehe Oscars curated by Gabriella Pescucci, at Palazzo Pretorio in Prato; Casting Livorno curated by Oliviero Toscani at the former Peroni factory in Livorno. The Biennale also included a showing of the film L’ultimo grido (“The Last Cry”) by Vieri Razzini and Cesare Petrillo at Cinema Le Laudi in Florence, and an event called Cinderella curated by Stefania Ricci, Michael Howells and Jenny Beavan at the Museo Salvatore Ferragamo. The more limited impact of this second Biennale and a worsening financial situation were behind the decision not to have a third.