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| Housing the Seven Heavenly Sins |
| July 07, 2008 |
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| In two weeks time ITS#SEVEN will reveal itself in the same location as last year: The Olde Fishmarket - Contemporary Art Exhibition Center. Allow us to give you a few quick historical notes for those of you who know nothing of this place. Before housing important art exhibitions, the space was - just as the name states - a fishmarket, built precisely for this purpose. Giorgio Polli, the Architect responsible for its construction in 1913, was challenged to satisfy the technical and hygienic needs of a fishmarket maintaining an affinity to the neoclassical buildings surrounding it. He gave it the structure of a basilica since it was the style used for housing markets long before it was turned into a religious architectural style. That's why it has a big central nave and 2 aisles divided by columns, with enormous windows on the sides to avoid the feeling of a warehouse. The church structure of the Olde Fishmarket matches perfectly with this year's concept... |
As those who follow us know, "The Seven Heavenly Sins" represent the concept for this edition: Why do we accept sins and virtues as a given? Are all sins wrong and are all virtues right? Most of all, which are the characteristics that a real talent must possess? The house of ITS#SEVEN will be entirely invaded by these references.
The first thing that our guests will see when they enter the location on Saturday 19 July will be an installation that will introduce to the concept of ITS#SEVEN, setting the right atmosphere to "explore" the rest of the location. The set-ups for the Accessories and Photography exhibitions and for the catwalk show will highlight the church structure of the location, welcoming the ITS guests in a spiritual, religious-like space.
Entering the Accessories Exhibition for instance will be like celebrating mass, with exhibition stands for the finalists' accessories resembling church pews, facing a huge golden winged heart mounted on a wall, with an aisle in the middle to allow guests/sinners to reach all pews...
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The Photography exhibition instead will look like one of those ancient monastic libraries where sacred, ancient and forbidden texts were transcribed by monks and stored in medieval times. The finalists' photography projects will be hanged on walls with books and papers popping out from the sides as if there were no room left for more. |
The catwalk area has big columns dividing the main nave from the side aisles, with huge posters in golden frames depicting the seven heavenly sins. A huge screen at the beginning of the catwalk will be used to project images from the portfolios of the fashion finalists to catapult everyone into the atmosphere and research lying behind each fashion project, to give a more complete perception of the finalists' collections.
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The dominant colours in the whole location will be black and gold. Magenta - the colour that mostly identifies us - will "contaminate" the whole space, pouring and dripping everywhere: from the walls, in the exhibition areas and printed materials like the catalogue and flyers introducing to each field of ITS.
The theatre is ready, the actors are about to arrive...
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