COLOUR: UNKNOWN

COLOUR: UNKNOWN is a series of special events curated by Studio Fludd’s Sara Maragotto and hosted by ALYSI’s “Garden House” dedicated to sparkling minds.  Let’s have a look on the first episode all dedicated to color as a tool to investigate the female mind.

The italian brand ALYSI strongly believe in the power of color to represent their philosophy and concept research, this in why their collections – but also retail spaces and showrooms – are so colorful, with different textures and the combination of materials. To investigate the characteristics of the woman complexity, which is the central focus of the first episode, ALYSI asked Studio Fludd – in collaboration with Eleonora Diana – to set up an exhibition that celebrates the female mind and all its shades: integrating contradictory aspects, the attitude towards evolution and eclecticism, and emotional complexity.

ALYSI’ space in Milan is in one of the coolest district of the city known as Zona Tortona and a very popular Design Week hotspot. In the main street (Tortona street, of corse)  – in front of the famous restaurant Osteria Dei Binari – the showroom is in the courtyard of a typical milanese building type called a ringhiera.

I’m welcomed by the beautiful Belinda who works for ALYSI and we chatted for an hour in a slow and sunny Monday morning. She showed me the installation by Studio Fludd made by using the ALYSI textiles which are protagonist of their work.
Also the curator team decided to transform the showroom lights placing an orange filter on it to create a very cozy atmosphere. As a tool for representing their philosophy and exploring everyday-life, color really characterize their stylistic research and so their showroom, it’s like being in a Wes Anderson’s movie thanks to the pastel tones of the interior design and the beautiful plants that makes the space a “Garden House”.

ALYSI choose a very special guest (of course, a woman) for their debut: Ruth van Beek.
Ruth is a dutch artist that works with collage technique and combination of materials. She collects old photo books and use it as her tools to create something new. It’s not only a collage but something more to reinvent worlds through manipulation: by folding, cutting, or adding pieces of painted paper she rearranges and manipulates the image until her interventions reveal the universe that lay within them. The color has a very important role in her artwork, that’s why the pamphlet of her episode starts with a famous John Ruskin’s quote “It is the best possible sign of a color when nobody who sees it knows what to call it”.
That’s so true, this is why the artist created the concept starting from ALYSI’s collections famous for the physicality of color, the textures and the combination of materials, together with the sophisticated and ironic atmosphere. Ruth van Beek’s perfectly match with ALYSI collection and Studio Fludd installation and set the right stage. Too curious to see the second episode.

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Images courtesy of Alysi.
Words by Bianca Felicori.