Events

Michel Compte mentor for IED in Identity - Pitti Uomo 2024

Date

15 May 2024

In the projects to be presented, fashion meets art, thus redefining identity through the hybridisation of different languages.

Michel Comte, a contemporary artist and one of the most renowned fashion photographers of all time, has accepted the invitation of the Istituto Europeo di Design to mentor the team of IED students selected, from all of the Group’s eleven locations throughout Italy, Spain, and Brazil, to design Identity, an installation that will be presented on 12 June at ex Oriuolo Theatre, during the Pitti Uomo fashion fair. The multidisciplinary team combined the skills of the fashion design and styling areas with those of interior design, video, sound and photography, to develop a project where the research of art meets the reflection of fashion. In its new look as a training centre for IED Digital and Visual Arts, the ex Oriuolo Theatre welcomes the first installation open to the city of Florence during the week of the international Pitti Uomo fashion fair.

IED asked Michel Comte to serve as mentor due to his ability to express art through the different media he has used throughout his professional career as a photographer, film-maker, and photo-journalist, as well as for his awareness of cultural and social issues, his use of innovative materials, and his attention to upcycling processes.

"In a world consumed by fast fashion, I opt for Japanese denim as a symbol of sustainable style. This philosophy guides my curation of the IED installation in Florence, where eleven equally sized spaces serve as platforms for a collective artwork, merging diverse personalities into pure magic", said Michel Comte.

The artist directed the students in their development of the project starting with a reflection on the topic of identity: in times when electronic devices have overtaken fashion in terms of desirability, how can we represent who we are through what we wear? Fashion remains one of our main means for representing who we are, and expressing our identity.

"Internet and globalisation have given rise to a multitude of new virtual affiliations, flattening people's sense of identity. The individual has become dividual: no longer having one identity or having too many. Fashion has also fallen victim to this phenomenon. It should help us to identify who we are and what we stand for, but in most cases, it’s just clothing and decoration", suggests Danilo Venturi, Director of IED Firenze.

“Regardless of the individual content choices made by 11 students from all over the world, exhibiting the concept of cultural identity filtered through their own eyes – in the new IED Digital and Visual Arts Hub – allows us to re-evaluate fashion as one of the most important forms of social and personal expression. It allows us to look to the future once again!", adds Danilo Venturi.

The installation will be spread throughout the interior and the garden area of the ex Oriuolo Theatre, on a pathway that will alternate conceptual garments with contemporary sculptures.

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