Living Room

A jazzy underground talk about art, fashion and sustainability

“We must talk, we must discuss, to be inspired and inspire others.”

Linda Loppa

Create a room where people can meet and talk about the things that they don’t have space to express in other places, broaden and open up the concept to allow everyone to participate, call guests with stories to tell, and heat everything through with the music of jazz.

This is the atmosphere that was created in the basement at Manifattura Tabacchi, where Linda Loppa welcomed and guided the voices and thoughts of Arturo Galansino (Director General of Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi), Danilo Venturi (Director of Polimoda), Dobrila Denegri (Artistic Director, Curator and Writer) and Lara Torres (Artist).

The same basement that in June hosted if I could, unless we | a Nightwalk through, curated by Linda Loppa, which plotted a course through the works of 7 artists/designers – Bart Hess, Lara Torres, Armando Chant, Moses Hamborg, Bernhard Willhelm, Clemens Thornquist and Senjan Jansen – and led viewers on a discovery of their vision of contemporary art and fashion using images, sounds and emotions, pulling them from the ordinary and placing them in the extraordinary.

Living Room was also the occasion for the presentation of the catalogue for if I could, unless we | a Nightwalk through

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Whether through the design of an exhibition, a museum, a school or an item of clothing, the intention of the Living Room guests, which always came from an educational origin, was to face the current challenges of our relationship with the planet, the indiscriminate use of resources and the impacts they produce, starting with fashion and looking at future generations.

“Fashion is a polluting industry; we can do better, we must do better. We have a responsibility towards our planet replacing garments by actions.”

Linda Loppa

Lara Torres, an artist who was featured in if I could, unless we | a Nightwalk through, makes environmental impact a key part of her artistic research.

Her work questions the material and the immaterial in fashion, from the mechanisms of the industry to human identity. The study of materials in The Impossible Wardrobe raises questions about the ethics of fashion and shares her vision of the fragility of the sector.

With Transfashional, Dobrila Denegri looks at the innovation and contradictions that are inherent in the world of fashion, its impact on the environment, and shows how the experiments of the young designers involved in the project aim to produce clothes with bacteria, creating a real second skin, as well as new fabrics and fibres through the reuse and recycling of food waste. Exploring new frontiers allows young designers to conceive of fashion and sustainability as a single entity, laying the ground for significant change.

Further to research and innovation in productive processes, a fundamental instrument for change is the capacity for emotion, as in the case of the exhibition that Arturo Galasino brought to Palazzo Strozzi.

From Marina Abramovich to Verrocchio, the aim is to anticipate the themes and challenges of society through the eyes and the works of the artist.

“Art & Fashion are both creative industries; let’s embrace our differences, let’s embrace our passions, and send our messages into the world.”

Linda Loppa

Transformation is an evolutionary process which starts today but which will be taken forward by new generations who will be able to adapt these messages and solutions to their own context.

For Danilo Venturi, the task of educators is to provide the keys to open all the doors that the students encounter, working on their ability to interpret situations and not solely giving them pre-packaged solutions.

Manifattura Tabacchi is a place in transformation where you can find all of these elements, where they intersect and are made visible. From temporary to final destinations, it is looking to the future and trying to anticipate challenges and incorporate them. As early as next March, the area dedicated to contemporary art will be active and will continually host events, artists and conversations such as Living Room.

“Manifattura Tabacchi opens a new dialogue between people; the energy created is tangible; this energy drives us to develop a new community for Florence and not only.”

Linda Loppa