Paolo Di Landro | RITMO 22 | 16 January 2024

AlbumArte Present

RITMO 22

Solo show Paolo Di Landro

Curated by Alessio de’ Navasques

Opening TUESDAY 16 JANUARY 2024

H 6.30 pm to 8.30 pm

On view through February 16  

Tuesday through Friday, 3 to 7 p.m.

AlbumArte | Via Flaminia 122, Roma

On Tuesday January 16 2024, AlbumArte, Center for Independent Artistic Production, will open in its Rome headquarters, RITMO 22, a site-specific installation by fashion designer Paolo Di Landro (Ravello 1972, lives and works in Milan). The exhibition, curated by Alessio de’ Navaques, will be on view until February 16, 2024.

AlbumArte continues its process of experimentation with multimedia by offering a special project that speaks through the language of fashion, presenting a unique path designed for the exhibition spaces.

Considered a leading name in Upcycling, with a punk poetics that embraces the concept of error and reshaping an existing garment to give it new meaning, Di Landro has always worked in the intersection with the visual arts. From his association with Miltos Manetas, which makes him part of the Neen group, as the most interesting designer among contemporaries, to the exhibitions he created for the Gloria Maria Gallery of Gloria Maria Cappelletti, a pioneer of digital art, to his collaboration with Milovan Farronato for the Fiorucci Art Trust in Stromboli, to those with Martin Margiela or with director Emma Dante.

For this project, which traces the point of arrival in a path of tireless experimental practice, Di Landro started from the circadian rhythm that marks the times of sleep and wakefulness, to reflect on the attempt to homogenize minds, needs, personalities and consciences, exercised by capitalist society and power.

The dresses designed and created for RITMO 22, are of a single form – among the simplest – that of the sheath dress. Apparently identical, they are actually different in what for a dress is the substance: the fabric and its different weights, in an analysis that seems to fully restore that strength that springs from itself, a recognizable characteristic of Di Landro’s style. Other garments in the installation, used as screens or masks, contain words that transform them into carriers of messages.

The representation of the garment, its reiteration, are thus part of the designer’s process of transformation, to arrive at visual, material and social abstractions.

The RITMO 22 project is dedicated to Domenico De Masi (Rotello, Molise 1938 – Rome Sept. 9, 2023) sociologist, lecturer, scholar, researcher and consultant, professor emeritus of Sociology of Labor at the University of Rome “La Sapienza,” where he was also dean of the Faculty of Communication Sciences, for his generous discussion and support during the preparation of the exhibition.

Biographical note

Paolo Di Landro (Ravello 1972 lives and works in Milan). After classical studies he moved to Milan, where he won a scholarship to Naba. He graduated in Fashion and Textile Design with highest honors. He participated in a Master’s degree at the Royal College on Fashion-London, a Master’s degree in Accessory and Footwear at Domus Academy- Milan and a Master’s degree at Textile in Como. He has always been involved in Re-use and Recycling. He has been involved in Research for many Brands. Produces his own Clothing Collection of unique garments that he distributes in Italy in a closed circuit. Defined by Neen Group, as one of the proponents of Anti-Fashion and Digital Fashion. He works as a researcher for large international Brands and has collaborated with Artisanal Intelligence, for Limited Unlimited, first with the brand Joseph and then as a sustainable designer with the Albertina Academy of Turin, directing a Workshop with Fashion Design students of Upcycling techniques, of which he is one of the early proponents. He collaborates with several newspapers on trend research (I-d, Trend, Mood etc). Since 2022 he has been teaching Sustainable Fashion Design at the Unidee Academy in Biella (Pistoletto Foundation).

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