On the occasion of Pitti Immagine Filati 91, the international trade event dedicated to yarns for the knitting industry taking place in Florence at the Fortezza da Basso from June 29 to July 1, 2022, Fondazione Pitti Discovery and the Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci presents "Wild Life Wild Heat", a previously unreleased project by Maurizio Vetrugno, curated by Camilla Mozzato. The exhibition is set up on the Ground Floor of the Main Pavilion, in the Main Hall, where it will remain on show for the entire duration of the event.

“Fondazione Discovery has been working for over twenty years on the areas where fashion and contemporary art interact and intersect one another," said Lapo Cianchi, general secretary of Fondazione Discovery. "We are also firm supporters of the collaborations between cultural institutions, above all when they arise spontaneously."

The work of Maurizio Vetrugno starts with the selection of individual elements (objects, images, signs, artwork) that are celebrated for their beauty and then transformed by the artist following a contemporary aesthetic. Created for Pitti Immagine Filati 91, the "Wild Life Wild Heat" project, 2022 designed by Camilla Mozzato, curator of the Centro Pecci, evokes examples of social theater, particularly in its exhibition of masks: the presences in the surrealist bookstore of André Breton, a metamorphosis of materials and spirits; Andy Warhol’s vibrant Factory and its decades-long legacy on the New York disco scene; Le Théâtre de la Mode by Christian Bérard. Or La Mode au Congo by Man Ray, in which he adorned his mannequins du monde, such as Consuelo de Saint-Exupéry and Meret Oppenheim, with African headdresses and jewels to testify the sophisticated taste of African art and the persistence of its influence on the controversial affirmation of international modernism. When compared to Man Ray, The "Wild Life Wild Heat"’s works take a symmetrical but inverted direction, bringing known and lesser-known subjects into the ceremonial and ritual context of the Balinese theater. The masks on this social stage are famous pop icons or exemplar rebels, exceptional models, unheard prophets, early Dadaists, or characters of pure and simple vanity.

Wild Life Wild Heat by Maurizio Vetrugno
June 29 – July 1, 2022
Pitti Immagine Filati 91
Fortezza da Basso, Main Pavilion

Photo: courtesy image of Pitti Immagine