Elio Fiorucci’s Exhibition Opened at Triennale Milano Was Long Overdue

MILAN — What you see around now in fashion, retail and advertisement, Elio Fiorucci did much of it first.

That’s the feeling visitors of the new exhibition bowing at the Triennale Milano museum here are likely to walk away with after experiencing again a glimpse of the colorful world the late designer created.

Unveiled on Wednesday and running through March 16, the showcase is the largest and most extensive exhibition dedicated to Fiorucci, who died in July 2015 at age 80 after having disrupted the worlds of fashion and retail with the opening of the mother of all retail concepts in the late ‘60s.

Curated by Judith Clark and staged by scenographer and director Fabio Cherstich, the exhibition displays more than 500 pieces across different media. The goal was to retrace not only his work and capture Fiorucci’s different dimensions as entrepreneur, cool hunter and merchant but also to offer a peek into his life and character, spotlighting how this contributed to building a lively community of designers, artists, architects, illustrators and pop personalities around his name.

“I’ve discovered his work is included in just a few museums. The V&A, for example, has very few pieces,” said Clark during a press preview. “But this enabled me to work with Fiorucci’s family and the private collections of his collaborators like Franco Marabelli and Giannino Malossi, who not only lent items to the show but shared key episodes of Fiorucci’s life and projects.”

A room-size installation reimagining Fiorucci’s studio and neon banners hailing from his stores and hanging from Triennale’s high ceiling are only a few of the elements featured in the short yet dense exhibition path, adding to a plethora of photographs and videos; colorful clothing and accessories; flashy stickers and illustrations; abstract sketches and design projects; provocative posters, and iconic campaigns, like the ones photographed by Oliviero Toscani that created a stir at the time.

Highlights in the exhibit include an artwork Keith Haring realized in 1983, when Fiorucci invited him to take over the Galleria Passerella store in Milan and entirely cover it with his graffiti art; a large-scale arty sculpture Alessandro Mendini created for the Fiorucci shop in Verona; images of Andy Warhol and young Madonna at Fiorucci events; Polaroids taken by stylist and artist Maripol, who also doubled as the art director of the Fiorucci store in New York, which commonly was described as a “daytime Studio 54”; the Fiorucci-branded Richard Ginori dishware and restaurant menus offering hip avocado-based dishes already in the ‘70s, both hailing from the café Fiorucci installed in Milan’s Via Torino store, foreseeing the blurring of fashion, retail and hospitality that’s so popular right now.

Having a landmark design and architectural institution like Triennale pay tribute to Fiorucci speaks volume about the multidisciplinary approach the late designer had toward creativity and commerce.

“In the past few years we’ve channeled our efforts in retracing the life and works of some of the cultural protagonists this city has welcomed,” said Triennale’s president Stefano Boeri, citing the likes of Ettore Sottsass, Enzo Mari and Gae Aulenti. “This city has a debt towards them. And I believe the debt towards Fiorucci was one of huge proportions. He was one of the people inspiring key and different personalities of this city and linking their lives’ trajectory.”

“Fashion, music, design, advertising and the relationship between culture and commerce: without Elio Fiorucci, all these would be different,” continued Boeri, adding that the museum “wanted to fill, right here, where the Fiorucci phenomenon was born and exploded, the void of a formidable amnesia.”

The new ownership and management of the Fiorucci brand helped organizers in this process by becoming the main partner of the exhibition. Fiorucci’s chief executive officer Alessandro Pisani underscored how, seeing the final result “has certainly increased the sense of responsibility we live at Fiorucci as guardians of a brand with such an important heritage, [strongly tied] to the extraordinary profile of a genius like Elio.”

According to the executive, Triennale’s show gives Fiorucci credit that is long overdue and not recognized when he was alive, “especially compared to those of other great names of the Italian fashion and social scenes.” 

“But then we saw these names and brands employing Fiorucci’s pioneering methods in trying to connect with communities,” said Pisani, who now wishes that a new generation “who didn’t have the fortune to experience Fiorucci’s heydays” will rediscover and engage with his vision, too.

“Fiorucci belongs to everyone,” said Pisani.

“There are many ways to read this exhibition. When one thinks of Fiorucci, he is reminded of the brand, of the neon lights, of pink hues or a specific shirts,” said Clark. “We’re in Milan, and every visitor will bring a personal memory as they step in the exhibit: It’s so difficult to show something that already belongs to [them]. So it was important for me that this show remained an open [book] rather than a finished essay,” she said.

Organizers decided to keep such a conversation alive with a call-to-action by creating an e-mail address and inviting the public to share their experiences, memories and ideas about Fiorucci. “This is just the beginning, we would like this to become a choral and popular project, like the Fiorucci phenomenon was,” said Boeri. 

The exhibition path was conceived with the same spirit, gathering testimonies and objects from different sources to build a chronological journey starting from Fiorucci’s childhood, probably the least known part of his life but seen as pivotal in shaping his future work.

The show opens by recreating a classroom, replete with an old-school desk and a window overlooking the whole exhibit in lieu of a blackboard. Cherstich said the installation was conceived after learning that Fiorucci was a distracted student, more interested to what was happening outside the class.

One of the most poignant documents in the show was also displayed in this set-up: a replica of an essay dubbed “How I wish and imagine my future to be” written by a young Fiorucci and shared by his sister Floria. 

The text reveals his mature self-awareness and already clear vision. “I would like to have, in my life, all the satisfaction that comes from working for oneself. For example, running my own business, with all the rewards of successful deals and the anxieties over uncertain ones,” wrote Fiorucci. “In my opinion, a successful merchant is undoubtedly a perfect man. His work puts all his skills to the test. A merchant is constantly engaged in a battle of wits and skills with his competitors, and it is precisely in this competition or struggle that he finds enjoyment in his profession.”

“I imagine my future like that of a merchant. It doesn’t matter if I don’t fully succeed in my profession. I will keep fighting and hoping, because I believe that this is where the true joy of this work lies. A merchant is nothing but a player and, like a true player, he cannot walk away from the gambling table even when he loses,” read the text. 

Building on this, organizers wanted Fiorucci himself to be the narrator of the show. Audio recordings of a never-published interview he conducted right before passing away offered many stories about key life moments to visitors via installations of vintage phones and speakers.

Recordings retraced episodes including his childhood during war time, when Fiorucci’s family moved from Milan to the countryside on Lake Como, with the new landscape set to inform his love for nature and eco-conscious environmental sensibility in the years to come; how he worked at his family business of slippers upon his return to the city, and how he created fashion jeans in the early ‘70s by putting stretch into denim and cutting it in flattering shapes for a woman’s figure. 

“There are themes that make him still so contemporary as he anticipated [trends]. And he did it with great discretion, with his way of being eccentric without looking like one,” said Cherstich, pointing to Fiorucci’s uniform — white shirt, round-necked sweater and loden coat. 

“Containing multitudes was the main trait of Elio Fiorucci and the work [Clark and Cherstich] did was to embrace the many worlds this man has been able to generate.” said Marco Sammicheli, director of Museo del Design Italiano, who described Fiorucci as “fearless.”

As part of the show organizers, Sammicheli wanted someone with the same spirit to curate the exhibition. He said Clark was the ideal choice as she is “a respected and international curator, [and a person] that could have had our same bravery in deep diving into this story, which is strictly related to Milan but that has also taken Milan around the world.”