#ROUNDRIVER SS 24 Presentation of Maria Calderara’s Spring Summer 2024 collection in dialogue with the artwork of Antonio Scaccabarozzi

Created in dialogue with the works of Antonio Scaccabarozzi (Merate, 1936 - Santa Maria Hoè, 2008), painter of light and infinite transparencies, some items from the new collection of Maria Calderara, great experimenter and passionate collector, already author of capsule to the artists Gianni Pettena and Luca Maria Patella.

On Friday 22nd September, at 6.30 pm, at the SPAZIO #mariacalderara in Milan (Via Lazzaretto, 15), #ROUNDRIVER SS 24 will be presented to the public, a clean, fluid, assertive collection.

Maria Calderara's clothes and jewels, together with some selected works by #antonioscaccabarozzi, will be exhibited until 17 October 2023 in Milan, as part of the project carried out in collaboration with the #antonioscaccabarozzi Archive Association and Galleria Clivio.

«Round River – explains Maria Calderara – is a river that flows on itself, which goes round and round in an endless circle. It is a metaphor of existence and perennial energy that retraces the circular pattern, always creating new shapes and reflections».

From the circle, a shape dear to #mariacalderara, her new collection is born, which reinterprets the works of #antonioscaccabarozzi starting from some recurring themes in the designer's production, such as the liquidity of color, which opens onto fabrics leaving circular imprints, or the memory of pure water, of which only a shadow remains, a memory, an irregular line that forms a circle underlined by a thick embroidery on a top. Black and white, white with a flash of cherry red, sunny yellow, grass green and blue in various shades, from cobalt to ultramarine blue, determine the palette of the collection.

The famous NO by Scaccabarozzi appears resolute and unexpected on a dress through the slowness of the embroidery, as if to highlight the time necessary for the negation that repeats and multiplies, turning into a graphic sign that is strengthened and canceled at the same time. Light fabrics, wrinkled, washed, hand painted, laser cut and expertly stitched together to create a cascade of square petals. The game of soft-rigid, transparent-opaque, crunchy-fluid, masculine-feminine contrasts is always present. The maxi t-shirts in tulle, silk and cotton batiste invite overlapping, playing with transparencies, materials and colours. The close-fitting jersey full moon dress re-proposes the shape of the circle, this time carved into the fabric, and can be played alone or layered. A skirt interprets Iniezioni, works from the 1980s, with hand-printed stamps which, pinned to the skirt like petals, follow the movement of the person revealing other colored injections, small glimmers, doors to the elusive and multicolored soul. Finally, the homage to Scaccabarozzi returns in the dress conceived as a collage of newsprint on a cotton muslin, creating an unsettling effect and confirming the continuous research on materials, which become plastic and conceptual. The illusion of matter also continues on some jewels, whose preciousness is based on formal research and the production process.

Water was one of the main elements and constituent material of Scaccabarozzi's works. Jewels with crystals and ice stones that are about to melt highlight the bond with water. #mariacalderara has blocked its reflection through the glass, like a fragment of the current of the Round River. After a long and patient work, carried out in Murano with the latest glass masters, she managed to create innovative glass stones. No two stones of the same color and shape will ever be found. Unique pieces like the becoming of water.

The setting includes a heart dedicated to garments and jewels, inserted in an atmosphere that will recall the artist's glazes. The exhibition display was conceived to offer a dedicated vision of both the works of Antonio Scaccabarozzi, which will occupy the walls of the SPAZIO, and of the creations of #mariacalderara, which will be installed in the centre.

Some representative works of Antonio Scaccabarozzi's career from the end of the seventies to the nineties will be exhibited. Among these, CentoOttoVolteNo from 1983, an acrylic work on paper that arises from the artist's desire to break the mold and move on to a fluid, magical artistic practice that does not obey the concept of "finished", "finished" and "recognizable". Also noteworthy are a blue ink on polyethylene, characterized by broad, dense and transparent brushstrokes, the columns of Essenziale, a tribute to Brancusi's infinite column, and a Banchisa from the 1990s, generated by colored and welded polyethylene sheets, which give life to particular colors and shapes in movement.

«I think Antonio would appreciate this project – declares Anastasia Rouchota, universal heir of the artist – because his gaze was always open and curious. A special thanks goes to Maria for having approached Antonio's work with sincere passion and great respect, but also for having felt free to reinterpret it through her own research, thus giving life to a collection that comes from two kindred souls».

«All colors - wrote Antonio Scaccabarozzi - possess different and particular potentials, which often remain unknown until someone grasps their importance and somehow makes it visible».

The #spaziomariacalderara (Via Lazzaretto, 15) will be open to the public until 17 October 2023, from Monday to Friday from 9.00-18.00. Free admission. For information: www.mariacalderara.it.