MARSÈLL PARADASE

Critical Generation: Marsèll Paradise, this name is fascinating, in some respects it suggests a slightly retro dimension, almost the name of a beach on the Riviera Romagnola during the summer holidays. Can you tell us how the name was born and what references it suggests?

Loris Moretto: It’s true, I like your reading. In reality we should ask those who preceded me. I honestly know that the external neon sign that distinguishes this place is part of a project that was created by a duo of Italian artists called Kings. For me, Paradise must simply be a place that stimulates the imagination and where creativity can be touched by hand.

GC: Marsèll Paradise is the curatorial project and the place that hosts a series of projects and exhibition activities. It was born as an extension of Marsèll and dialogue with the brand is still fundamental today. How do you manage this close link with the context of fashion and how does it affect your curatorial choices for the Marsèll spaces?

LM: Marsèll Paradise was created to keep alive and activate true and authentic relationships between artists and a brand that has always supported creativity. For me it is essential to have a certain adherence to the present, to dialogue with independent projects like ours. Fashion does not directly affect my choices, for me what matters more than any other factor is the transformation of language and culture. I think this is significant for being able to reflect the contemporary.

Every lies has an Audience, Installation view, Marsèll Paradise © Photo Lorenzo Capeli

GC: Marsèll Paradise as well as being an exhibition space is also a bookshop: how are the contents to be proposed chosen? Are you still trying to maintain editorial proximity to the fashion and production of the Marsèll brand?

LM: We search for content across the board, trying to be attentive to the consistency and originality of the book, magazine, or fanzine. We have a dedicated person who takes care of research, and sometimes it happens that someone looking for a reality that hosts them offers us to present a new project. Finally, we are increasingly focused on relating the physical or digital initiatives undertaken by Marsèll with the content in our library.

GC: Milan is a city that offers many stimuli in general and many opportunities for collaborations between different disciplinary fields, design, fashion, art, music … what role do schools, universities and academies play in the liveliness of the city’s offer?

LM: Milan is a cultural center, it is a city that offers a lot and in this last period the energy that was breathed before the pandemic is returning. In the city there are many schools that attract talents from all over the world, we pass many students who frequent our spaces to visit the exhibitions, do research through the books or magazines in the bookstore, or to create content with our accessories. Sometimes the professors ask us to have meetings with students to tell our story. Everything happens organically and naturally as we like it.

GC: Marsèll Paradise is in a certain sense close to other experiences and contemporary art projects promoted by fashion houses or luxury brands in Milan. Can this increasingly solid bond be understood as a contemporary patronage?

LM: In our case, it is an authentic intention to enter into a relationship with those who have decided to build their future through creativity. I think that the passion to take an interest in and learn about the work of a person or a collective is essential to start talking to each other in a sincere way. That said, time then allowed the company to become aware of it and supporters and today this natural inclination to support artists leads us to be perceived in this way.

Spontaneum, installation views, Marsèll, © Photo Lorenzo Capelli

GC: Magazines have always been a fundamental container for the dissemination, study and research of trends, both for art and for fashion. In recent years we have witnessed a crisis in the publishing sector conventionally and structurally understood (I am thinking of the large publishing groups) but referring to a liveliness of the independent and more underground scene. How do you relate, as a curator and as a communication professional, with new content vehicles?

LM: I’ve always been research-oriented, I’ve always liked to pick up weak signals that would then influence and help generate something new to feel good in those places as in a home environment. Traveling daily by train to school since I was a teenager, I had to invent ways to make that time on the train more enjoyable and less boring. It was then that I discovered several independent newspapers that still mark the evolution of the present today. Compared to when I was young I think I have greater sensitivity towards paper as a material on which content is printed and then on content in general.

The digital transformation is yet another revolution underway for which we must know how to move in an authoritative way and in a transdisciplinary way. There can be a lot of quality even through digital media. Fashion, art and design have always had very profound connections, but there are very vertical and more radical cases whereby waterproof membranes are almost activated that do not allow mixing. The fact remains that every human being is endowed with free will and can decide where he wants to place himself.

CG: The exhibitions that have so far been hosted in the spaces of Marsell Paradise are incredibly varied: starting from ‘A theme is not an exhibition’ with a photographic choice, passing through ‘It’s love. Or is it madness? Cocoricò 1991-1992 ‘in which, instead, new installation solutions are sought for an archive, and finally arrive at exhibitions such as’ A Is A is A’, entirely dedicated to typography. It is clear in this attitude the intention to experiment with different languages trying to promote interdisciplinarity. What is at the root of these choices?

LM: The root of these choices can be found in my previous answer. When I received this responsibility, I drew a perimeter made up of six words that would serve me to maintain direction through multidisciplinarity. To date, this is the only formula that has guided me to maintain a consistent line.

Every Lies has an Audience, installation view, Marsèll Paradase © Photo Lorenzo Capelli

CG: In addition to interdisciplinarity, it seems to be important to create a community around the brand and the artistic project. What are the ways in which you try to maintain this bond between people? Have you seen a sense of familiarity grow over the years among the visitors of Marsèll Paradise? Who is the Marsell Paradise audience?

LM: We like to be transversal while remaining within the circuit of independent projects. We are interested in activating initiatives dedicated to different groups of people who have areas of common interest. Musicians, performers, cartoonists, photographers, graphic designers, curators, artists and in turn their reference communities. Variety is essential for exploring different reading angles of creativity. And thanks to the continuity and the desire to maintain an always active dialogue that over the years there have been positive developments and today we are happy that people perceive the consistency of this space.

CG: What are the new goals and projects that you would like to explore in the artistic direction of Marsèll Paradise?

LM: Work is underway that will change the face of the street level of Marsèll Paradise, this is because we have decided to make the space more neutral and modular in order to have a real exhibition surface on two levels.

During the Design Week we started to do a first site-specific project with Matylda Krzykowski but by September I think we will be able to manifest ourselves better and more clearly. We want to become a real point of reference for the city capable of being recognized more and more internationally. To do this we will try to build bridges between Milan and other cities in the world.

07/07/2022

YDWSWTFI, Installation view, Marsèll Paradase © Photo Lorenza Capelli