2024
DOBRILA DENEGRI: I AM ALWAYS DRAWN TOWARDS THOSE PIECES THAT MAKE ME WONDER
Ivana Conte: Tell us about your background and your career's big break.
Dobrila Denegri: I grew up in Belgrade surrounded by contemporary art since my parents are art historians who worked with the most avant-garde and cutting-edge artists of their time. At the same time, I was always very interested in cinema, music, and, in particular, fashion. My involvement with fashion began in the early 90s through the organisation of fashion, or, more likely, "antifashion" presentations, and through writing about fashion and art interrelations.
After obtaining a degree in the History of Art in Rome, I began working at MACRO - the Museum of Contemporary Art as a curator. Among many projects run there, I organised a lecture by Naoki Takizawa, the artistic director of Issey Miyake at the time. I was really fascinated by Miyake's show "Making Things" at the Foundation Cartier in Paris, and I became more interested in fashion exhibitions in general.
At the time, nobody spoke about fashion curating.
So, I began to conduct interviews, reaching out to Linda Loppa, Kaat Debo, Judith Clark, Valerie Steele, Maria Luisa Frisa, Barbara Franchin, Emanuele Quinz, Luca Marchetti and others in order to map different approaches in fashion curation.
I had a column in the CURA magazine, and I wanted to learn about fashion displays.
For me, the best way to gain knowledge is through learning by doing. Besides, there has been no literature on this topic yet.
When I became artistic director of one of Poland's newest and biggest contemporary art museums, CCA in Tourn, I ventured into fashion curating, making the exhibition "Wonderingmode" in 2013.
Again, I was interested in practices that can't easily be placed in the disciplinary boxes, neither art nor fashion, but a hybrid, something not necessarily wearable and conceptually challenging. Besides, at that time emerging names like Yuima Nakazato, Minna Palmqvist, Ana Rajčević, and Emilia Tikka, I presented the works of some more established designers, like Hussein Chalayan, Naomi Filmer, and Iris Van Herpen.
Interested in this kind of practice, I continued exploring it through the exhibition-in-progress "Transfashional", which toured several museums and galleries in the UK, Sweden, Austria, Poland and Italy between 2016 and 2020.
Now, I have initiated a new adventure, "EFA - Experiments in Fashion and Art", which is a think tank and a way to create a community of in-betweeners who work in the domain of art and critical fashion.
IC: How did you get into the realm of art and fashion education?
DD: After Naoki Takizawa's conference in 2004, I was invited to lecture at Sapienza University's newly launched Fashion Studies course.
Later, when I interviewed Linda Loppa, who took over as director of Polimoda in Florence, I was also invited to teach there.
It was a great opportunity because I had the freedom to shape the course and decide the contents of my lectures. I also discovered that I love teaching and being in touch with younger generations.
It urges me to update my knowledge and seek the most cutting-edge practices in the realms of fashion, design and art.
IC: Your favourite art-in-fashion moment?
DD: The Fashion Biennial in Florence, held in 1996/97, which Germano Celant, Ingrid Sischy, and Franca Sozzani curated. It was amazing to see the city transformed into a gigantic open-air museum showcasing the best of what was happening in fashion and art at the time. This great event initiated the whole contemporary fashion curation path, although it probably happened too early and wasn't understood or received well back then.
IC: Which cities are the best sources of contemporary art and fashion inspiration?
DD: I like what happens in Arnheim, Holland, and the biennial State of Fashion manifestation there. It is a very inspiring way of discussing the structural change that has to occur in the mainstream and luxury fashion industry. It departs from the sustainable agenda and focuses on the Global South as a new creative pool. The last edition of the State of Fashion platform happened simultaneously in several other cities in India, Brazil, and Kenya. Those, and similar previously considered marginal, are the places to look more closely at.
IC: Which digital museum and galleries do you recommend for inspiration for our international creative crowd?
DD: New York’s New Museum has online exhibitions, which can be viewed on the museum’s website. Gallerie Köning’s website also features a magazine with interesting insights into artists working with the gallery. Revelin magazine is also interesting, as it features art, design, fashion, cinema, and music and pays particular attention to young creatives.
IC: What does an art and design piece need to be worth your attention?
DD: I am always drawn towards those pieces that make me wonder, and I don’t know what to say about them!
2024
DOBRILA DENEGRI: I AM ALWAYS DRAWN TOWARDS THOSE PIECES THAT MAKE ME WONDER
Ivana Conte: Tell us about your background and your career's big break.
Dobrila Denegri: I grew up in Belgrade surrounded by contemporary art since my parents are art historians who worked with the most avant-garde and cutting-edge artists of their time. At the same time, I was always very interested in cinema, music, and, in particular, fashion. My involvement with fashion began in the early 90s through the organisation of fashion, or, more likely, "antifashion" presentations, and through writing about fashion and art interrelations.
After obtaining a degree in the History of Art in Rome, I began working at MACRO - the Museum of Contemporary Art as a curator. Among many projects run there, I organised a lecture by Naoki Takizawa, the artistic director of Issey Miyake at the time. I was really fascinated by Miyake's show "Making Things" at the Foundation Cartier in Paris, and I became more interested in fashion exhibitions in general.
At the time, nobody spoke about fashion curating.
So, I began to conduct interviews, reaching out to Linda Loppa, Kaat Debo, Judith Clark, Valerie Steele, Maria Luisa Frisa, Barbara Franchin, Emanuele Quinz, Luca Marchetti and others in order to map different approaches in fashion curation.
I had a column in the CURA magazine, and I wanted to learn about fashion displays.
For me, the best way to gain knowledge is through learning by doing. Besides, there has been no literature on this topic yet.
When I became artistic director of one of Poland's newest and biggest contemporary art museums, CCA in Tourn, I ventured into fashion curating, making the exhibition "Wonderingmode" in 2013.
Again, I was interested in practices that can't easily be placed in the disciplinary boxes, neither art nor fashion, but a hybrid, something not necessarily wearable and conceptually challenging. Besides, at that time emerging names like Yuima Nakazato, Minna Palmqvist, Ana Rajčević, and Emilia Tikka, I presented the works of some more established designers, like Hussein Chalayan, Naomi Filmer, and Iris Van Herpen.
Interested in this kind of practice, I continued exploring it through the exhibition-in-progress "Transfashional", which toured several museums and galleries in the UK, Sweden, Austria, Poland and Italy between 2016 and 2020.
Now, I have initiated a new adventure, "EFA - Experiments in Fashion and Art", which is a think tank and a way to create a community of in-betweeners who work in the domain of art and critical fashion.
IC: How did you get into the realm of art and fashion education?
DD: After Naoki Takizawa's conference in 2004, I was invited to lecture at Sapienza University's newly launched Fashion Studies course.
Later, when I interviewed Linda Loppa, who took over as director of Polimoda in Florence, I was also invited to teach there.
It was a great opportunity because I had the freedom to shape the course and decide the contents of my lectures. I also discovered that I love teaching and being in touch with younger generations.
It urges me to update my knowledge and seek the most cutting-edge practices in the realms of fashion, design and art.
IC: Your favourite art-in-fashion moment?
DD: The Fashion Biennial in Florence, held in 1996/97, which Germano Celant, Ingrid Sischy, and Franca Sozzani curated. It was amazing to see the city transformed into a gigantic open-air museum showcasing the best of what was happening in fashion and art at the time. This great event initiated the whole contemporary fashion curation path, although it probably happened too early and wasn't understood or received well back then.
IC: Which cities are the best sources of contemporary art and fashion inspiration?
DD: I like what happens in Arnheim, Holland, and the biennial State of Fashion manifestation there. It is a very inspiring way of discussing the structural change that has to occur in the mainstream and luxury fashion industry. It departs from the sustainable agenda and focuses on the Global South as a new creative pool. The last edition of the State of Fashion platform happened simultaneously in several other cities in India, Brazil, and Kenya. Those, and similar previously considered marginal, are the places to look more closely at.
IC: Which digital museum and galleries do you recommend for inspiration for our international creative crowd?
DD: New York’s New Museum has online exhibitions, which can be viewed on the museum’s website. Gallerie Köning’s website also features a magazine with interesting insights into artists working with the gallery. Revelin magazine is also interesting, as it features art, design, fashion, cinema, and music and pays particular attention to young creatives.
IC: What does an art and design piece need to be worth your attention?
DD: I am always drawn towards those pieces that make me wonder, and I don’t know what to say about them!
INSTAGRAM
@EXPERIMENTS.FASHION.ART