Flavio Lucchini is perhaps the most influential personage in the Italian publishing world. After training in the most well respected universities in Italy in terms of art, architectre and design, Lucchini moved into publishing. in 1962 he created Amica for the Corriere della Sera Group and in 1965 he was scouted by Condé Nast where he set up the Italian Vogue titles (Vogue, L’Uomo Vogue, Casa Vogue, Vogue Bambini, Glamour) until 1979. In the mid Nineties, he left behind the world of magazines and set out on a journey of discovery and exploration of the relationship between art and fashion. After 15 years of study and research Lucchini began to show his work. In 2011 he was invited to show at the Italian Pavilion at the Biennale in Venezia.

 In 2012, Lucchini returns home, to Mantova, precisely to Sabbioneta, a small Italian town in the province of Mantua first built by Duke Vespasiano Gonzaga Colonna on the Humanist ideal of the perfect city to live in.

 In an exhibition where fashion and humanist architecture come together, Lucchini pays homage to Mantova, and his origins. He idealizes the dress, as a metaphor for contemporary society where his installations enter into a harmonious yet contrasting dialogue with the stunning rooms of the Ducal Palace at Sabbioneta.

 Through the installations, the opulence and elegance of the Renaissance are juxtaposed to intellectual elegance, to the refined sobriety which Lucchini believes to be the sublimation of beauty. The artist explores the relationship between living history and living fashion, almost as though they were one and the same.

Mostra antologica a Palazzo Ducale. Installazioni site-specific. Opere dal 1990 al 2012
Palazzo Ducale -  Sabbioneta (MN)
Sunday 23rd September – Sunday 28th October 2012  

Written by: Valentina Zannoni