Mario Schifano: Maison Valentino And Magazzino Italian Art

As exhibition and installation designers, our role in bringing Mario Schifano’s artistic vision to life extended beyond the museum’s walls. Entrusted with the task of seamlessly integrating the iconic works from the exhibition Mario Schifano: The Rise of the ‘60s into the new Valentino Madison Avenue Flagship store, our team meticulously designed and installed temporary structures to support these masterpieces. We ordered sample materials to create a mockup in our installations to ensure the feasibility of the structure. Later, we assembled the final structures with the help of professional installers on site.

Schifano is perceived as an artist hungry for life, absorbing and transforming everything into painting with his sublime and disenchanted language. Everything acted upon him, shaped his way of seeing and thinking: movies, signage and advertising became tools and linguistic means for artists at the time, and in his case without ever becoming the end itself.

He created the Stelle (Stars), a music group, celestial and earthly at the same time, the grand tree, a natural element he portrayed in a hallucinated version with fuchsia pink enamels, with references to art history and an explicit dedication to the Futurists, pioneers of thought and action. Mario Schifano was a “total” and totalizing artist, in the sense that to him everything was possible and everything could become art.

Artist: Mario Schifano Exhibition Designer: Miguel Quismondo and Ignacio de Siloniz Location: Valentino Madison Avenue Flagship Store, New York, NY Completion Date: 2023 Technical Assistance and Coordination: Ignacio de Siloniz, Gloria Saa Client: Valentino + Magazzino Italian Art Photography: Courtesy of Valentino