Dolce & Gabbana / From the Heart to the Hands

From the Heart to the Hands
Spotlight on Dolce&Gabbana’ s unprecedented exhibition

From April 7th to July 31st, Dolce & Gabbana opens its doors to the public for its multisensory and artistic exhibition at Palazzo Reale in Milan. This international event is sponsored by the Municipality of Milan in collaboration with IMG.

When we hear “Dolce & Gabbana”, a very specific aesthetic is imprinted in our minds, a world-renowned identity that has marked the history of fashion. What we didn’t expect is the cultural and artistic turning point that the brand has impressed upon the heart of Milan. From April 7th until July 31st, Palazzo Reale hosts a unique exhibition, with an elaborate structural and conceptual core. The initiative stems from the collaboration of major powers in the industry, indeed promoted by the municipality of Milan and the IMG foundation, and curated by Florence Muller, director of the Union Française des Arts du Costume and curator of Fashion and Textile Art at the Denver Art Museum.

This unprecedented initiative in Milan is a truly complex and internationally scaled endeavour. The Italian metropolis is merely the first stop of an exhibition tour that will continue to other culturally significant cities. Drawing from the affiliated title, the exhibition is the visual transposition of a beating heart, an inner journey told through an author’s cinematic narrative. Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce have opened the doors to understanding their creative process, investigating and highlighting the intense bond between genius and hands, thought and action. Every form of expression is the result of human endeavour; primal gestures, manual precision, haute couture, are the finest tools capable of transforming any creative desire into visual reality. Opulence and high jewellery are showcased with a multitude of perspectives and communicative devices, drawing from the past but with a reading entirely relevant to our social context. The exhibition path is conceived and structured as a succession of 10 rooms, each a distinct identity unto itself. The perception is that of entering a dreamlike terrain or a suggestive mental grid, where different contexts and imaginaries blend and alternate with the ability to estrange from the outside world.

In a society that tends to solely project its gaze towards the future, the two designers lead us backwards towards the appreciation and exaltation of some of the most significant human artworks: white baroque, grand opera, the mastery of Venetian glass, the Leopard, sumptuous architecture, or even Byzantine mosaics… are just some of the great soulful pillars of the brand. Origins are fertile ground for new horizons, and knowing how to incorporate them into one’s own progress is what constitutes a true creative soul. As an introduction to the exhibition, renowned visual artists (such as Felice Limosani, Obvious Art, Alberto Maria Colombo, Quayola, Vittorio Bonapace, and Catelloo) were chosen to create works capable of offering a reinterpretation of the brand and an opening towards the contemporary artistic scene. As for the heart of the exhibition, everything was conceived as a grand hymn: to sacredness, craftsmanship, our homeland, a fertile ground for creative inspiration.

In a society that often leads us to admire elsewhere and the distant, what is not close to us, Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce want to open our eyes, reminding us that we live in one of the most fervent cultural and aesthetic contexts, homeland of great creatives, and safeguarding expressive desire is but our duty. Being Italian means, in fact, loving one’s land, knowing how to protect it, and exploit its potential. “From the heart to the hands”, it’s a passion that transcends clichès and categories, it is an inner exploration; it bridges cultural divides and safeguards creative desires. It’s homage to the treasures of nature and mankind, it’s a pure declaration of love towards art, thought, and creation.