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23/07/2020 | DESIGN, PEOPLE

FELICE LIMOSANI. A CREATIVE WITHOUT LIMITS

Posted by: Gisella Borioli

Multimedia artist and visual designer, an innovator who eludes classifications, sought-after by the big fashion brands as well as by the worldwide museums and international universities, Felice Limosani is a no limits creative , able to see beyond and put beauty in a futuristic scenario. He says: "My personal direction is neo-Renaissance made of humanistic values, craftsmanship and technology, creativity and originality. For me, design is Italian: we have always been the country that generates quality, beauty and intuition capable of improving life and its daily taste."

You were among the first creatives to reinvent the "story" of the products with real unprecedented performances between art and technology. How did this professional choice come about?
I am a self-taught, no university or professional school. I made my debut as a DJ in the 80s and 90s, training myself with the poetry of remix. For 20 years I loved music and the night while during the day I used to read (and still do) for passion of sociology and technology essays with a humanistic orientation...

Multimedia artist and visual designer, an innovator who eludes classifications, sought-after by the big fashion brands as well as by the worldwide museums and international universities, Felice Limosani is a no limits creative , able to see beyond and put beauty in a futuristic scenario. He says: "My personal direction is neo-Renaissance made of humanistic values, craftsmanship and technology, creativity and originality. For me, design is Italian: we have always been the country that generates quality, beauty and intuition capable of improving life and its daily taste."

You were among the first creatives to reinvent the "story" of the products with real unprecedented performances between art and technology. How did this professional choice come about?
I am a self-taught, no university or professional school. I made my debut as a dj in the 80s and 90s, training myself with the poetry of remix. For 20 years I loved music and the night while during the day I used to read (and still do) for passion of sociology and technology essays with a humanistic orientation. I owe much to authors such as Zygmunt Bauman, Francesco Morace, Giampaolo Fabris, Jeffrey Schnapp up to Umberto Galimberti and Alessandro Baricco. In 2000 I created a start up with Nokia realizing that in the future reality would be mediated by a screen through mobile phones. It was a crucial experience. So in 2002, with a wealth of unusual and personal knowledge, I met Andrea Panconesi founder of Luisaviaroma in Florence. Pioneeringly I suggested to transform the commercial store into a place of multidisciplinary creativity and move to online sales through ecommerce. The founding idea reversed for the first time the experience of buying products into purchasing of then unprecented artistic experiences. I wanted to turn trade into a dimension that could enrich people beyond consumption. So I started doing a precise job well before a specific word could define it between culture, innovation and experiences.

Today everyone is oriented towards digital, dematerialization, videos, allusions and illusions. What will change in exhibit design, in fashion and design weeks?
What we thought was the only possible reality is being dematerialized. Fashion, design and more have lost those reassuring and illusory coordinates that before the pandemic already demanded a change as well as a new awareness. Digital platforms, virtual experiences, new social behaviours determined by technologies are extraordinary opportunities not to give answers to old formulas but to ask questions about new formats. In this dimension exhibit design can be the detonator of an explosive week that begins when the event ends. Different audiences can be attracted online, involved in a constant dialogue on social media or with dedicated apps to expand the cultural, social and creative value behind fashion and design. In this way we would improve the governance of the digital universe, provided that the contents resonate products and collections with benefits and values aimed at sustainability, circularity and social, cultural and consumer responsibility.

How do you recall the experiences you brought in different years at Superstudio, from the liquid that solidifies with magnetism for Adidas, to the Magritte-like mechanical performance, to the video showcase for Pucci?
Spaces have a soul but also a psychology, a posture and a style. My work is based on multidisciplinary and the encroachment of languages. I have always thought that art should not be confined to biennials, galleries and museums, but must overflow, on the streets, in the suburbs, in boutiques, in hotels and wherever it is possible to express and share reflections and aesthetics through art. Superstudio pioneered a cultured and modern idea of place and space, "staging" principles detached from the inconsistent blob of events. In the past I exhibited in museums and art galleries but some projects would not have had the same result if they had not happened at Superstudio, to remind us that the content and the container are faces of the same amazement.

Technology and humanism, aesthetics and science, local and global, physical and virtual relationships. How do you put all this together?
dj’s career has influenced my vision by teaching me that music is not the genres in which it is catalogued by styles and times, but a language that makes any classification useless. I am inspired by Ars Combinatoria, I mix them together thinking of them as music both when I improvise, and when I compose to reach the harmony that excites myself and the listener. I do not treat them as distinct areas, I consider them intrinsically connected, able to influence and interact with each other. I hybrid them into a polyphony by focusing on people and storytelling to transcend and go beyond. After all, creativity and innovation means knowing how to cross the worlds with imagination and concreteness.

How would you "describe" yourself to someone who doesn’t know you?
Describing myself professionally is almost impossible. In every definition I find limits, they are straitjackets. For convenience I had no problem calling myself an electrician or a window dresser while the press went to call me a genius, others an artist, all passing by the wizard of emotions, minstrel of communication and the creative who was not there. In reality, labels do not count anything compared to who I am. I can only say that I am a passionate man who studies and works, a dowser who tries to do well what he does for himself and for others with a touch of poetry.




“Acts”, kinetic installation inspired by the surrealist iconography of René Magritte. The bowler hats are raised, the hands clap and the pipes rise and fall with compressed air mechanisms. Artwork by Felice Limosani at Art.Box Superstudio Più 2010
"Liquid Story", The interaction between a magnetic field and ferrous liquid creates a sinuous morphology in movement. Sculpture combined with a video installation immersed in 360 ”. by Felice Limosani for Adidas Original at Superstudio Più 2009
“Emilio Remix”, Emilio Pucci's iconic scarves become imaginative animals animated in 3D. Video art by Felice Limosani commissioned for the maison's 60th anniversary at Art.Box Superstudio Più 2007
"MAGNIFICENT", Digital installation by Felice Limosani with Andrea Bocelli narration at Sala d'Arme Palazzo Vecchio Firenze 2015. Ph Alessandro Moggi

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