A collaboration between artist Mattia Casalegno, iconic fashion designer Roberto
Capucci and sound artist Maurizio Martusciello (aka Martux_M).
NFT dropping 2nd July on Foundation
“Il Gesto Sospeso” (the “Suspended Gesture”) is a limited edition series of 18
Audio-Visual Animations, offered as collectible NFT’s. The NFT Limited Edition series is
a reenactment of the original “Il Gesto Sospeso” project, born out of a collaboration between artist Mattia Casalegno, iconic fashion designer Roberto Capucci and sound artist Maurizio Martusciello (aka Martux_M).
In this inaugural NFT release, Casalegno is offering a new way to experience fashion in
the digital age, allowing art enthusiasts to access, collect, support, and partake in an
iconic collaboration. By using NFT, the artist brings new life to this seminal work,bridging
the worlds of traditional craftsmanship, artisanal expertise, and digital Technology. Each NFT will be certified by Verisart.
We ask Mattia Casalegno how the collaboration materialised.
How did the “Il Gesto Sospeso” project come about?
The project was originally exhibited as an interactive site-specific installation at the
Hadrian Temple in the context of the Rome Fashion Week in 2010, produced by @fendi.
In collaboration with @Martux_M and Roberto Capucci ( @fondazion_roberto_capucci )
we created a series of six digital zoomorphic figures presented on high definition
holographic screens, reacting to visitor's movements creating a dialogue with the
audience in the form of sound and movement.
What processes were used to create the works?
To produce the original pieces, we utilised an endoscopic camera to 3D scan hundreds
of details of Capucci’s iconic designs, and subsequently animated digital 3D ‘collages’
morphing into an iconography of mythological symbols referencing evolution,
metamorphosis, biological and metaphysical change. In the last couple of weeks I released a few digital pieces from the original project as NFT collectibles on Foundation.app. For me, this is a way to explore this new medium and maybe offer a new way to experience and collect art and fashion in the digital age. It’s been a new platform for me, and a pretty exciting one.
Why did you choose to collaborate with the Maestro Roberto Capucci?
This has actually been one of the most frequently asked questions. Both Martux_m and
myself have always answered without hesitation, that in Roberto Capucci's sculpted
clothes there is the whole history of contemporary art of the late twentieth century. It
was natural for us to combine creative forces.
In what ways are your worlds of fashion, art and technology interconnected?
The three easily collide. Capucci's world is fashion but he also works in a very sculptural
way; with a focus of forms and materiality. In the same manner I often look to fashion
and pure forms to create my art. We both are captivated with the concept of the 'fold'.
For us the fold invites the desire to transform and it is linked to eroticism and creative
force. I admire the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze’s investigations of folds ("Fold:
Leibniz and Baroque"). One of my favorite quotes is in fact:“The city seems to be a
labyrinth that can be ordered. The world is an infinite series of curvatures or inflections,
and the entire world is enclosed in the soul from one point of view.” I also chose to work with the very specific camera, used in the medical field, because of iits very powerful macro-lenses that allowed me to abstract, de-contextualize Capucci's work and bring it back to its original essence, pure form. Me, Capucci and the whole team had an incredible willingness and enthusiasm for this project. It is also exciting when creatives from different fields work together - the end result is always rich and diverse.
Why have you decided to mint these works as NFTs?
I’ve been thinking about new ways to give life to this project for over 10 years and
thought #NFT tech could be a good platform to offer broader access to the work. The
NFT also echoes the uniqueness of Capucci's dresses. It was important to me to assess the environmental aspect of NFTs and for this reason we have decided to work with the decarbonization advisor, Aerial, where a portion of the proceeds from the collection will be allocated to high quality forest conservation projects verified by American Carbon Registry and to emerging technologies such as Charm industrial that capture carbon from biomass waste and permanently store it underground. The project is inspired by the concept of metamorphosis: a change of the form or nature into completely different forms, by natural or supernatural means. For me this is the metaphor of our human condition: how can we evolve to a new level of consciousness, one more attuned with Nature and the cosmos.