MILAN — “I like magnificence, it’s not my fault,” Valentino Garavani famously mentioned when filmed for the Matt Tyrnauer 2008 documentary on his life, “The Final Emperor.”
Quick ahead to 2025 and wonder continues to catch the attention of the couturier and his longtime companion, Giancarlo Giammetti.
That phrase will now be a centerpiece of PM23, the venue in Rome that hosts the Fondazione Valentino Garavani e Giancarlo Giammetti’s cultural initiatives. Mirrors bearing these phrases will probably be commissioned as an art work to be positioned on the entrance of PM23, revealed Giammetti in an interview.
“’Magnificence creates magnificence’ is the guideline of the Fondazione, it’s on the middle of all of it, as inspiration and progress,” Giammetti mentioned. “The house will host all cultural actions supported by the Fondazione with exhibitions, occasions, workshops and initiatives devoted to the celebration of magnificence in all its varieties, to protect it and market it for the longer term.”
Dubbed PM23 from the tackle of the constructing in Piazza Mignanelli 23, subsequent to the storied Valentino headquarters in Rome, the inspiration will stage its first occasion within the house in Could.
Palazzo Gabrielli Mignanelli is a late Renaissance palace constructed round 1575 close to the town’s landmark Spanish Steps. The Valentino trend home is a separate entity and enterprise from the inspiration. Giammetti mentioned, nevertheless, that clothes from the Valentino archive, which stays the property of the couture home, will probably be over time displayed by the inspiration at PM23.
The muse was established in 2016 as an entity with a philanthropic mission and is taking form with its first exhibition house in Rome, the place its actions will happen. After one 12 months of conservative restoration works as a multidisciplinary house protecting 10,800 sq. ft, it’s the “beating coronary heart of the cultural actions of the Fondazione,” Giammetti mentioned. “It’s a veritable museum of artwork and trend.”
The principle entrance of PM23.
Reflecting Garavani’s and Giammetti’s aesthetic imaginative and prescient, the inspiration will probably be dedicated to a few key pillars: the help of social and philanthropic initiatives; enhancing the humanities and tradition, and expertise training and backing.
“Our aim is to carry two exhibitions per 12 months and dedicate three months to workshops and contests to assist younger skills discover their voice and supply them with scholarships,” Giammetti mentioned.
The exhibitions and methods of the inspiration are conceived by Giammetti, who will probably be flanked every time by curators. For the inaugural exhibition, which pays tribute to the legacy of Garavani and Giammetti, the curators are Anna Coliva, beforehand director of Galleria Borghese, and Pamela Golbin, beforehand head curator of the Division of Vogue and Textiles of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, respectively answerable for artwork and trend.
The occasion “will mix trend and modern artwork marking the start of a program of exhibitions that may make PM23 a vacation spot for a global public and some extent of reference for creativity and rising expertise,” Giammetti mentioned.
Giammetti underscored that staging an exhibition “doesn’t imply solely to assemble a string of lovely issues, as there must be a that means, a union between trend and artwork, by no means contrasting. And a few exhibitions will probably be surprising. As [artist Francis] Picabia mentioned, ‘If you wish to have clear concepts change them as typically as your shirts.’”
“The Fondazione is self-funded, which permits us to have freedom of alternative in choosing company and artists and within the decision-making, which is essential to us,” continued Giammetti, who holds the function of vice chairman of the inspiration, whereas Garavani is its president.
They’ve collected artworks all through their lives, and Giammetti mentioned they may even show a few of their private masterpieces at PM23.
Working with native and worldwide organizations, current tasks of the inspiration vary from the help of hospitals such because the Bambin Gesù and the Policlinico Gemelli, each in Rome, and supplementing the earnings of households in want within the Italian capital. It is usually dedicated to defending cultural establishments such because the Valentino Garavani theater in Voghera.
An archival photograph of Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti.
In 2020, the inspiration donated 1 million euros to the Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli hospital in Rome to help the brand new Columbus COVID 2 unit, which was established by the well being care middle to deal with COVID-19 sufferers.
In 2019, the inspiration additionally dedicated funding to the CFDA’s Vogue Manufacturing Initiative, connecting rising American designers to manufacturing sources.