Iris Van Harpen Exhibition at Louvre Museum

Sculpting the Senses, a project curated by Cloé Pitiot and assistant curator Louise Curtis.

The exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, from November 29, 2023, to April 28, 2024, pays homage to one of the most forward-thinking and astonishing fashion designers of our time. A pioneer in her field, Iris van Herpen transcends conventional norms of clothing by conceiving fashion as an interdisciplinary language between art, chemistry, dance, physics, architecture, biology, and design. The exhibition explores the place of the body in space, its relationship with clothing and the environment, and its future in a rapidly evolving world. Featured within the exhibition are Fratelli Boffi's Gothik-A sideboard and Good Vibration storage unit, the latter of which has been part of the MAD's permanent collection since 2022.

The fine woodworking skill of Fratelli Boffi and the creativity of Ferruccio Laviani have given life to these two pieces of design with an innovative and majestic appearance that resonate with the theme of the body evoked in organic and architectural networks. Good Vibration recalls Eastern aesthetics through a "shattered" design that gives the furniture an anomalous and irregular appearance, overturning the parameters of classic design understood as purity and symmetry of lines. The Gothik-A sideboard, also designed by Ferruccio Laviani, features an oak decoration that wraps around the glass cabinet like a cobweb, creating an eclectic piece of furniture that perfectly echoes one of Iris Van Herpen's dresses, inspired by the façade of a Gothic cathedral. Much more than a fashion exhibition, Iris Van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses allows visitors to enter a unique and hybrid universe between fashion, design, experimentation, and technology.