designed by the Art Workshop
to be inaugurated 11 November at 6.30 pm

Atelier - Palazzo delle Esposizioni
via Milano, 13
Admission free

To mark Italy-Russia Culture Year and the major exhibition entitled Socialist Realisms. Soviet Painting 1920-1970, which tells the story of the plurality of visual culture under the Soviet regime, the Art Worshop has organized Vestiario/Bestiario
abiti per animali dalla collezione di Vladimir Radunsky (The Beastly Wardrobe. Clothing for animals from the collection of Vladimir Radunsky), an exhibition and installation designed by Vladimir Radunsky, a Russian illustrator who chose to move to New York after spending the first part of his life in Moscow.

A collection of life-sized clothes for animals takes on a new shape and a new life in the Atelier of the Palazzo delle Esposizioni, with new pieces added for the occasion, alongside notes by the artist and wooden sculptures.

The idea was initially sparked by the observation of an astonishing "cultural phenomenon":  almost all of the animals that play leading roles in our childhood tales are dressed from head to foot.  You have but to think of Perrault's Puss in Boots, of Jean de Brunhoff's Babar, of Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit or of the varied array of animals in La Fontaine's Fables brought to life in the illustrations of Grandville.  When Radunsky was a child, he too hungrily devoured books in which all of the animals appeared appropriately clad.  So it is hardly surprising that his first visit to the zoo came as a deep shock, because of course the animals were all stark naked!  Hence the extravagant yet impeccably tailored costumes and the rare and costly accessories, which act as a source of inspiration for new haute couture creations in a workshop entitled In the shoes of..., a fun experience for the young in years and the young at heart alike.

On inauguration day, in the context of Expounding Ideas, a cycle of lectures designed to promote reading organized by the Palazzo delle Esposizioni and the Arion Esposizioni bookstore, the Art Bookshelf will be launching Vladimir Radunsky's The Beastly Wardrobe, published by Donzelli to tie in with the exhibition.

Vladimir Radunsky
After spending the first part of his life in Moscow, Vladimir Radunksy moved to New York, where he lived for many years.  Recently he has been dividing his time between Rome and New York.  An acclaimed illustrator of children's books, he has published over thirty works for some of the leading publishing houses in the United States, and many of them have been translated into French, English, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, German and Japanese.  He has been awarded several prestigious international prizes, including the New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Book of the Year award and the Bologna Children's Book Fair "Critici in Erba" ["Young Critics"] prize, while several of his works have made the New York Times bestseller list.  Radunsky, who writes the text for much of his own work, is a cultivated and sophisticated artist who has brought to the world of picture books the verses of the Russian avant-garde poets of the 1920s and of Nobel Prize winner Joseph Brodsky, the folk ballads of Woody Guthrie, and the grace and levity of ballet which he addresses in the company of celebrated dancer and choreographer  Mikhail Baryshnikov.
(information: www.vladimirradunsky.com )