Cinzia says… is the first major retrospective on artist and fashion designer Cinzia Ruggeri (1942-2019), an unconventional figure moving with absolute freedom across various disciplines. Her life and versatile practice were driven by the desire to redefine the formal and functional status of elements of everyday life: from apparel to accessories, from furnishings to lighting. Cinzia Ruggeri was capable of creating a world based on an imaginative, provocative, elegant, and never predictable imaginary. With a continuous semantic metamorphosis, she investigated the expressive and behavioural potential of objects, as well as the architectural and social dimension of the human body.

As a tribute to one of the protagonists of Italian creativity, the exhibition sets out to offer the widest and most complete overview of her career, thanks to in-depth research conducted in collaboration with Archivio Cinzia Ruggeri in Milan.

An unusual feature of the exhibition is a large selection of garments from the Cinzia Ruggeri for Bloom and Cinzio Ruggeri collections, restored and presented for the first time since their runway debuts in the 1970s and 1980s.

Scattered across the space, the installations, works and objects will form a variegated scenario full of contrasts. In addition to the works made in more recent years, two environmental projects will be reconstructed: la règle du jeu?, the artist’s last show made a few months prior to her death in 2019, and La leggerezza del peso, presented in 1989 in the context of the event Abitare il Tempo, under the art direction of Ugo La Pietra.

A monograph conceived as an expanded timeline will be created for the occasion, issued by Mousse Publishing. The publication has been produced thanks to the support of the Italian Council (9th edition, 2020), program to promote Italian contemporary art in the world by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture.

Cinzia says… will also be presented at the Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art in London in October 2022.  

The exhibition is supported by Roma Culture.    

Main Sponsor: Gucci  

In-kind sponsor: Mensura  

With the support of Nicoletta Fiorucci Russo.  

The research project has been conducted in collaboration with Elena Fava (IUAV University of Venice, IR.IDE, lab. PRIDE) and Laura Salvo (Galleria Federico Vavassori, Milan). We would also like to thank Angus Fiori, the artist’s heir.