La Bruma e i Fossi

Thick grey fog, ditches, rows of white poplars, the dark brown slow paced river – a constant reminder of mortality – plastic chairs, shops with curtains made of prickly fabric, soft pale yellow cakes and polenta, marlboro lights in the bathroom of the train on the way to school, tears and coats.

This is a portrait of familiar memories gathered as teenagers growing up in the plain that is the stretch of land that goes from Turin to Venice, The Po Valley. La Bruma e I Fossi is conceived from the desire to revisit a psychogeography of dreams and tough love, a search for something that feels like dusk.

The tree of the wooden clogs (L'albero degli zoccoli) is a film by Ermanno Olmi, it is set in this plain, in the countryside close to Bergamo, in the 19th century, and tells the story of the daily lives of the landworkers that live in the cascina in Lombardy. It won the Palme d’Or in Cannes in 1978.

The film is a reflection on the importance of existence and reality, nature and earthly powers.
When asked about this film in an interview the director said: “In a moment when our existences are at risk, to pay respect to earth, look at earth to find a mother that protects us”.

lessico familiare imagined that Dover Street Market Paris’ Exhibition Space could become the imaginary cascina that collects the portrait of these sweet and harsh memories.

The collection explores cocoon-like shapes where sleeves have lost their function, deconstructed and almost erased. They are not cages that restrict movement but rather enveloping cocoons under which to rest. They evoke the farmers’ day of rest in the lowlands, where for a handful of hours, the arms are at ease, reaching out for a bowl of polenta or a glass of lambrusco. Each garment in this collection is brushed with this sense of yearning. La Bruma e i Fossi is composed of coats, shearling, leather throws, shirts, nightgowns. Each piece is unique. The series of caps is created in collaboration with Bergamo based artist and designer Patrizia Benedetta Fratus.

This imaginary home is a homage to a certain lifestyle made of grace, rigour and discretion. A house filled with traces of feelings. The space is divided in: le coin magique, la maison, la place, nature and hay.

The presentation includes works by artists from the Po Valley area, Stefano De Paolis (Bergamo, 1992) and Jacopo Valentini (Modena, 1990), contemporary artists such as Florence Carr (UK, 1997) and old masters such as Cremonese landscape artist Enrico Erba (1895-1979).