The Moscow Museum of Modern Art and the wine company Cinzano present an exhibition ’Anticipating Aftertaste’ celebrating the 260th anniversary of the brand. Project at the MMOMA is intended to trace the history of one of the most famed Italian wineries, as well as to draw chronological parallels between the past and the future of the brand and to show its impact in the history of Italian art and design.
Cinzano can be easily called the essence of the Italian way of living, a symbol of impeccable and genuine Italian style. The long family history started 260 years ago near Turin. It is a history of great skill and tradition that progressed from the status of an official supplier of the Savoy Royal Court to the worldwide popularity of Cinzano beverages. The dynamic growth of the brand went hand in hand with the emergence of broad interest in popular culture. Therefore, the brand’s own course of development naturally resulted in the call for collaboration to the most daring artists of the time, those who were in line with the innovative spirit of the Cinzano Company.
’’Anticipating Aftertaste“ display consists of two parts, corresponding to the duo of Cinzano historical colours. The Blue gallery introduces the viewer to original posters elaborated specifically for the brand by the legendary designers of the late 19th — early 20th century, such as Raymond Savignac, Leonetto Cappiello, Adolpho Hohenstein and Nico Edel. They are dynamic and sensual, with a vivid concept at the core of composition, with persistently expressive curves of the figures depicted, with the predominance of female characters as an art nouveau touch. ’’A little bit of joy and a little bit of happiness’’, as Leonetto Cappiello would put it. Each of the posters also tells us about the adventures of the brand founded by Carlo Stefano and Giovanni Giacomo Cinzano and about the history of passion, genuine curiosity and love of wine-brewing tradition. These posters have already been displayed in Turin, the home of Casa Cinzano, now they are to be first-ever exhibited in Moscow.
The 1970s were the flourishing years for the Italian brand in the USSR. Cinzano products inadvertently turned out once in a comedy «Ivan Vasilievich Changes Profession» (1973, directed by Leonid Gaidai), then in a song from an animation film «The Adventures of Captain Wrongel» (music by G. Firtich, words by E. Chepovetsky), and even in an animation for young children «Kitten Named Woof» (1979, directed by L. Atamanov). In the Red gallery the viewers are to look at Cinzano history through the memories of cultural figures who will speak of the role this legendary beverage had in the life of people in the Soviet Union. Andrey Makarevich, Zurab Tsereteli, Andrey Bilzho, Sergei Shutov and others will remember how Cinzano turned into a symbol of freedom and luxury for the Soviet people. The graduates of the School of Contemporary Art «Free Workshops» will draw inspiration from the recollections of well-known Soviet figures about the days of their stormy youth and create works based on their stories, which are to become a sort of «memory recharge», visual fixation turning «what happened» into «what could have happened».
A series of public meetings with guest experts will take place as a part of «A Much Anticipated Story» festival. A film critic Stas Tyrkin will speak of the film director Paolo Sorrentino and his role in the restoration of the former glory of Italian cinema. A journalist Katya Fyodorova will talk about highs and lows of a legendary Italian fashion house in view of the change of the creative director, a leading Russian art historian Dmitry Ozerkov will speculate who is the most important Michelangelo of Italian art, while the composer Aleksey Kokhanov will show a performance based on famous oeuvres of ‘new modernists’ Giacinto Scelsi, Luigi Nono and little-known pieces by Ennio Morricone. All meetings will take place in the ‘Ball Room’, admittance by the entry ticket to the exhibition, advance registration is required.
