The news is of the beginning of the week, Gucci has designed the uniforms of the staff that will take care of the patrons at the exhibition dedicated to Achille Bonita Oliva opened on June 25 at the Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, curated by Andrea Viliani and entitled “A.B.O. THEATRON. L’Arte o la Vita”.

The exhibition has been organized with the important support of the Italian fashion house and for the occasion, the fashion house directed by Alessandro Michele has created the uniforms of the staff of the exhibition, the so-called “guardian angels” who will be responsible for welcoming visitors and guarding the works on display in the “theater” of the exhibition. 

The exhibition at the Castello di Rivoli aims to explore one of the most authoritative and important art historians, curators and critics of our country and beyond, collecting works of art, documents, archival material and a selection of television material granted by Rai Teche.
Fashion and contemporary art mix and dialogue in a visceral way, rewriting the relationship that exists between museum and sponsor, but it seems that this is not enough.

In the last few hours, a very heated controversy has broken out over the uniforms of the “guardian angels” of the exhibition. For many, the uniforms are simply ugly or seem to have come out of a psychiatric hospital, given the total absence of shapes and gender characterization, and then that green, which unequivocally recalls the uniforms of hospital personnel who for a year and a half have been the only bulwark in our defense against the pandemic.

The uniforms are not actually green but are referred to as “deep sage”, while the plaques that decorate them are sewn in red thread on the chest of the jackets and read “A.B.O. Jardinier du Théatre”.

The idea behind the creation of these uniforms was to give the right importance to figures that are often overlooked or even belittled in fact, the “jardiniers du théatre” or “guardian angels” have a very important role in the exhibition itself and the Italian fashion house wanted to enhance their importance through the clothes.

It should be noted that those are not and will not be the museum’s uniforms but represent a sort of stage costume for those who, like the exhibition’s custodians, are an integral part of the exhibition itself.

I commenti indignati e in alcuni casi anche piuttosto cattivi però non hanno fatto i conti con una cosa in particolare che invece dovrebbe far riflettere. 

In Italy there is a ministerial regulation for museum uniforms, the “AFAV staff uniforms regulation”, according to which there must be a differentiation between “female custodian uniforms” and “male custodian uniforms”, a regulation that goes against the trend towards a genderless model that no longer identifies genders in a binary way.
Gucci, with the creation of these uniforms, is not only trying to eradicate the forced concept of binarism, but is also trying to continue on a path that has fortunately already begun.

Summing up, criticism is always welcome and constructive because it triggers debate but before taking shots, especially on social media, it would be appropriate to do a minimum of research and inform themselves as they should, and this applies to every aspect of our contemporary world now saturated with unsolicited opinions and judgments too fast and tranchant often children of superficiality.

The exhibition “A.B.O. THEATRON. L’Arte o la Vita” at the Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art will remain open to the public through January 9, 2022.