‘Labelled by Vasary. Mannerism’ is a final exhibition of the three-part project telling about Mannerism, cultural phenomena of 16th century. According to Giorgio Vasary, an Italian theorist and painter, the history of European art is divided into three big periods: the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and Mannerism.
Mannerism is generally considered to be a transitional period of Western European art. So-called an ‘interstyle’. High Renaissance traditions had already outlived their age and Baroque aesthetics with its theatrical dramaticism had not yet risen to the pedestal of European culture.
This exhibition shows Mannerism not only as an artistic movement, but also as a critical period with a special, sometimes paradoxical, attitude to life.
Julia Napoliva tells about the project: ‘The feature of our design is a color. There shouldn’t be a lot of it. It risks the artworks dissolve on the colourful background. On the one hand, we wanted to do something peculiar to the Mannerist style. On the other hand it was important to us to show the curator’s history. That’s why we started from the meanings. For example, this is how we came up with the rusty portals as an embodiment of collapse.
Also we wanted exhibition to be gentle and cozy. Despite the change of epochs, we can find something beautiful and tender in life’.