Cinzia Ruggeri is culturally polygamous. From the end of the 1960s until her death, she blasted her creativity all over the place. In the spirit of her generation, she felt the need to start over from scratch and to rewrite the terms of the contexts in which she worked, from fashion to design to art. She never surrendered regarding the possibility of imagining a world without punctuation, where boldness is allowed and conformity is forbidden. Throughout her life, Cinzia Ruggeri fostered not so much a style as a way of living based on an intimate, wild, irreverent attitude, occasionally melancholic and exponentially feminine.
Ruggeri always pursued the utopia of the total artwork, transforming clothing, objects, furniture, interiors, accessories, shops and runway shows into exceptions to the rules on how all those things “should be done.”
In the multitude of projects, prototypes and design pieces created over the years, the three that best embody Ruggeri’s attitude are Cane Pipì, Colombra and Mano (the last one enters the Gufram catalogue in 2025).
The first two were produced respectively in 1995 and 1997. Cane Pipì is the cross between a seat and a sculpture, which in form takes on the silhouette of her beloved dog Schatzi, as if imprisoned in a corner to take a leak. Colombra is a chaise longue in the form of a black velvet sofa, extended and oversized, mimicking the shadow cast by a human figure. Mano, in this triumvirate, is the most challenging on the level of function. An open hand standing on itself, to be interpreted as an intimidation to stop, an informal salute; or, if placed horizontally, as a tentacular chair.
Cinzia Ruggeri invites those who purchase one of her garments or furnishings not to simply consider it a product to be displayed, but to see it as a prosthesis of their own identity. They are hybrids, acrobats that change on a fine line between functionality and irrationality, abstraction and geometry, a political and a poetic dimension, modern and postmodern. The inspirations range from architecture and Italian radical design (including certain pieces by Gufram, such as the famous Cactus® she kept in her home) of the 1960s and 1970s, to the historical avant-gardes incorporated in a very personal imaginary. Nevertheless, the red thread crossing the entire output is the telling of stories, convinced of the possibility of granting a voice to objects – an armchair, an accessory, a dress – creating mini-narratives that generate a fantastic novel, placed side by side.
(Luca Lo Pinto)
