Here’s a cool idea. Artist Luca Pizzaroni (Italian-born, living in New York – what a perfect combination) is creating a sculpture to represent every country in the world. No, he’s not using flags or stamps or coins, he’s gone way deeper and more personal. He is collecting an item of clothing from each country and his criterion is what’s on the label: the “MADE IN …” details you see on every garment you buy but which you often ignore in your search for whether it’s your size and whether you have to dryclean it. Luca is creating his work out of what people ignore and making a rich net of connections. Algeria, Nicaragua, United Kingdom, Uzbekistan. Human beings need clothes. They are made everywhere and labeled with care. As he puts it, his work will be “a metaphor for travel capable of tapping memories of time and place to reveal a sense of unspoken collective identity”. Then there is the amazing variety of garments attached to these labels. Luca understands the Mystery suffusing personal belongings long after their owners have left them behind. I have mentioned this same sort of thing with chairs and the way they represent the history of their owners.
Luca is still short a few countries, so here’s a job for KRConnect readers. If you have an item of clothing made in any of the countries below, please send it to Luca Pizzaroni. You can contact him at info@labelsproject.com.
Countries still to be represented include:
Burundi, Central African Rep, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Palestine, Eritrea, Gabon, Liberia, Mozambique, Sudan, Zambia and East Timor.
