Sur-Mesure is an installation conceived by Marion Mailaender and curated by Federica Sala for Élitis, a French fabric and wall covering company. Presented on the occasion of the Milan Design Week 2024 within the Assab One space, this large scenography represents a refined homage to the sense of humour and the desire to think outside the box.
Sur-Mesure consists in fact of a large theatre of fabrics, in which the space comes to life almost magically with large hanging garments: trousers and t-shirts made with Élitis furnishing fabrics and wall coverings see their intended use inverted. The custom-made of furniture becomes the custom-made of fashion, with textile details so studied that they come close to haute couture. These games of perspective and estrangement recall the style of the French architect, whose approach is both elegant and witty. The inversions of sense and perspective continue inside the installation that hosts other creations by the artist, such as the plasterboard lamps ‘Architecture à Emporter’, the ‘Super Pesante’, the bronze sculpture that revisits Gio Ponti’s famous ‘Superleggera’ chair in an ironic key, and also the vases from the ‘Jardin Public’ collection that translate the stylistic features of urban furniture into a domestic context.
One reversal of direction after another, the paper patterns of the clothes on the back wall made from Élitis papers and fabrics now become mini-dresses: shirts, ties, trousers come to life as if they were little origami. Here the estrangement is reversed and from the large scale we move on to miniature objects, which tell us about the importance of looking at details in detail. Sur-Mesure leads and pushes to a profound understanding of things, entering into them and, above all, looking at them from another point of view, be it from very close or very far away or simply in the light of a different perspective.
