What is Moda Povera? Interview with Olivier Saillard

Firm, still, living statues on white pedestals, the models wait in their long black dresses for Olivier Saillard to approach them with a garment. Moda Povera VI: les vêtements des autres—Milan is the first of three performances curated by Olivier Saillard at Triennale Milano, within the spaces of the Ron Mueck exhibition, as part of the Soirées Nomades, the live program of Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain: a research and reflection on the most intimate and secret relationship between garments and the memories they are woven from.

Olivier Saillard moves through space with confident steps, yet with extreme delicacy. In this story, he plays the role of the liaison, the one who accompanies the memory of a "borrowed" private recollection. He connects the owner of the garment and the one who interprets it in a performance that carries with it the emotion of everyday life, the history of people. Because a simple piece of clothing, what each of us finds in our own closet, can transform itself and take on a new form.

At Triennale Milano, we also witness Moda Povera V: les vêtements de Renée, which Saillard dedicated to his mother Renée after her passing. It comes to life from the garments that belonged to her, in a performative and celebratory act, carrying with it the soul of she who wore them.

Closing the triad is Salon de Couture, which sees Violeta Sanchez as the protagonist, muse of Yves Saint Laurent and Helmut Newton. This performance respects the structure of haute couture—the seats for spectators, a catwalk—but subverts the focus of every fashion show with grace and mastery. The clothes are suggestions, evoked by Violeta's voice with meticulous descriptions of fabrics, shapes, and sensations.

During the years I was director of the Palais Galliera—Fashion Museum, a journalist asked me, "If an extraterrestrial came to Paris, what would you show them to make them understand what fashion is?" At that moment, I realized that in the museum I had beautiful clothes by Schiaparelli and Balenciaga, but no jeans, shirts, t-shirts; no garments close to real people's fashion, to the streets. It is also for this reason that I launched the Moda Povera project, to reintroduce something that belongs to daily use into the process of artistic performance. When I then took over my mother's wardrobe, I immediately understood that I had to do something that was not dedicated to fashion, but to garments. I find that today there is a great need to talk about the "art of clothing," rather than talking about fashion. So, finding new alternatives for our passion, which is clothing: inventing new clothes, new forms, without necessarily producing, selling, buying. Finding a new system, which can also be a poetic system. And certainly, more sustainable.