Fabrics and Colors: Danièle Sulewic’s World on Display in Genoa

Danièle Sulewic is a multifaceted artist. A scenographer, costume designer, and ceramist, she was born in Paris. She lived in a kibbutz in Israel and has long resided in Liguria. In Genoa, she collaborated closely with Italian painter, illustrator, film director, and animator Emanuele Luzzati, and she remains one of the protagonists of the cultural scene. She has now recreated her many worlds in the exhibition “A Sea of Fabrics and Colors. Tapestries, Stage Costumes, and the Fantastic Bestiary of Danièle Sulewic.”

The exhibition is set in Villa Vicini in Zoagli, a coastal city in the province of Genoa that has been known since the Middle Ages for producing precious silk velvets. “This project is a journey through more than thirty years of artistic work. One part is connected to Luzzatti, colorful and fantastic. Another part is more related to materials. They are in dialogue and strengthen each other,” Sulewic explained to Pagine Ebraiche.

The artist’s connection with fabrics began many years ago in her father’s custom tailor shop. Even now, she sews her creations with the same machine he used to make coats. For her, it is a way to reconnect, both practically and symbolically, to her family’s history and the Jewish heritage that marks her art. “From ceramics to tapestry, my goal is to shape the unshaped. I do not start from drawings or predefined models. It is a dialogue with fabrics. They tell me something, and I tell them something too. The sewing machine is my typewriter, and the fabrics are my palette of colors.” The exhibition is open until April 26 and is part of the 50th anniversary celebrations for the Teatro della Tosse, which was founded in 1975 by Luzzatti and other artists in Genoa.

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