Given that fashion is a kind of art, Maurice Renoma has always expressed a vision devoid of any aesthetic prejudices through clothes.
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On October 23, 2023, the house celebrated 60 years of creation and counterculture by Maurice Renoma – its founder, stylist and artist –, 60 years of history of fashion, style, design, art, international cooperation, the career of an enthusiast who knew how to renew and adapt over time. The anniversary year was marked by numerous events including two exhibitions : have l’Appart Renoma and Aquarium. And to follow this very special year, it was published Outside the boxvery nice work from Flammarion as well as the video series he signs Director Nastasja Budjevac. Happy birthday Maurice !
At the age of 15, Maurice Renoma made clothes from suede or loden in the English style. In 1963, he opened the White House Renoma boutique and shook up the fashion standards with his army cloth blazers, his fitted suits in colorful velvet and drew attention to the garment by cutting it out of upholstery fabric. For Parisian youth and artistic and political figures, it becomes an important place for new fashion, without conventions and without concessions.
A career to celebrate
Serge Gainsbourg, a close friend, will be the muse of the brand for 10 years years. From rock to contemporary art, including Hollywood and sports personalities as well as big names in fashion, everyone gets their suit there. Inspired by Vasarely and Escher, the artist stylist borrows the codes of op art (optical art), cubism and modern art to integrate them into his clothes. An entire generation fell in love with his tailoring extravaganza where he shook up codes and explored androgyny and gender mixing, shocking prejudices at the time.
In the nineties, he discovered another passion : Photography. Not a single photo proposed for his catalog met his eyes, so he took his place behind the camera: “Today it is no longer a piece of clothing that we buy, but a style that confirms the brand”, announces. He invented the neologism “modographer” and since then he has been exhibiting his photographs in France and around the world. Atypical and daring, they follow the provocative line of their collections. In his eyes, they derive from a “impulsive act”dictated by his aesthetic concerns and freedom : “Photography is an art, and I have always wanted to deal with fashion as an art.”
Tracking Book 60 year of creation
An unclassifiable visionary, Maurice Renoma knew how to create, from fashion to painting, a transgressive and rich universe. This very beautiful book – the first to highlight his entire artistic journey – returns to his 60 years year of creation as well as his vivid personality. Like his transgressive approach, his photographic series, black and white and color, are mixed to recompose and stitch together in the form of a patchwork of experiences. In order to emphasize this rich iconography, 20 conceptual texts (de)construct the temporal linearity of the life of this rebel creator against norms. Finally, six A sensitive counterpoint to this portrait is given by the testimonies of famous people, close friends of the artist.
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Exhibition at the Paris Aquarium
Maurice Renoma has called for environmental reflection in 2020 with his first exhibition Mythologies of goldfish. Since they met in 2017, he has taken this change on a journey artistic egos around the world to denounce the ravages of pollution associated with overconsumption and the degradation of collective memory. The subject of a new carte blanche, his plastic goldfish invested, until 3 May, Paris Aquarium. In this playful, poetic and artistic exhibition, a fantastic and whimsical world mixes art with life. It is up to the visitor to question the ubiquity of plastic in all its forms and states in front of this joyful and wacky ambassador who carries a contemporary message.
Maurice Renoma is the first stylist to have a comprehensive and educational carte blanche in this place whose fundamental principles are to educate and learn, especially with regard to the young audience that will make up the society of tomorrow and will be active in the choices about the future of the planet. In the hope that this artistic mascot, joyful and unusual, raises public awareness of these causes that concern us all and whose influence is likely to change our future.
Exhibition at L’Appart Renoma
Installed on 220 m2 above the historic Renoma boutique, L’Appart, a gallery housed in a Haussmann-style apartment with its elegant wooden floors, welcomes art in all its forms in an intimate atmosphere. This one “a hybrid space in constant change“, offers a dialogue about artistic creation, between the past and the future, where several narrative modes intersect within the same artistic object, without one prevailing. Devoted to artistic encounters, Maurice Renoma pointed out at the opening that “the program will be energetic and unusual”as well as other locations of the house such as Renoma café, boutique and its flexiblex or Renoma Hotel in Tel Aviv. Denoting that “always on the hot seat to do new things”He wanted to this place “under development”. It’s a lively place. We have a lot of plans for meetings. I love Cuban and African painting and outsider art.”
After the presentation in Strasbourg and the stage in New York at the Outsider Art Fair, the exhibition Carlo Zinelli, fifty years of artistic heritage countries at L’Appart Renoma until 8 June. The Ritsch-Fisch Gallery entrusts him with this retrospective celebrating his fiftieth birthday anniversary of the death of the artist known as “Carlo”. First time in more than twenty his works from the period from 1960 to 1973 are combined and presented : paintings, double-sided paintings and bronze sculptures offer immersion in the creative universe of this great figure of outsider art whose production continues to fascinate and inspire the whole world.
Video series by Nastasje Budjevac
On the occasion of this anniversary, director Nastasja Budjevac designed and produced a video series about the artist, in order to tell his life and career through a unique perspective. seven episodes saw the light after six months of close and daily observation, research into private archives, interviews stolen between artistic and business meetings.
Maurice Renoma’s Childhood, Travel, Fashion, Places, History, Team, Family, Art, Future : everything is concentrated in these seven capsules full of life and humor, like their protagonist. “I wrote and directed this documentary mini-series about Maurice Renoma with the idea of presenting his life in a way that is both intimate and funny. Also, my goal was to reveal his personality without a filter, through a unique point of view and devoid of any prejudices. At the same time, this audiovisual work also speaks to me and my own experience with him: that is, that of getting to know who Maurice is. explained Nastasja Budjevac.