Grazia: All Aboard – Moncler Takes Over Milano Centrale Station With ‘an Invitation to Dream’
The immersive exhibition, featuring a curated community of creatives shaping the culture, is a gateway to imagination
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“Of all modes of transport, the train is perhaps the best aid to thought,” British author, Alain de Botton, wrote in his essay collection The Art of Travel. His musings on the peculiarities and particulars of travelling reframe migration through transitory spaces as gateways to the imagination.
Moncler has long understood the power these ephemeral environments have in fuelling expeditions. In a liminal space designed to carry you away, the cacophony of coming and going offers a glimpse at what’s possible. This idea is the crux of Moncler’s latest inspiring manoeuvre—a large-scale takeover of Milan Central Station titled ‘An Invitation To Dream’.
To align with Salone del Mobile Milano, the outerwear luxuriate has proverbially coated the imposing stone façade and covered the glass interior with striking portraits of “extraordinary minds shaping dreams and culture,” as the brand describes the subjects in a press release.
From April 15 to 21, every billboard and screen display site in the station will be re-wired to exhibit stirring slow-motion visuals of a curated community of leading creatives, including sculpturist Daniel Arsham, playwright Jeremy O. Harris, makeup extraordinaire Isamaya Ffrench and culinary artist Lelia Gohar. Each has been tapped by Jefferson Hack and photographed by Jack Davison to evoke a new landscape of images and quotes intended to fleet over the noise of the station and provide voyagers with unmistakable permission to dream.
“If artists have a job, I think their job is to interpret and reveal new potential things within that reality, that often go unseen or overlooked.” – Daniel Arsham, Moncler “An Invitation To Dream”
Hack, who is no stranger to hijacking public spaces in the name of art, revealed that the creative cohort represents “some of the finest creative visionaries across culture who dare to dream for us”. “They are today’s reality-shapers and they were invited to participate as their work carries with it new hopes and possibilities,” the publishing veteran added. “It’s the deeply transformative aspects in their work and practice that makes them essential artists of our time and essential for us to bring into this project.”
Portraits by Jack Davison will be on display in Milano Centrale Station. The artworks will “ground the experience, with the idea of slowing down time, capturing intimacy and conveying the humanity of the subject”.
To unleash a setting ripe for imaging, Milan Central Station will be bathed in hand-printed lithographic prints and rolling footage of the community encouraging visitors to dream like them. The setting of a train station is pertinent, with each corner of the terminal an escape to unseen horizons. It’s a canvas to dream in and apply our dreams to.
Ignited by this spirit, Moncler ensures the 300,000 people who converge in the busy travel hub daily will play a proactive part in the dialogue of originality—a conversation with all who pass through the space, and lasts long after they have left.
To mark the launch of Moncler’s exhibition, the brand also hosted an exclusive group of notable artists and creatives including the creatives profiled, Swizz Beatz, Margherita Missoni, Francesco Ragazzi and Zoe Saldana for an intimate dinner celebration
De Botton was correct when he said places like train stations “offer us a material setting for an alternative to the selfish ease, the habits and confinement of the ordinary, rooted world”. For Moncler, this backdrop is merely another frame to enact your wildest possibilities.
“Dreams are what have been moving myself and Moncler forward since day one, because we never stop dreaming about what is possible, and how we can inspire and be inspired by others around the world,” explained Moncler’s Chairman and CEO, Remo Ruffani. ‘An Invitation to Dream’ awaits, are you all aboard?