Eva Jospin x Max Mara Store in Milan

Max Mara assigns Eva Jospin the creation of a permanent site-specific artwork for its flagship store in Milan July 5, 2021 Max Mara is pleased to announce that French artist Eva Jospin is the winner of a design contest launched by the company in 2019 for the creation of a permanent site-specific artwork that will be installed at the brand’s flagship store on Milan’s Corso Vittorio Emanuele.

The goal that inspired the kickoff of the contest two years ago is to enhance and create a tight connection between the indoor spaces of Max Mara’s largest store in the world and Piazza del Liberty, a focal point in the beating heart of Milan overlooked by the flagship’s terrace that will host the artistic installation, that is meant to offer the customers and the city a fascinating encounter with the world of art.

The artists participating in this ambitious contest, organized in collaboration with the Collezione Maramotti, were invited to create an artwork, that, while conceived to be permanent, would have explored the concept of impermanence and that, installed into a metropolitan environment, could encourage a critical reflection on a different, – natural, physical and poetic – perception of the space.

Eva Jospin’s winning, highly impactful proposal, entitled "Microclima", consists of a glass and metal greenhouse, an architecture encapsulating an intimate world, and, at the same time, creating a connection with the external environment. Inspired by the winter gardens of the late 19th century, – a period dominated by the Liberty style that gave the name to Milan’s iconic square, – this pavilion will house a paper and cardboard landscape, showing exotic natural elements, enigmatic vertical rocks and a mineral substrate. Their organic shapes will evoke nature rather than hosting a sample of it, as usually happens in greenhouses: there will be no real plants, but sculptures made of cellulose, the material that derives from them.

The installation will be enriched with an olfactory component, developed specifically by the artist in collaboration with a perfumer, with the goal of rendering the immersive experience of a tropical greenhouse.

The construction of the artwork, which has to be authorized by the Municipality of Milan, is expected for 2022.

Eva Jospin was born in 1975 in Paris, where she currently lives and works. Nature and in particular the imagery linked to the forest are at the core of Eva Jospin’s work.

Conceived and developed as a figurative, symbolic and emotional object, nature is for the artist a place where indulging freedom and playfulness, but also an intriguing mysterious space giving the chance to enter an immersive, different dimension. In her vision, the forest becomes a source of research and knowledge, but also of mental escape, where to get lost and, perhaps, to find oneself again.

Patiently cutting and assembling simple, inexpensive materials, Jospin creates impressive and elegant installations, which also raises questions about the current condition of nature, its instability and fragility. Her most recently personal exhibitions were presented at: Het Noordbrabants Museum, Den Bosch (Netherlands), 2021; Abbaye de Montmajour, Arles (France), 2020; Museum Pfalzgalerie Kaiserslautern, Kaiserslautern (Germany), 2019; Galerie Suzanne Tarasiève, Paris, 2019; Centre culturel Jean-Cocteau, Les Lilas (France), 2019. The artist also created two public permanent installations in France, in Nantes in 2019, and in Chaumont-sur-Loire in 2018.

Max Mara, founded in 1951 by the late visionary Achille Maramotti, is one of the highest expression of Italian luxury and style. A contemporary collection of ready-to-wear and accessories for today’s powerful women.

Recognized for its timeless designs and its luxurious fabrics, Max Mara is revered for the classification of the absolute coat, sharp suiting and modern accessories.

Max Mara is distributed in 2,500 locations in more than 100 countries worldwide. The Max Mara Fashion Group counts nine different brands.

The company remains privately held and managed by the Maramotti family. Collezione Maramotti is a private contemporary art collection which opened to visitors in 2007 in the historical headquarters of the Max Mara company, in Reggio Emilia.

It includes hundreds of artworks from the ‘50s to nowadays, more than two hundred are on permanent display. Temporary shows and commissioned projects to international artists are also regularly exhibited