Filomena Guzzo presents Under-Wear

In the heart of an area that carries the memory of the city’s work and undercurrents, a fluorescent sail emerges from a pile of discarded clothes. It is a windsurfing sail, originally designed to catch the wind and change direction but now stationary, trapped in a landscape of leftover fabrics. For Art City Bologna 2026, Filomena Guzzo transforms fast-fashion waste into a powerful scene with Under-Wear, exploring themes of saturation, waste and the weight – actual and symbolic – of the stuff we keep adding to the world. The title works on two levels: Underwear, that which is underneath, intimate, hidden, real, and Under-Wear, how what we wear sometimes ends up overwhelming us.

Discarded clothes become motionless waves: not fashion but the stuff of excess that has lost momentum. The wind does not blow in this room, but the pointed question remains: about what we accumulate and how much it costs us to get rid of it. In a present day where dress is a form of language and status yet also a trap, Under-Wear questions us about which wind we are following. Textiles – remnants of fast fashion, compulsive desire, ready-to-wear identity – become matter and landscape: not a decoration but a query. We have reached saturation point, where goods promise happiness and often confuse value and price. At the centre of the installation is the sail that once belonged to Diego Benecchi: a presence that carries with it a history of political engagement and of the city.

A leading figure in the 1977 Movement in Bologna, linked to the memory of political activist Francesco Lorusso, Benecchi later served three consecutive terms (1990-2004) as a town councillor, dealing with crucial issues for collective life. A law lecturer and driver of civic projects, he continued to intertwine politics, education and community, including through the Nuovamente association. In Under-Wear, his sail becomes an active memory: not a relic but a driving force. A gesture that brings the work back to its core: the possibility to choose, to become light, to move again. The exhibition has been extended until 2 March and will be open on the weekend of 28 February/1 March from 4pm to 8pm.