DESTE Foundation Collaborates with Barneys to Present Public Art Event, Now thru 7/4

Beginning today, June 6, 2012 the Barneys New York Madison Avenue flagship store's windows will be transformed into dymamic vitrines for a public art exhibition organized in collaboration with DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art, based in Athens, Greece.

Conceived by DESTE's founder, the internationally admired collector and patron Dakis Joannou, and Barneys Creative Director Dennis Freedman, this exhibition will present five ambitious site- specific installation projects by prominent artists in different disciplines. Each of the artists has participated since 2007 in destefashioncollection-- a DESTE Foundation special initiative devoted to investigating, interpreting and celebrating the complex relationships between art, fashion, and the culture at large.

On view through July 4th, the project at Barneys New York will be the first U.S. presentation of destefashioncollection. The five participating artists are M/M (Michael Amzalag and Mathias Augustyniak) Paris; photographer Juergen Teller; artist Helmut Lang; poet Patrizia Cavalli; and filmmaker Athina Rachel Tsangari.

"We are excited and honored that DESTE Foundation has chosen Barneys as the venue for the first American presentation of destefashioncollection," said Dennis Freedman. "From the moment I first saw Dakis Joannou's extraordinary art collection and explored the programs of his Foundation, I dreamed that we might work together someday. Now with this collaboration, that dream has come true."

The destefashioncollection was conceived by DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art as a novel approach to evaluating the deeper cultural significance of fashion. Since 2007, the Foundation has commissioned an artist each year to select five articles of clothing or accessories that he or she considers representative of that year. DESTE then acquires these pieces - items have ranged from the practical to the conceptual, from an Azzedine Alaïa belt worn by First Lady Michelle Obama to a silk dress from the personal wardrobe of renowned late artist Louise Bourgeois - for addition to its Permanent Collection. Inspired by their selections, the artists subsequently create a new original work for destefashioncollection, drawing parallels between the five objects they have curated and the ideas those objects ignite.

For the exhibition at Barneys, these same artist/curators will adapt their original works to create compelling new public installations.

In celebration of the DESTE-Barneys collaboration, artist John Bock will present an original performance piece to be revealed at a private event at Barneys' New York City flagship location.