IL BISONTE MAG #06
ART BAGS
IL BISONTE WITH PALAZZO STROZZI
IL BISONTE FOR THE GREAT ART OF PALAZZO STROZZI
The collaboration between Il Bisonte and Florence’s most important exhibition venue dedicated to modern and contemporary art began in 2008 from the friendship between Wanny Di Filippo, the brand’s founder and ambassador, and James Bradburne, then Director of the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi. From that moment until the beginning of the pandemic, Il Bisonte created a “bag of wonders” for every exhibition.
Far from being a piece of refined merchandising, each bag designed for Palazzo Strozzi is a true “museum in a suitcase,” guiding children and families as they explore the artworks on display. Inside are maps to help them navigate, drawing materials, magnifying glasses, games, and quizzes – all conceived together with the Foundation’s Education Department to make even independent visits unique and unforgettable experiences. Imagined as an implicit invitation to slow down, these “art bags” encourage participants to take the time to look and think, to imitate and reinterpret. They offer a fresh starting point for a lively and authentic dialogue between the artwork and its viewer. They are also a declaration of intent, reminding us that art is for everyone, that there is no single way to interpret it, and that each of us has the right to see it through our own eyes.
Some of Il Bisonte’s special editions for Palazzo Strozzi were invented entirely from scratch, such as the “Illusionist’s Hatbox” created for the trompe-l’oeil exhibition; the cube designed for Picasso (2011); and the life-raft bag conceived for the major Ai Weiwei retrospective (2016). Others are iconic brand creations that – inspired by the exhibition’s overarching theme or by one of its signature works – change shape, color, and function with chameleonic skill. The entire collection is preserved in the brand’s historical archive, alongside more than three thousand bags and accessories that testify to the inexhaustible capacity for innovation and experimentation that has defined Il Bisonte’s stylistic identity and production philosophy since the early 1970s.
A CREATIVE LABORATORY
EXPERIMENTING TOGETHER
This year Il Bisonte turns 55. We have chosen to mark this historical milestone by celebrating the brand’s founder, his archive collections and the strong roots that still support and nurture the company, its style and its values.
Because Wanny did not simply establish brand, he shaped it day after day to the measure of his dreams, his creativity, his sense of humor, and his joyful love for Tuscan craftsmanship.
If Il Bisonte’s products do not follow seasonal trends, it’s because Wanny has always cheerfully disregarded them. If production has always been in Florence, it’s because Wanny set the boundaries of a unique 30Km supply chain there, unlike any other in the world. And if Il Bisonte only uses vegetable-tanned leather, it’s because Wanny made this choice out of love for the planet more than half a century ago, long before sustainability became such an urgent matter.
His choices, often instinctive and always very bold, gave shape and substance to the solid DNA of the brand, and even today Wanny Di Filippo and his archive are magnificent ambassadors of its values. It is a true privilege for us to carry this legacy forward into the future.
Hideo Shiomoto
Managing Director of Il Bisonte S.p.A.
THE PALAZZO STROZZI MODEL
EDUCATING THE GAZE
Palazzo Strozzi is a magnificent building, an undisputed masterpiece of Renaissance architecture. It is also an exhibition center that – thanks to its major shows dedicated to Renaissance masters such as Donatello and Beato Angelico, and to projects developed with leading contemporary artists like Ai Weiwei, Marina Abramovic, Olafur Eliasson, Tracey Emin, and Jeff Koons – has become a solid point of reference for art lovers around the world.
What makes it truly special, however, is not the grandeur of its rooms nor the extraordinary success of its exhibitions: Palazzo Strozzi is particularly special because it is an open and accessible place where art becomes a tool for dialogue, an exercise in critical thinking, and a tangible experience of active cultural citizenship. Every exhibition creates a conversation between artwork and people through an educational program that not only leaves no one behind but pays special attention to vulnerable audiences, offering dedicated experiences to individuals with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, autism, or sensory and cognitive disabilities.
At Il Bisonte, we are proud to have contributed and to continue to play our small part in this extraordinary laboratory of shared culture, where ancient, modern, and contemporary art truly engage with the present and with each of us.
A CREATIVE LABORATORY
EXPERIMENTING TOGETHER
Two hundred and forty meters. Three hundred steps. That’s the distance between Palazzo Strozzi and Palazzo Corsini – where Il Bisonte’s story first began. It takes just a three-minute walk through the heart of the oldest part of Florence. And it was precisely from this proximity – from a friendship really – that eighteen years ago, our company started to collaborate, almost as a game, with the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi.
I like to think of this partnership as an extraordinary creative laboratory, a place where our brand has found countless opportunities to experiment with shapes and materials and to engage with the genius and talent of the greatest artists in history.
All the bags in Palazzo Strozzi’s “family kits” were invented by our founder and handcrafted by the master artisans in Il Bisonte’s supply chain. Their ability to combine inventiveness, technical skill, and functionality expresses an authentic know-how rooted in the past, yet always looking at the present and towards the future with curiosity, courage, and a desire to explore. These whimsical creations, produced in limited editions, are part of our story and deserve to be told – just like the bestselling bags that have most contributed to building our success around the world.
Hideo Shiomoto
Managing Director of Il Bisonte S.p.A.
IL BISONTE FOR THE GREAT ART OF PALAZZO STROZZI
The collaboration between Il Bisonte and Florence’s most important exhibition venue dedicated to modern and contemporary art began in 2008 from the friendship between Wanny Di Filippo, the brand’s founder and ambassador, and James Bradburne, then Director of the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi. From that moment until the beginning of the pandemic, Il Bisonte created a “bag of wonders” for every exhibition.
Far from being a piece of refined merchandising, each bag designed for Palazzo Strozzi is a true “museum in a suitcase,” guiding children and families as they explore the artworks on display. Inside are maps to help them navigate, drawing materials, magnifying glasses, games, and quizzes – all conceived together with the Foundation’s Education Department to make even independent visits unique and unforgettable experiences. Imagined as an implicit invitation to slow down, these “art bags” encourage participants to take the time to look and think, to imitate and reinterpret. They offer a fresh starting point for a lively and authentic dialogue between the artwork and its viewer. They are also a declaration of intent, reminding us that art is for everyone, that there is no single way to interpret it, and that each of us has the right to see it through our own eyes.
Some of Il Bisonte’s special editions for Palazzo Strozzi were invented entirely from scratch, such as the “Illusionist’s Hatbox” created for the trompe-l’oeil exhibition; the cube designed for Picasso (2011); and the life-raft bag conceived for the major Ai Weiwei retrospective (2016). Others are iconic brand creations that – inspired by the exhibition’s overarching theme or by one of its signature works – change shape, color, and function with chameleonic skill. The entire collection is preserved in the brand’s historical archive, alongside more than three thousand bags and accessories that testify to the inexhaustible capacity for innovation and experimentation that has defined Il Bisonte’s stylistic identity and production philosophy since the early 1970s.
THE PALAZZO STROZZI MODEL
EDUCATING THE GAZE
Palazzo Strozzi is a magnificent building, an undisputed masterpiece of Renaissance architecture. It is also an exhibition center that – thanks to its major shows dedicated to Renaissance masters such as Donatello and Beato Angelico, and to projects developed with leading contemporary artists like Ai Weiwei, Marina Abramovic, Olafur Eliasson, Tracey Emin, and Jeff Koons – has become a solid point of reference for art lovers around the world.
What makes it truly special, however, is not the grandeur of its rooms nor the extraordinary success of its exhibitions: Palazzo Strozzi is particularly special because it is an open and accessible place where art becomes a tool for dialogue, an exercise in critical thinking, and a tangible experience of active cultural citizenship. Every exhibition creates a conversation between artwork and people through an educational program that not only leaves no one behind but pays special attention to vulnerable audiences, offering dedicated experiences to individuals with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, autism, or sensory and cognitive disabilities.
At Il Bisonte, we are proud to have contributed and to continue to play our small part in this extraordinary laboratory of shared culture, where ancient, modern, and contemporary art truly engage with the present and with each of us.
2008
A PICNIC BASKET FOR THE IMPRESSIONISTS’ ART
The Impressionists painted en plein air, outdoors. The spirit of their days spent in discourse with the movement of the sun, the shifting colors of the sky, and the rustling of the trees is brought back to life in the picnic basket created for the exhibition “Painting Light: The Hidden Techniques of the Impressionists.”
Inside the woven wicker basket – lined with Il Bisonte’s iconic multicolored striped canvas and finished with leather details – you’ll find everything needed to follow in their footsteps. And thanks to a fragrance created especially by Lorenzo Villoresi, it’s even possible to imagine the scents of their favorite places.
2009
THE QUEEN’S VALISE FOR THE TAPESTRIES OF CATHERINE DE’ MEDICI
Created for the exhibition “Catherine and Maria de’ Medici: Women in Power,” this special edition of Il Bisonte’s iconic Doctor Bag is crafted from a tapestry-style fabric adorned with chenille flowers. Its materials and textures explicitly recall the magnificent Valois tapestries by Antoine Caron, which portray Catherine – the Medici who became Queen of France – as a warrior-widow asserting her right to rule in the name of her sons.
The bag contains riddles and flash cards as well as costumes for performing mini theatrical pieces inspired by her story.
2009
THE QUEEN’S VALISE FOR THE TAPESTRIES OF CATHERINE DE’ MEDICI
Created for the exhibition “Catherine and Maria de’ Medici: Women in Power,” this special edition of Il Bisonte’s iconic Doctor Bag is crafted from a tapestry-style fabric adorned with chenille flowers. Its materials and textures explicitly recall the magnificent Valois tapestries by Antoine Caron, which portray Catherine – the Medici who became Queen of France – as a warrior-widow asserting her right to rule in the name of her sons.
The bag contains riddles and flash cards as well as costumes for performing mini theatrical pieces inspired by her story.
2009
A SADDLEBAG FOR GALILEO GALILEI
A vegetable-tanned leather saddlebag full of pockets was designed to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s first telescopic observations of the moon, commemorated by Palazzo Strozzi with the exhibition “Galileo. Images of the Universe from Antiquity to the Telescope.” Inside the handcrafted bag, astronomical instruments and illustrated educational notebooks guide both children and adults through original reflection on how, over time, our perception of the movement of stars and planets has changed, and how our relationship with what lies beyond the limits of the naked eye has evolved.
2009 – 2010
THE ILLUSIONIST’S HATBOX FOR THE WONDERS OF TROMPE L’OEIL
Artists delight in deceiving our senses and they do so far more often, and far more subtly, than we might think. This is the reminder offered by the Illusionist’s Hatbox designed by Wanny Di Filippo for the exhibition “Artful Illusions – Wonders of Trompe l’oeil from Antiquity to Contemporary Art.”
In addition to the games concealed within – created to mislead touch, taste, smell, hearing, and sight – the case also tricks the viewer through its own leather exterior, covered with a lenticular hologram. The boy escaping from a frame reproduces “Escapando de la crítica” (1874) by Pere Borrell del Caso.
2009 – 2010
THE ILLUSIONIST’S HATBOX FOR THE WONDERS OF TROMPE L’OEIL
Artists delight in deceiving our senses and they do so far more often, and far more subtly, than we might think. This is the reminder offered by the Illusionist’s Hatbox designed by Wanny Di Filippo for the exhibition “Artful Illusions – Wonders of Trompe l’oeil from Antiquity to Contemporary Art.”
In addition to the games concealed within – created to mislead touch, taste, smell, hearing, and sight – the case also tricks the viewer through its own leather exterior, covered with a lenticular hologram. The boy escaping from a frame reproduces “Escapando de la crítica” (1874) by Pere Borrell del Caso.
2010
THE METAPHYSICAL SUITCASE FOR GIORGIO DE CHIRICO
Conceived for the exhibition “De Chirico, Max Ernst, Magritte, Balthus. A Glimpse into the Invisible,” this suitcase is the perfect passport for a metaphorical journey through twentieth-century art. The vintage stickers that decorate it allude to the most significant journeys of De Chirico. It was during one of these trips that the artist first imagined his wind-swept cities, his solitary figures, and his statues staring blindly into space. He happened to be in Piazza Santa Croce in Florence, just a short walk from Palazzo Strozzi and from the leather workshop where Il Bisonte’s story began.
2010 – 2011
AN ELEGANT CORSET FOR BRONZINO
A favorite painter of Cosimo I de’ Medici, Bronzino captured the aristocratic splendor of the Medici court like no one else. For the exhibition “Bronzino. Painter and Poet at the Medici Court,” Il Bisonte paid homage to the extraordinary elegance of the female figures in his works with a red leather crossbody bag featuring a delicate floral embossing and bronze-toned trim. The precious pearl interlacings that adorn it echo those of the unforgettable bodice worn by Eleonora di Toledo in the celebrated portrait Bronzino dedicated to her in 1545.
2010 – 2011
AN ELEGANT CORSET FOR BRONZINO
A favorite painter of Cosimo I de’ Medici, Bronzino captured the aristocratic splendor of the Medici court like no one else. For the exhibition “Bronzino. Painter and Poet at the Medici Court,” Il Bisonte paid homage to the extraordinary elegance of the female figures in his works with a red leather crossbody bag featuring a delicate floral embossing and bronze-toned trim. The precious pearl interlacings that adorn it echo those of the unforgettable bodice worn by Eleonora di Toledo in the celebrated portrait Bronzino dedicated to her in 1545.
2011
A MULTICOLORED CUBE FOR PICASSO, MIRÓ AND DALÍ
With its self-aware and amusing interplay of shapes and words, the leather cube pays tribute to the inventor of Cubism, while its three differently colored sides evoke the variety of aesthetic expressions that accompanied the birth of a new idea of art. Conceived by Il Bisonte for the exhibition “Picasso, Miró, Dalí. Young and Angry: the Birth of Modernity,” this whimsical bag conceals inside it games and activities that help visitors discover the expressive poetics of the three fathers of Spanish modernity, all born in Catalonia and later made famous in France.
2012 – 2013
THE MONOPOLY FOR 1930S ART
A classic briefcase that, as if by magic, transforms into a Monopoly board is the marvelous tribute designed by Il Bisonte for the exhibition “The 1930s: Art in Italy Beyond Fascism.” In place of streets and hotels are Soffici, Carrà, Marino Marini, Sironi, Rosai, Morandi, De Pisis, and Fontana, who – in the very same years when the famous board game was invented – were engaged in a remarkably vibrant artistic debate between classicism and futurism, expressionism and abstractionism, monumental art and parlor paintings.
2012 – 2013
THE MONOPOLY FOR 1930S ART
A classic briefcase that, as if by magic, transforms into a Monopoly board is the marvelous tribute designed by Il Bisonte for the exhibition “The 1930s: Art in Italy Beyond Fascism.” In place of streets and hotels are Soffici, Carrà, Marino Marini, Sironi, Rosai, Morandi, De Pisis, and Fontana, who – in the very same years when the famous board game was invented – were engaged in a remarkably vibrant artistic debate between classicism and futurism, expressionism and abstractionism, monumental art and parlor paintings.
2014 – 2015
THE MUSEUM IN A BAG FOR PICASSO AND SPANISH MODERNITY
The briefcase created for the exhibition “Picasso and Spanish Modernity” is a true imaginary gallery that – thanks to magnets, hidden pockets, and snap hooks – changes shape and function according to each visitor’s highly personal exhibition design. Conceived with the same ingenuity that characterized the famous transformable bags created by Wanny Di Filippo in the 1970s, the case opens like a pop-up and reveals a miniature museum inside, ready to be arranged with paintings and sculptures all the while imagining new exhibition experiences.
2016 – 2017
THE LIFEBOAT BAG FOR AI WEIWEI
On the occasion of the exhibition “Ai Weiwei. Free,” the world’s best-known living Chinese artist, Ai Weiwei, covered the façade of Palazzo Strozzi with twenty-two inflatable rafts, symbols of the sea rescues of thousands of people fleeing wars, persecution, and famine. The leather bag created by Il Bisonte recalls the shapes and colors of the migrants’ boats that cross the Mediterranean from the Middle East and Africa toward Europe in search of peace and freedom. Hidden inside are educational materials that guide visitors through a journey among monumental installations, sculptures, LEGO portraits, videos, and photographs – works charged with profound political and symbolic impact.
2016 – 2017
THE LIFEBOAT BAG FOR AI WEIWEI
On the occasion of the exhibition “Ai Weiwei. Free,” the world’s best-known living Chinese artist, Ai Weiwei, covered the façade of Palazzo Strozzi with twenty-two inflatable rafts, symbols of the sea rescues of thousands of people fleeing wars, persecution, and famine. The leather bag created by Il Bisonte recalls the shapes and colors of the migrants’ boats that cross the Mediterranean from the Middle East and Africa toward Europe in search of peace and freedom. Hidden inside are educational materials that guide visitors through a journey among monumental installations, sculptures, LEGO portraits, videos, and photographs – works charged with profound political and symbolic impact.
2018
THE CUT BRIEFCASE FOR LUCIO FONTANA
The leather briefcase created for the exhibition “Birth of a Nation. Among Guttuso, Fontana and Schifano” is inspired by the famous “cuts” of Lucio Fontana. Conceived as an extraordinary journey through art, politics, and society in Italy between the 1950s and 1968, the exhibition brought together eighty masterpieces recounting decades of social, political, and cultural tensions that began in the immediate postwar period and culminated in the student and workers’ protests of 1968. In those very same years, and with that same spirit, Wanny Di Filippo began creating his bags: true manifestos advocating nonconformity and a new desire for freedom.
2018 – 2019
THE GOLD LEAF BAG FOR MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ
The last bag designed by Wanny Di Filippo for Palazzo Strozzi is called Marina, after the renowned and controversial protagonist of contemporary art, Marina Abramović, who revolutionized the concept of performance art by constantly testing her own body, its limits, and its expressive potential. The creation conceived for the memorable retrospective dedicated to her (“Marina Abramović – The Cleaner”) is a glossy leather handbag emblazoned with the name of the high priestess of Body Art and adorned with golden leather appliqués inspired by the guiding image of the exhibition, which depicted the artist’s face covered in gold leaf.
2018 – 2019
THE GOLD LEAF BAG FOR MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ
The last bag designed by Wanny Di Filippo for Palazzo Strozzi is called Marina, after the renowned and controversial protagonist of contemporary art, Marina Abramović, who revolutionized the concept of performance art by constantly testing her own body, its limits, and its expressive potential. The creation conceived for the memorable retrospective dedicated to her (“Marina Abramović – The Cleaner”) is a glossy leather handbag emblazoned with the name of the high priestess of Body Art and adorned with golden leather appliqués inspired by the guiding image of the exhibition, which depicted the artist’s face covered in gold leaf.
A new chapter
Together with the SS27 collection, Il Bisonte presents a new chapter in its collaboration with Palazzo Strozzi, once again dedicated to teaching beauty. On the occasion of the major exhibition “Rothko in Florence,” the Florentine company specializing in high-end artisanal leather goods renews its presence in the halls of the palazzo with a special-edition piece in vegetable-tanned leather and fabric, designed exclusively for the Palazzo Strozzi guides.
A new chapter
Together with the SS27 collection, Il Bisonte presents a new chapter in its collaboration with Palazzo Strozzi, once again dedicated to teaching beauty. On the occasion of the major exhibition “Rothko in Florence,” the Florentine company specializing in high-end artisanal leather goods renews its presence in the halls of the palazzo with a special-edition piece in vegetable-tanned leather and fabric, designed exclusively for the Palazzo Strozzi guides.