The charm of ruined places, the "Abandonalism" trend - Lifestyle

"There is beauty everywhere, but not everyone knows how to see it": it is Confucius' maxim that finds new life in the trend of Abandonalism. They are interested in architects, designers, stars, artists and more, led to listen to the stories that forgotten objects and places have to tell. A trend that began, according to CNN, in 2014 with the Ruin Lust exhibition staged at the Tate Gallery in London and which today affects several sectors. As reported by The Washington Post, in fact, from Canada to Germany, one of the must-haves of the moment is to allow yourself a visit to an abandoned factory and, in agreement with Time magazine, curious visits to Chernobyl also grow exponentially. The passion for ruined places also affects social media where the Instagram account Beautiful Abandoned Places , which portrays wonderful abandoned places, is followed by 1.6 million followers among which Chiara Ferragni, Steve McCurry, Giorgia Palmas and Lexie Limitless stand out , the youngest person to have visited every country in the world. In addition, the hashtag #abandoned even has 7.2 million posts, while #ruins and #abandonedplaces collect 3 and 3.7 million posts respectively. There are also several YouTube channels dedicated to this theme such as Exploring with Josh which reaches 3.85 million subscribers and The Proper People which reaches almost 900 thousand. Not even fashion, catering and weddings are immune to the mysterious charm of abandonment, with parades, dinners and receptions that come to life in places removed from oblivion and torn from decline. This is what emerges from a study conducted by Espresso Communication for Galleria Battilossi on over 30 international newspapers dedicated to lifestyle and trends in the fields of fashion, food, furniture and art.

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But what is the reason for this admiration for abandoned places and artifacts? As the BBC explains, a mixture of fear and nostalgia is generated in front of a ruined place, but also a thrill of excitement. According to Sonia Paone, professor of urban sociology at the University of Pisa: "The ruins have always had a charm because they allude to the transience of human work , to the inexorable passage of time, to the transience of things. Today the cosmic tragedy of a nature that could regain the upper hand means that the ruins of the present time are a source of inspiration ". And this is how many designers choose rusty iron or other objects considered to be waste as the starting point for their creations. Works that create rustrial interiors , a synthesis of industrial and rustic style, explains Newshub, similar to that of New York apartments characterized by the use of exposed brick and iron. For the walls of the house there is also space for concrete, left strictly raw, but in a green key : as The Telegraph says, in fact, a brand new type of this more sustainable material is available, made with a mixture of sand and bacteria. Even in the world of fashion, brands are increasingly inspired by abandoned locations or former industrial areas, using them as sets for fashion shows : theaters covered with weeds infested with weeds as Harper's Bazaar says, panettone factories, garages of residential buildings and even airports as reported by the French Le Figaro, are the stage for the latest haute couture collections from Milan to New York. Abandoned places are not only sets used a few days and then left again to their destiny, but also a solid basis for designing and inventing new spaces on a human scale: an example is the New Yorker High Line , an elevated railway in disuse by the 80s then became a linear park or the section of tracks that united the French cities of Rosheim and Saint Nabor, transformed into an 11 km long path that allows you to rediscover forgotten landscapes and be surprised by new points of view. Other examples are buildings such as the Tate Modern or the Prada Foundation where the new intended use and the past of the building are closely linked and transport visitors to a unique and timeless place. Even weddings are not exempt from this "life fever" as reported in the Daily Mail, according to which one of the most popular trends in the sector would be the urban wedding which is characterized above all by the choice of locations such as disused or old warehouses granaries.
The trend is also inspired by designers such as Maurizio Battilossi, founder of the gallery of the same name: “At the base of my work there is the idea that sublime refinement is not only in perfection , but that it can also be found in simple objects that show signs of time, like a corroded sheet. The abstract designs of our Eclectica carpet line, for example, are inspired by artificial surfaces that meet in everyday life. I believe that to design a contemporary carpet, able to enhance refined interiors and reinvent the space that surrounds it, it is essential to move on the subtle border between past and future and that nothing, like an abandoned object, prey to time and in continuous transformation, encloses this concept ". And on the table, how does this passion for abandonment translate? As The Guardian explains, reappropriating forgotten flavors such as that of ripe fruit at the right point, preferring that grown in one's own garden, respecting the rhythms of nature, the one on sale on supermarket shelves. The rediscovery of ancient flavors was also at the center of the Madrid Fusión culinary event where, reports the Spanish newspaper El Español, the chefs reaffirmed the importance of finding simplicity in traditional dishes, leaving for a little aside from the complex techniques of nouvelle cuisine. In line with this trend there are also the restaurants that I surprise not inside former laundries, glassworks and even in industrial complexes. Obviously not even contemporary art could escape the charm of abandonment with works that dialogue with the viewer giving a new connotation to abandoned objects. This is the case, as Montreal Gazette reports, of the Canadian collective Garbage Beauty that transforms the objects abandoned on the street: a wooden plank thrown alongside plastic trays, for example, thanks to the writing "la table est mise" (the table is set) becomes, from the first glance, a table on which someone has just eaten. Also significant is the work of the artist Jane Perkins who uses waste to create famous works such as Girl with Turban or Starry Night.