“[Pier Paolo] Pasolini was scandalous; people were shocked” – the German-born jewellery designer describes the legendary filmmaker’s irresistible draw
“When I look at Pasolini it always feels fresh; the way he talks about society falling apart and reforming itself, that is totally relevant now. He surrounded himself very consciously with interesting, talented people, waiting for the moment when something would happen, and this is how his films were constructed, from my understanding; he’s expecting this deus ex machina, this moment that is fruitful. He’s always surprising himself. He was vilified by so many people, he said what many people didn’t dare say, but also had a strong sense of the bourgeoisie. The fact that he had this awful death was part of his story, it suits his character; at least he didn’t go out in a decrepit, banal way. There’s an element of Dionysian fantasy about him. When I was a child Pasolini was scandalous; people were shocked. But now? Now you think, god, there was a prophecy in it.”
Julia Muggenburg, the German-born founder of London’s Belmacz Gallery and a serial savant, has herself built from her intimate Mayfair shop-cum-gallery a global network of likeminded collaborators, artists, designers and thinkers, each of whom is drawn moth-like towards her. A jewellery designer first and foremost, she is the fiercely unpretentious, deeply curious and endlessly generous aesthete at the centre of it all. And in this day and age, as the tireless visionary, director, writer and intellectual Pier Paolo Pasolini, who was murdered in 1975, would himself surely agree, that is a revolution in and of itself.
Hair Maarit Niemela at Bryant Artists using Bumble and Bumble; Make-up Jenny Coombs at Streeters using NARS Cosmetics; Styling assistants Rebecca Perlmutar, Marta Martinez Regidor; Make-up assistant Porsche Poon; Post-production Labyrinth Photographic; Production Mini Title; Special thanks to Clapton Tram.
This article originally appears in AnOther Magazine S/S17.
