Between 1978 and 2008 Frida Parmeggiani was among the most sought after costume designers in Europe.

She collaborated with directors such as Hans Hollmann, Götz Friedrich, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Samuel Beckett and Robert Wilson. On the occasion of her seventieth birthday the Mozarteum Salzburg and Kunst Meran presented an exhibition of new works in summer 2016. At the same time the publication Frida Parmeggiani. Costume Abstractions appeared as the first comprehensive book dedicated to her work.

The exhibition and the book present a series of multi part costume abstractions in which Parmeggiani explores the tension between nature space volume and textile material. For the first time she works without dramaturgy and without performers. Her minimalist visual language unfolds in static sculptural constellations. Precious fabrics combined with metal elements or fragments from nature form strictly composed yet poetic costume installations. The publication includes several contributions on Parmeggiani’s work. Silke Geppert examines the recent pieces from a costume historical perspective. Robert Wilson reflects on their long artistic collaboration. Journalist Bernd Sucher contributes a portrait of the artist while Elfriede Jelinek presents a prose text written especially for this publication addressing their shared fascination with textile materials.

Frida Parmeggiani achieved her first stage successes in the mid 1970s with productions of Samuel Beckett Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Wilfried Minks. As early as 1979 she designed costumes for Wagner’s Lohengrin and in 1987 for the complete Ring of the Nibelung cycle at the Bayreuth Festival. Later collaborations included artists such as David Byrne Lou Reed Tom Waits and William S. Burroughs. For the Salzburg Festival she created costumes for productions including Erwartung, Bluebeard’s Castle, Mitridate and Danton’s Death. From 1987 onward Parmeggiani worked almost exclusively with Robert Wilson. Today she lives in relative seclusion in Merano.