© Francesco Vezzoli, Natalie, with Vezzoli's mother's eyes Courtesy of Prada's 24 Hour Museum

Italian artist Francesco Vezzoli’s latest media ploy has been to design a pop-up museum, open for 24 hours, in collaboration with Prada and AMO, Rem Koolhaas’ think tank in Paris’ Palais d’Iéna. The temporary event will welcome the public in to the traditionally historic building for a night of magic, like a Cinderella’s ball, before it is dismantled the next day.

The theatrical premiere is organized into three event spaces, historic, contemporary and the forgotten, the first being a showcase of Vezzoli’s works enclosed in neon-lit metal cages on the ground floor of the building. Vezzoli poses his portraits of Hollywood divas in the style of classical Greco-Roman sculptures on marble pedestals – the sculptures wear masks with Vezzoli’s mother’s eyes. With these works, Vezzoli continues his exploration of red-carpet rituals of celebrity and stardom that will be further exploited with a party staged in conjunction with the event, and which will be live streamed on the internet. Also, on Facebook, the artist intends to have an interactive game in which he frames people’s faces in classical composites.

© Francesco Vezzoli, Cate Courtesy of Prada's 24 Hour Museum

© Francesco Vezzoli, Eva with Vezzoli's mother's eyes for Prada's 24 Hour Museum,

Vezzoli’s previous performance-events included a live tribute to Diaghilev he did with Lady Gaga and Frank Gehry at LA’s MOCA entitled Ballets Russes Italian Style (The Shortest Musical You Will Never See Again) 2009, and the Democrazy video with Sharon Stone and Bernard-Henri Lévy playing characters in a ficitional political campaign for Venice Biennale in 2007. Prada has also previously collaborated with artist Carsten Holler for the The Double Club, a pop up club in London in 2009.

More information:
24 h Museum – 24 – 25 January 2012
Palais d’Iéna, ADDRESS: 9, PLACE D’IÉNA, 75016 PARIS
TUESDAY 24 JANUARY 2012- WEDNESDAY 25 JANUARY 2012, 7.00 am – 8.30 pm
www.24hoursmuseum.com

Artist Mariko Mori’s Journey to Seven Light Bay is a digital project that transports visitors to Miyako Island in Okinawa, Japan, where Mori has installed the first part of her monumental earthwork ‘Primal Rhythm’. The installation consists of a sun pillar and the egg-shaped ‘Tida Dome’ that changes colour with tidal movements.

Inspired by the caves of Okinawa in Japan, the digitally rendered ‘Tida Dome’ is a hollow shell through which light enters as it floats in the bay, shifting colour from red at low tide to blue at high tide, with many gradations in between. Mori has chosen exact coordinates such that at the moment of winter solstice, the lengthening shadow of the ‘sun pillar’ will penetrate the actual moonstone, once it is physically installed in the bay, uniting the celestial with the terrestrial, the masculine with the feminine.

Sun Pillar Miyako Island in Okinawa, Japan © Mariko Mori

Mariko Mori - Tida Dome, Courtesy of Adobe Museum of Digital Media

Construction of the Sun Pillar Miyako Island in Okinawa, Japan © Mariko Mori

Mori intends the site of this symbolic work to be a place for future performances that will engage viewers to participate in the surrounding environment. This installation, like many of her earlier works, integrates art, technology and Buddhism, engages circadian patterns, and celebrates the primary rhythms of the universe, which urban life largely erases from our consciousness.

Mariko Mori, Série "Present" (détail), Times Square, New York, 1997

The art world often sidelines humanist works for their accessibility and for their campaigns of universal mantras, but Mori has a history of meshing modern technology with ancient practices in a way that engenders contemplation for our place in the natural world. Predating Lady Gaga by many years, her pod performances in Times Square and other landscapes around the world, engaged public awareness using grand spectacles. Her Lucite stone circles were inspired by earthworks of the Jomon period in Japan, drawing on the astronomical wisdoms of the ancients to create connections that transcend time and cultural differences.

The Japanese born artist, commutes between her homes in Tokyo and New York for her projects, and also heads a non-profit organization, the Faou Foundation with a mandate to create a series of site-specific earthworks across six continents to engage local communities and enhance public interactions with the natural environment.

Mariko Mori, Wave UFO, 1999-2002, Courtesy of Adobe Museum of Digital Media

Mariko Mori - Oneness, Courtesy of Adobe Museum of Digital Media

A virtual demo of the installation of the Tida Dome, entitled ‘Journey to Seven Light Bay’ can be viewed at Adobe Museum of Digital Media site.

Faou Foundation

Video Courtesy of Ministry of Culture

Video Still, "Joie de Vivre" by Ruth Hogben for Gareth Pugh, Courtesy of Ruth Hogben, 2010

At the opening of Paris’ Fall fashion week Gareth Pugh opted out of the usual runway display and showcased his designs instead with an eleven minute video done in collaboration with filmmaker Ruth Hogben.  Hogben came to my attention through her earlier work for Celine and  Pugh with her original use of lighting and texture, which emphasized the sensuality of both the fabric and the wearer.

Hogben had worked with Nick Knight on Alexander McQueen’s last show, and also on videos for Lady Gaga’s recent stage performances. I asked the young filmmaker about her inspirations and aspirations for carving out a new medium for herself.

KL: How did you first start assisting Nick Knight?
RH: I studied photography first; I wanted to be a photographer since I was twelve.  I was very persistent and we went to the same secondary school and it was probably my winning letter that I wrote. I always wanted to learn from him. I had two or three years of assisting others and learning from my mistakes. And then I finally applied and worked for Nick – worked very, very hard for a few years. I was the motorized magazine rack – give me three seconds to reload the film …

When Nick went to digital, I had to take a step back – you didn’t need four people to change the lens on a Hasselblad and so I had to reinvent myself. [Later], I was at a Visionaire shoot, and kept looking through the view-finder and Lily (Cole) was playing with motion and light, and I said to Nick that I thought there was some really nice footage there, and could I edit it? I then spent half a day in the studio learning Final Cut. Nick and Charlotte (his partner) were very supportive and let me use the footage and the soundtrack; they gave me a lot of freedom – then, it was two years of editing, of trying and playing, and working hard.

Gareth Pugh S/S 2011 Collection – Director: Ruth Hogben from SHOWstudio on Vimeo.

KL: Are you inspired by the architectural forms in Gareth Pugh’s designs?
RH: The third film (Joie de Vivre) was influenced by art deco architecture. That was how I approached the film, making her into a building, making her very tall. But then she moved so well – and gave me so many varying poses, it meant I could go wild when I had an amazing soundtrack. The audio is by Lukid. I talked with him about the film I wanted to make and he went away for a couple of weeks and came back with something that fit so perfectly that we decided to go with it instead of starting from scratch.

KL: What’s the difference between this work and making a music video?
RH: Fashion drives my inspiration. I’d be quite scared to be led by music; it’s not how I really work. I work with the beat but as a way of accentuating the work.

Video still from Director Ruth Hogben's film for Celine

KL: Do you choreograph the movement?
RH: For Celine (Perfect) I was led by the lines of how the coat moved. But with the leather jacket, when she rolled her shoulders, the leather just moved in this sexual way…The movement is a fine line between the freedom of expression in the way the model feels as a woman inside the clothes, to how I think the movement should be communicated.

KL: The movement when it is slowed down is very erotic. You get to really see how the human body moves.
RH: I never really thought about how I slow things down. But sometimes I just feel the viewer needs to appreciate what I am showing them, and in real-time you don’t get to appreciate a crease or a movement; it gets the audience time to breathe it in. But it does push it away from reality, which is sometimes right for certain films – or sometimes isn’t. I also repeat, I accentuate… I am not a trained editor and don’t follow conventions of the film genre.

KL: Maybe you are creating a new genre – it’s more like a performance.
RH: Whatever edit rule I use, I just feel it. It’s a visual language that pleases me. I just follow my instinct.

I am building on something already incredible, and I make it more graphic or sumptuous with backgrounds, makeup, movement and wind. I am communicating through a performance, a film. I adore working with Gareth; his work is so strong. In the initial stages he spends a long time speaking about how he feels about his work, then he lets me react to it…With Gaga it was more fashion oriented…there were art pieces embedded in the concerts – but she also gave me a lot of freedom.

SHOWstudio: The Fashion Body – Buttocks from SHOWstudio on Vimeo.

KL: Do you think the artist in you takes over – or are you just showing the clothes to the best advantage?
RH: That’s a bit tricky. I try to improve on my past work. I’ve been working with a great DOP, Simon Chaudoir and learning a lot, playing with lenses, feeling more confident…

But the communication between Gareth and I hasn’t changed. I refine the communication, and with film it is a lot more direct than with a still photograph. I fine-tune the communication with the pace of the edit and movement. I don’t think as an artist I overtake his work, but knowing the medium more, helps improve what and how I communicate his vision.

I spent 4 months working with Gaga, and when I finished I needed to do a film that was purely just for me. It was self-funded. It will go to some festivals, and I love how it is presented and shown at Showstudio; I love working with the team there, and I get a lot of control of how the film looks.

[In my videos] I try to show what type of a woman she is in a thick heavy wool coat; or a flowy see-through dress. It all means something and I try to understand what that means and communicate it on a whole new level.

Martin Margiela's "Wig-Coat," in Make Up Your Mind, directed by Nick Knight and Ruth Hogben

Make up your Mind

KL: You communicate that without clothes too, through the movement of flesh. Showing women’s bodies in a different way is challenging because it’s one of the most exploited subjects in art.
RH: Those two burlesque dancers were so much fun to work with (See Buttocks above). I love fashion and I love women. I study skin moving – making it look like milk and being inspired by Man Ray’s daylight nudes. I am lucky to live in this time with this new medium – this touchable way of using digital formats. [And also] having all these exquisite artists to be pulling on like Man Ray, Helmut Newton and Allen Jones – but putting my own spin on them. It’s important that we question ourselves as women, about equality – I think a lot about whether a stripper is an object or is she something to be desired, and whether that’s powerful enough. I’d like to do a lot more work in exploring women and their bodies, and whether they are just pieces of meat or whether they are something to enjoy in splendour and celebrate. There is a fine line between exploitation and celebration. I am lucky to be working in this time where fashion film has a platform.

Ruth Hogben  video for Phillipe Starck

KL: Is your work just part of the fashion world – or do you consider yourself an artist.
RH: I don’t know how to answer. I did a film for Phillipe Starck – a still-life of a chair– shot and lit in different ways with calligraphy writing; it abstracted the shapes…brought out the form of the chair and then faded away…I don’t quite know what that is, or what I should call myself – I love it and feel it and put my heart and soul it.

“Joie de Vivre,” Gareth Pugh’s A/W 2010 Collection (Directed by Ruth Hogben).

For more information on credits view Ruth Hogben/Gareth Pugh’s Joie de Vivre at Showstudio.

Nick Knight, Self Portrait (2006)

By Kiša Lala

For its 30th anniversary this August, the now venerable, i-D magazine, has just released three birthday editions shot by photographer Nick Knight. The collectible issues with staggered release dates are titled Then (Pre-Fall), Now (Fall) and Next (Winter) with Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell and Lady Gaga as cover stars.

Kate Moss, Lady Gaga and Naomi Campbell on the cover of id magazine, 30th-Anniversary

Photographer Nick Knight has been working with i-D since the early years, and the portrait project is one he initiated for i-D’s 5th birthday. In fact, one might say i-D’s look had once been synonymous with Knight’s evolutionary photography in collaboration with the stylist Simon Foxton. Knight’s need to perfect and surpass his previous accomplishments is in keeping with i-D’s continued youthful innovative explorations for over 300 issues.

Lady Gaga by Nick Knight for iD magazine, 2010

Knight also contributed to the i-Dentity series for i-D’s all grown up, 25th anniversary celebrations. The new series of black and white portraits are part of more than 200 images that were shot over a three week period last December at the ShowStudio exhibition at Somerset House, the location most recently used for British Fashion Week.  Knight also shot September’s cover image of Lady Gaga for Vanity Fair.

One of the more intimate portraits of issue #308 is of Vivienne Westwood with her husband Andreas Kronthaler. In an interview Westwood discusses her working relationship with him, “We can’t start the collection together because what I suggest wouldn’t be right. We start separately and then come together,” she elaborates.

Here’s Nick Knight shooting Vivienne Westwood for the anniversary issue:

Photo: Ruud Baan/Bernstein & Andriulli

M.I.A., official name Maya Arulpragasam, talks to Maxwell Williams for SPREAD|Artculture magazine. They meet at Village Recording Studios in Los Angeles as M.I.A. is putting the final touches on her third album, /\/\/\Y/\. The two discuss politics, her son Ikhyd, her label N.E.E.T. Recordings, and more. The topic of the ever ubiquitous Lady Gaga appears and M.I.A. weighs in saying, “Lady Gaga is someone who lives completely within [the industry]. That’s what you can get if you say ‘yes.’ I would have those outfits on and my hair would look like that and those are the songs I would sing. Everybody else on my label’s budget would get cut in order for my Grammy performance with Elton John to be banging.”

Photo: Ruud Baan/Bernstein & Andriulli

To learn more about M.I.A.’s new album and what she has to say about being dubbed “The Tamil Tigress”, check out issue 05 of SPREAD|Artculture magazine.

"Alexander McQueen" by David LaChapelle

Fashion visionary Lee McQueen, creative director and founder of the Alexander McQueen label, was found dead in his home in London Thursday morning. The former creative director of the famous House of Givenchy and Gucci was mourned in the Lincoln Center Tents during the first day of Spring 2010’s Fashion Week.

Editor of British Vogue, Alexandra Shulman, commented: “Lee McQueen influenced a whole generation of designers. His brilliant imagination knew no bounds as he conjured up collection after collection of extraordinary designs.

“At one level he was a master of the fantastic, creating astounding fashion shows that mixed design, technology and performance and on another he was a modern-day genius whose gothic aesthetic was adopted by women the world over. His death is the hugest loss to anyone who knew him and for very many who didn’t.”

His visions graced numerous red carpets in recent years, most recently by Lady Gaga.

Alexander McQueen from Paris Fashion Week, Fall 2009

McQueen was a master at calling fashion’s bluff; inevitably being courted by under-zealous contemporaries who called him one of fashion’s greatest influencers. Cindy Weber Cleary, Fashion director for InStyle, said of McQueen: “He was a huge talent, a master of tailoring and always willing to push the envelope. He was forward thinking.”

An example of such forward-thinking fashion would have to be his runway littered with broken mirrors and shredded Givenchy “little black dresses” during Paris’s Fall 2009 Fashion Week.

SPREAD chooses not to speculate on the details surrounding Lee McQueen’s death, but bids farewell to a true cultural instigator who made a noticeable impact during his relatively short career.