Artist Joanna Vasconcelos created a psychedelic backdrop for Dior’s Paris Fashion Week show. See amazing pictures here

At Paris Fashion Week last month, Dior creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri reinterpreted the house’s 1950s codes. Thanks entirely to the creative vision of Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos, the landscape has taken on a new dimension. Vasconcelos installed a hallucinatory, stalactite-like sculpture that served as an undeniably bombastic backdrop for his Fall 2023 collection.

jewel, globular and behemoth, Valkyrie Miss Dior 23 feet high and about 78 feet long, it spans the temporary site of the Jardin des Tuileries. Was it an alien landscape or the interior of otherworldly creatures? Maybe some pan-national arts and crafts beast? All interpretation depends on the beholder. But one thing was certain: Vasconcelos beat out other contenders for “Collection of the Season.”

The suspended piece consisted of steel cables, crochet, LED lights, fans, inflatables and fabrics in 20 different Dior floral patterns. Vasconcelos is prone to overestimating her work.

“I don’t do scale for scale, but to convey a message through a chosen object,” says the artist. My work is very much based on the contextualization of everyday objects. The monumental scale is often seen as male territory and there are some barriers to breaking through.

Valkyrie Miss Dior Vasconcelos joins the pantheon of more than 30 exalted female warrior goddesses from Macao to Bilbao (she had a 2018 retrospective “I Am Your Mirror” at the Guggenheim). “They all have different themes, honoring women who have made a difference in the world,” Vasconcelos explains, “like female figures in Nordic mythology raising brave warriors killed on the battlefield to join the gods in Valhalla.” Valkyrie Miss Dior It is in honor of the sister of the house’s founder, Catherine Dior, a florist and World War II French Resistance fighter. National Order of the Legion of Honor. Vasconcelos 2005 Venice Biennale entry the bride, A baroque chandelier consisting of 25,000 tambourines has attracted international attention.

After becoming Dior’s first female creative director in 2018, the artist has found a true partner in Chiuri, who creates a distinctly feminine feel in all her collections. A key idea of ​​her tenure is to collaborate with female artists and allow them to realize their own. Visions.

Dior Valkyrie It’s only one high point for Vasconcelos this year. In April, she will have a solo exhibition at Beijing Tang Contemporary Art followed by a Tree of Life installation at Paris Saint-Chapelle de Vincennes. Her gargantuan wedding cake will be lifted at Waddesdon Manor in England in June and her next solo exhibition will open at the Uffizi Galleries in Florence, Italy in October. She took a moment to talk to us about Dior and explained her feelings.

Your work combines disciplines that overlap with fashion (sewing, knitting, working with textiles). Do you follow fashion and does it inform your work?

Fashion is a very important part of my life. I started showing my work in Lisbon. He can move. In the year In 1994, a catwalk for young creators, very counter-current, avant-garde and the spirit of intervention. At the time I made a series of wearable sculptures in styrofoam Tunisia. Colorful, organic, bulbous headdresses, they represent a cross between jewelry – which I studied – and sculpture.

Nowadays, a lot of my work is related to the world of textiles and so it’s only natural that they have some obvious affinity with fashion. The textile element is a common thread here, and it plays a very important role in addition to handicrafts related to kitchens. In fact, I doubt the male definition of noble materials in art. To me, textiles are as precious as metal, stone or wood – maybe even more so.

What struck me most about the Dior collection was this contrast between handmade/decorative and organic. I realized that this structure mimics a life form. It was like a fashion show happening inside the body.

It’s amazing to see it this way. Many people asked Valkyrie Miss Dior It represents a plant, animal, or human body, but they all see it as a living organism. I don’t really know how to conceive a static installation, what interested me from the very beginning was the interaction between the installation, the models and the audience, all coming together as a moving body, almost a sculptural choreography.

The fashion show adds a dimension to your art, this whirlwind fashion experience. Tell me about experiencing this firsthand?

This wasn’t my first time hiring a dancer for a painting. I did it last year Valkyrie Martha Presented by lille3000, an intentional choreography. It stems from the firm belief that art should be interactive, inviting viewers and/or other artists to join the process, touch it, feel it, and create a dialogue with movement, music, or other artistic expressions in a creative way.

The collection elevates the collection because it also contrasts perfectly. Interstellar down-to-earth. What was it like working with Ms. Chiuri? Did your designs inform each other?

No, they were completely different processes. Maria Grazia came to my studio in Lisbon last summer and we had a great exchange of ideas. Maria Grazia is a great inspiration not only for her femininity, but also for her craftsmanship, two causes very close to my heart. So when the invitation came, I showed her mine. Valkyries He pointed out that we should give respect to women as part of work. Then I got carte blanche to create it exactly as I saw it.

You sent me 20 fabrics from the collection and then I started creating Valkyrie. All were very flowers and liquid, colors from red, blue, green, orange to yellow. I decided to choose a different color, text and identity for each branch of artwork. To enhance the colors of the fabric, I added a little sparkle with sequins and embroidery.

Crochet is a technique very present in haute couture, which emphasizes the concept of re-evaluating the past, bringing back the memories in each of us and carrying them forward. It was an absolutely freeing conversation, creating a bridge between fashion and the visual arts, a great way to collaborate.

It seemed that there was The Wizard of Oz A stunning revelation as this vague pre-show black and white constellation transforms into this multi-colored organic. You’ve done large-scale projects before, but this seems to be a very Hollywood-style mega-production. What was it like working with Dior on this?

It was amazing. They are very professional and overall it was a very respectful approach, the creative process is respected at every stage. The energy that was created in the various stages as everything and everyone came together really shined through the show.

I am very proud of this piece. It stands as a testament to the great things that can happen when people come together and join efforts to create something greater than the sum of their parts.

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