Saint Laurent unveils the new chapter of the Self project with the intention of connecting different parts of the world through simultaneous exhibitions in 6 different cities. For the occasion, the creative director Anthony Vaccarello personally selected 6 photographers to work on the exhibits, highlighting the representative elements and the deep connection that each of them shares with their respective exhibition cities.
The real intent of the project is to capture different aspects of the personality and imagery linked to Saint Laurent, an artistic declination of the brand’s core values. The decision to involve external artists underlines the desire to give space to a personal vision in interpreting the individual and the world around him. It represents an artistic freedom of expression and creation, beyond any limits or barriers, and above all according to personal and unique perspectives and points of view. Fashion and art reinforce and nurture the concept of diversity, through personal narratives, free from dictates of fiction or hypocrisy. The artists who agreed to participate in the project have at the same time lent themselves to a true statement of confrontation.
The 6 exhibitions will take place from the 9th to 12th of June in 6 different cities, Paris, London, New York, Tokyo, Seoul and Shanghai, combining art and fashion through the skilful perspective of Harry Gruyaert, Olivia Arthur, Alex Webb, Takashi Homma, Daesung Lee and Birdhead.
Harry Gruyaert – Paris
Gruyaert has always been fascinated by airports, places that attract his attention through the play of lights, transparencies and reflections, signs, arrows, numbers and letters, which trace the path; but above all with the effects of overlapping, which create a strong absence of reference points while giving the impression of being between two different worlds.
Olivia Arthur – London
So not so is a series of images that explores the individual’s relationship with their body, their physicality and the importance of contact. Movement, interaction and play, a discovery of the world through natural and unnatural forms. Sometimes the real can become surreal, and being us bodies and thinking minds we have a duty to always remember both our strengths and weaknesses.
Alex Webb – New York
The streets of every city are full of vivid colours, massive geometries, veils of light, movement and great diversity. As a street photographer Webb has always been attracted to the intensity that life communicates, first encountered between Latin America and the Caribbean. When Anthony Vaccarello asked him to shoot Los Angeles, he immediately thought of three places of culture: the Pinata District, the Flower District and the Fashion District. The exhibition will therefore be a combination of his New York vision and the streets of Los Angeles, inspired by his past work.
Takashi Homma – Tokyo
The city and fashion. Tokyo is immense, every action is constantly influenced and directed by the pressure of the city. For the shots in the exhibition, Homma used the camera obscura technique, which made it possible to juxtapose the close relationship between his city and fashion.
Daesung Lee – Seoul
Over the years, the world has stopped, and nature has restored all our forgotten senses. It was an experience bordering on the surreal. Lee often says that he found himself escaping into a natural imagery created in his mind to deflect the uncertain future that lay ahead. He thanks Sain Laurent and Anthony Vaccarello for the total freedom of creative expression.
Birdhead- Shanghai
This collaboration is inspired by the harmonious relationship between the different species that exist in nature. The urban landscape, fashion and the body together with natural elements such as clouds, trees and stones surround this idea. Each photograph is the original made in analogue, and ad hoc for this project some prints are presented in inverted negative. Birdhead also recognises the great freedom that the Self project gives artists to explore the world of art and fashion without being subject to limits and barriers.
