the portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos installed, at the invitation of the haute couture brand Dior, one of its monumental Valkyries at the show that took place yesterday in Paris, dedicated to the women's collection for the autumn/winter 2023-2024 season. Joana Vasconcelos applied to this Valkyrie, 'Valkyrie Miss Dior', the fabrics used in this collection, something "never done" according to the artist. The Valkyries of Joana Vasconcelos they are large structures with several arms, inspired by the Scandinavian myth in which women sent by Odin had the mission to choose the winners and accompany the bravest warriors after death.
"Bringing this impact of the visual arts to the world of fashion is interesting, because it's a different relationship and that's innovative. The plastic arts never intersect with fashion in this way, there can be a piece, there can be an interaction, but this degree of scale, this collaboration so close that it's starting from the same material in two different directions, I don't think it's ever been done", said the artist in statements to the Lusa agency, during the assembly of the piece in Paris.
The Dior show took place in the Tuileries Garden, where the brand installed a catwalk to accommodate this 'Valkyrie Miss Dior', which weighs over a ton and is made up of 20 different fabric patterns supplied by this haute couture house from Joana Vasconcelos.
From a blue centre, several colored arms spread out in all directions, finished in wool 'crochet', embroidery from Viana do Castelo and gemstones. This is not the first time that the artist collaborates with Dior, having created in 2013 the piece 'J'adore Miss Dior', in which she used hundreds of the brand's perfume bottles to make a giant bow.
"We had never done something so big before. I learned [with Dior] a degree of professionalism, of demand. Fashion has a much faster pace than the visual arts. I have learned a lot with this collaboration, with different rules, but where people want to be more and more united, they want to share in order to grow", he declared.
The design for this Valkyrie began discussions in the summer of 2022 and execution began in November, in close collaboration with Maria Grazia Chiuri, artistic director of Dior. From the beginning, as in his other works in this format, Joana Vasconcelos I wanted this piece to honor a woman. "I said right away that I wasn't going to do a piece just for the sake of it, I said there had to be a story, we have to pay homage to someone, to an important woman in the history of Dior. And then, suddenly, the [artistic director] started telling me about Christian Dior's sister, Catherine Dior, and it made perfect sense to honor her", said the artist.
Catherine Dior was a French resistance fighter captured by the Gestapo in 1944, before the liberation of Paris. Deported to the Ravensbrück concentration camp, she then went through several forced labor prisons until she was released in 1945. Upon returning to France, she received several honors for her participation in the war. After helping her brother found her clothing brand, Catherine Dior became a florist and even a flower producer, which inspired the collection and the Valkyrie presented in Paris, with floral patterns and colors inspired by nature. However, and even though the collaboration with Maria Grazia Chiuri was very close, the Portuguese artist did not know the Dior collection until the start of the show, declaring that the show is "a great performance" and that it will only be complete when the models pass by. between the tentacles of your creation.
"I never see anything, so the show is a big performance in which the piece is complete. When the models come dressed in blue fabric, they come in the blue petal, when they come in yellow they stay under the yellow arm, even if the fabric is not be the same, it will make sense", indicated Joana Vasconcelos.
The Portuguese artist is finalizing another monumental work in Paris, the "Tree of Life", which will be installed in the Chapel of the Palace of Vincennes. A work very different from the Valkyrie that prevailed at Fashion Week, as explained by the artist.
"It's a very beautiful piece, very different from this one, it has a different character. It generates a dialogue with the heritage and it's a kind of collaboration with time and space and how heritage is seen. It generates a different universe from this one. There is a whole side of the past in ''The Tree of Life'', in the history of France, from the beginning of Paris, is a piece with another time", said the artist.
Joana Vasconcelos returns to Paris for the inauguration of ''A Árvore da Vida'' on April 27, the date on which this exhibition will open. This monumental piece can be seen in Lisbon, at the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (MAAT), later in the autumn, on a date to be announced.