International politics as a source of inspiration. The current political climate is the background of Demna Gvasalia‘s choices for Balenciaga’s SS20 collection and campaign.
Already during the Paris show at the end of September, the reference was clear and explicit. The catwalk took place in a hall of the Cité du Cinema in Paris suitably modified to evoke unequivocally the European Parliament; entirely upholstered in a blue color, very similar to that characteristic of the EU, the show was accompanied by music by BFRND, an electronic music producer coming from Southern France but now established in Switzerland. The sounds of the 25-year-old Frenchman are evocative, obsessive and at times terrifying.
The parade was a gigantic, almost theatrical mockery of the establishment, connecting the concept of power, identity, and social relations.
By deleting all previous tweets Balenciaga launched an extension of the SS20 campaign (a series of models photographed as if they were political candidates by Laurence Chaperon, a photographer famous for his political campaigns), posting a video that looks at the most important contemporary issues (global warming, the enormous uncertainty of international politics and the tension over the upcoming presidential elections) with a post-apocalyptic and dystopian cut, which smells of nightmare and concern for every single aspect of our contemporaneity.
A distressing evening news, where models and models (pro and not) swamped in clothes from the SS20 collection (more corporate than ever) announce, without any kind of expressiveness, in a monotonous way and with digitally manipulated mouths, (remember in a sinister way the cartoons made by Cambria Studios where they used the synchro vox technique to make the protagonists move their lips) that the water is running out and the planets are aligning, the world is adrift but there is no worry but almost resignation, inaction. A passive attitude that seems normal and habitual.
The “journalists” and the interviewed subjects emit sounds that make up a “noisy” and gloomy soundtrack created this time by the experimental duo from Detroit, Wolf Eyes.
The video was directed by Will Benedict, the campaign is a metaphysical representation of the discomfort, torment, and restlessness that dwells in each one of us, in front of which we confront ourselves with the attitude of not being inept, conscious immobility that makes us all guilty.
