Hedi Slimane / MUSAC

Hedi Slimane_MUSAC. 05.17-09.07.08.Press release.
excerpted text:

"Through a publication and an installation created expressly for this occasion, Slimane continues his personal exploration of youth aesthetics in relation to music as a factor of construction and transformation of identity."

"Certainly, when making any approach to Hedi Slimane’s work, we must do so without any formal restrictions, for, though in recent years it has been limited to the international successes earned in the field of fashion, the truth is that his aesthetic universe should not be partitioned but understood as a whole that is manifested through myriad forms of expression —let us recall in this respect that Slimane himself was the author of the advertising campaigns when he was at the head of Dior Homme. Nonetheless, this conception of creation presents some interesting distinctive features that can be traced back to before the beginning of his professional career: music—especially rock—and photography."

"As regards the installation, Slimane once again exhibits the connections between musical celebration and fans, and, definitively, the constructive reciprocity of both identities through the exchange promoted by live music. Thus, visitors to the exhibition will find a display of all the iconography intrinsic to a concert: an empty stage and the young members of the audience. The artist thus ultimately proposes an inversion of the habitual role of the spectator—or fan—as the visitor is allowed onto the stage to experience the rock star’s overwhelming sensation when before the masses who expectantly await the appearance of their idol, whom they venerate, and with whom they identify. "

"Undoubtedly, this is an installation that goes beyond photography and in which Slimane resituates the audience inside the action, as it is both an active and passive subject of a moment that is frozen."