Cécile B. Evans gives Miu Miu's Fall-Winter 2024 runway a digital-age facelift, serving fashion in a cosmic collision of picels and panache.
In the ever-evolving dialogue between fashion and art, one big name comes to mind. Three, two, one in unison we say, Miuccia Prada. Miu Miu, to be more precise. The Italian Fashion House has long been the go-to for artistic experimentation, a place where runways are as much about sensational experiences then strutting. And what a spectacle it’s been! With collaborators like Sophia Al- Maria, who turned the Spring 2024 show into a mesmerizing fever dream, or Meriem Bennani, who whipped up a surrealist storm for Spring 2022, Miu Miu has consistently proven that fashion is not just about the clothes, but the wild, wonderful narratives they can spin. Each season, the brand rewrites the rules, only to throw the rulebook out the window in favor of something altogether more fantastical.
Miu Miu’s Fall/Winter 2024 show continues this tradition of artist collaboration, unveiling the glorious installation by multimedia artist Cécile B. Evans. Celebrated as one of the leading voices in Post-Internet Art, Evans brings to the fore a profound exploration of the impact of the digital era on human existence. Through video, sculpture, and performance, they delve into the intangible—how our emotions, memories and identities are mediated through technology. As for the Fall/Winter 2024 show, Palais d’Iéna shapeshifted into phantasmagoria of digital-age introspection by Evans’ transfixing installation, “RECEPTION!”. The cinematic masterpiece, starring the magnetic Guslagie Malanda, tells the tale of the last human translators in a world
teetering on the brink of digital oblivion. As Evans and Miu Miu intertwine their narratives, the result is a captivating meditation of fashion’s ephermeral nature and memory’s slippery grasp- a reminder that both can be as fleeting as yesterday’s Wi-Fi signal.
This collaboration isn’t just a casual meet-cute between fashion and art, but more of a full-blown star-crossed romance. It’s the love child of technology and nostalgia, with a wardrobe to match. In this interview we sit down with Cécile B. Evans, to explore the magical process behind “RECEPTION!” exploring the intricate dance between technology and memory and how this narrative came to life within the world of Miu Miu.
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CÉCILE B. EVANS: The sort of vision that I proposed from my side, which is a video installation across 40 screens, revolving around the idea of memory. Specifically around a woman and a memory that escapes her and goes rogue in the show space. From the beginning, I’ve been interested in this idea of memory as a physical thing that can exist beyond us, and this question of, which memories, what does that mean for us, especially in this technological era and which memories get to survive, and how do they survive.
AYK: How many screens?
CBE: 40?
AYK: Wow! It’s massive. I’m assuming they’re very large scale screens.
CBE: We’ll have four large scale screens containing a short film I’ve made, relating directly to the activity on three, two-tiered, chandeliers, each having 12 screens. The short film revolves around the last human translator on Earth, a character I conceived alongside actress Guslagie Malanda.
AYK: This is very interesting.
CBE: I imagined this character of a woman who is one of the last human translators in a world dealing with a storage crisis. It is widely known that digital memories are physical, and one day, we will have to think that we can’t fit everything onto our phones. Therefore, the idea behind the project is that she is the last person who handles people’s memories that are in other languages and transfers them from memories, as people experience them, to history. That’s the translation process that I’m extremely interested in today.
AYK: This should be un long métrage, not just for a show. I love it. Tell me about the process for the collaboration with Miu Miu. How did it start? When you received the invitation, what were your feelings?
CBE: I had the advantage of already knowing this type of collaborative projects because other artists I know and admire have done it such as Meriem Bennani and Sophia Al- Maria. I have been ready for a long time to have this kind of a broad audience and specifically a young audience. I know Miu Miu as a brand and as a site of experimentation. That’s how it was conceived. It’s clear through the artistic collaborations and with films like The Miu Miu Tales, something like Janicza Bravo’s film that was also done with musician Kelsey Lu. This is a place that artists already can come to with a lot of confidence that we’re going to experiment specifically with that connection to a different audience, which is what is super exciting. And then in terms of Mrs. Prada, from an art world’s perspective, her reputation is as an incredible patron in the arts, and an incredible supporter and someone who in this process has been incredibly supportive and pushing the ideas further. For someone who’s used to working in the context of a public museum, it’s not what you would expect, and that has been super inspiring.
AYK: Incredible woman. You spoke about the inspiration, but what was the message you wanted to convey? And why this last human interpreter on Earth? Is it a message of the end of the human experience and interaction?
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CBE: Absolutely not. The contrary. In this future, people still exist. All of these machines and mechanisms are human made. Another thing you see in the short film, which also becomes relevant across the screen chandeliers, is this woman works with a lot of personal devices, like cameras and hard drives. An important message to me is that we live with these things every day and they belong to us. The way that a watch is passed down from generations, our memories when they’re transferred this special relationship with, with the digital with the electronic, like, it’s still a physical thing. And that is something that we should pay attention to, on a human level. And that belongs to us. And there’s a lot of strength in knowing that. I still have a lot of hope that even with a collaboration of machines, which is inevitable, and exists already, that we can demand to have a relationship and to still be able to understand also, like how these things happened, happen, like how do our memories get transcribed to history? How do they pass through these machines? And how can we develop, you know, a sort of special intimate skill set? To do that.
AYK: Did you have to talk to doctors and professional practitioners in the field before you created this concept?
CBE: Yeah, thank you for asking that. The genesis of this came from a very personal experience of talking to my family doctor, and then reaching out to different social workers to talk about how memory functions within our bodies, and how that’s a physical thing. And the first thing that everyone told me, which was super interesting, was like, the way that memory works. So if this woman were to have a memory that escapes her, that means that she no longer remembers it to some extent. Memory isn’t stored in one location, it’s stored as a network in our body. And it chooses, it has this agency to a certain extent to protect us from memories, or also to decide I no longer want to be accessed. And this to me had a really clear link to how data functions. When a file is deleted. It’s not that it stops existing. It’s just that we can’t access it, it gets split up in the network, and we just don’t have the language to find it again. So this is why I thought it was really important, you know, with this big platform to just say, let’s take a minute and just sit with that. And watch it.
AYK: This is very beautiful. Cécile, you will be in my memory forever. I promise you that. Talk to me about the collection. Did you see the collection or sketches before conceiving the film?
CBE: The collaboration is always conceived because we also know that as an artistic practice. This timeline is very short for me, and is a muscle that, you know, I’ve had to develop and like a totally different way of working, which is a relief somehow from working on films and installations for like two to three years. And I think with the collection, I have a great amount of respect for the fact that it’s like a high level of detail and refinement in such a short time span. So I don’t know that much about the collection. And to some extent the invitation is for an alchemy, and that I have a lot of faith in the Miu Miu team. And it’s actually refreshing that I as an artist don’t have to be a control freak about every single detail. And that’s what’s really like the true collaboration about it is that I trust them and they trust me. And then on March 5, we have this really magical thing that happens.
AYK:Incredible now you’re making me want to change my plans and travel to Paris to see the show. You said you trust them, but then also mutually they trusted you? Obviously but did you have Carte Blanche?
CBE: Yeah, absolutely. This idea is 100% mine and of course, like, you know, the Miu Miu team is aware of and we’ve had, I was actually really pleasantly surprised at their availability and how much they know about I don’t think there’s anyone in the team that doesn’t know exactly what this project is. Which is not what you would expect. And is why I’m 100% able to trust them.
AYK: Incredible. Did you have a close relationship with Mrs. Prada during the process? Did you have an encounter or a discussion? Or was it strictly with the team?
CBE: Oh, directly with Mrs. Prada, she’s involved in it. I mean, she knows this very well, she’s had the foundation for many years, and is very involved with artists. And we had a couple of meetings, long ones where the idea was listened to. And there was direct feedback from her, which was incredibly informative, like, I appreciate this kind of direct feedback. And the questions that she asked are questions on a really high level that are important, like ecological impact, the importance also of the history of women working with machines, and their erasure from that. These are themes that are directly discussed. And it’s like, for me, as an artist, that’s like my food,that’s like what nourishes me.
AYK: Beautiful. We’ve seen a lot of shows in our lives, and we’ve seen shows where you just have a runway, and models are walking on the runway with beautiful creations that are extremely successful. But we’ve also seen other shows or other sets that are almost like a theatre production, with beautiful clothes on the runway. So, what role do you think the set or the importance of a creative set plays in a fashion collection, or on a runway presentation?
CBE: To be honest, that’s one of the reasons I was most excited is because as an artist, I’ve always worked in video installation, but like installation, as an environment, the audience walks into, and something happens to their body. Like, you know, you go from like the busy streets of Paris, and you’re in an environment that has been carefully planned so that the audience doesn’t even have to think about it, something happens to them. And for me, this is like, the best way to talk to people, is to say, like, you left your house, you got dressed and 2024, like, we’re gonna give you a show, like we’re gonna give you we’re going to do something with you. That, to me, is really important and exciting. And it’s something that has been consistent in all of the Miu Miu shows. So I knew what I was coming into and, and wanted to do this, because of that reason.
AYK: In your opinion, what impact does fashion show still have in our digital culture?
CBE: I had the unique pleasure of working with teenage girls in a previous project called Reality or Not. I watched them watch live stream shows, and I’ve watched them discuss this. And their level of intelligence and brilliance at picking up the different references at discussing it, and digesting it. Also watching the way that that circulates online, the way that our memories circulate online. I think the online space is something that I definitely think about all the time. it’s not something that I forgot, because it’s still incredibly powerful.
AYK: I read that you originally trained as an actor.
CBE: Yes
AYK: And of course, your work often incorporates your own take on performance. Do you think there’s an element of performance in fashion? And if so, how do you approach this?
CBE: 1,000%. And this I approached through the music. So I also get to collaborate with some of my favourite musicians, like crystella Uri who does crystal mass as Mara Maroof, and Daniel Pineda. And also Joseph ditional, Shanell de lumbo. obviously, I don’t know exactly who is going to be in the show, because it’s a lot of people. But we had conversations, specifically with the music about what we could give to the models so that they feel a part of, you know, this set and this performance in a way that doesn’t ask them to do anything other than be present. So that’s what we thought of in terms of performance. And also the audience from the moment they walk into the moment that they leave, like, what does this performance look like? It’s choreographed, it’s fully choreographed.
AYK: Beautiful obviously there’s no sound right because the music of the show and the soundtrack is going to be the dominant sound that the audience is going to listen to. So your film is only going to be visual.
CBE: There’s a film that’s about one minute and 20 seconds, which is about this last, this last human translator, who’s playing.
AYK: You mean the 40 screens are not showing the exact same thing. It’s completely different.
CBE: So the audience walks in. And there’s two separate languages. So you have four screens, which are 8.5, really, really big, you know, more traditional cinema screens, which will show the one and a half minute short film, which is a short film starring Guslagie Malanda. And then on these screening chandeliers which are two tears and look like chandeliers except their screens that’s what you will see during the the actual show. But what’s on the more traditional cinema screens you do actually see a film. Guslagie Malanda is mostly known for her role in the film, St. Homer. She plays this translator and there’s also a voiceover. There’s a short text that you hear that is the memory in question.
AYK: So you read the text, but you don’t hear it?
CBE: No, you hear it in the show.
AYK: How would you describe your own work? And how does the Miu Miu aesthetic align with your art?
CBE: I work across a lot of mediums. So collage, video installation, performance, sculpture, but it always revolves around a central idea or question that is almost always actually always about this moment that our feelings come into contact with structures and systems. So that could be ideological, physical, technological. And the fact that our emotions can’t really be controlled by them, ultimately. So there’s a moment of rebellion. And I’m always interested in that moment, and what that looks like, what that feels like, for people. And in terms of the Miu Miu aesthetic, I have to go back to this thing of experimentation. And the fact also that to some extent, with Miu Miu, people always think of it as a very young brand. But like you could have a 16 year olds, the way that you could have, you know, an 86 year old interested in this. And that multiplicity is something that within my aesthetic is very important. So I have animation, I have live action, it’s that possibility to move around. Miu Miu, especially in the last, I would say, five years is a brand that aesthetically is very responsive and present in the world. And as an artist, that’s something I’m always trying to be is say like, I get to be in the world. And that’s something that I don’t take very lightly.
AYK: This is the first time you collaborated with a fashion brand?
CBE: In this way, yes.
AYK: Would you be open to working on more fashion shows again? And what kind of collaboration do you want to work on in the future? If you can talk to me about how it opened up, maybe a new aspect of your work?
CBE: Yeah. It opened up this new aspect, as I said, of a much different audience to an art one. I didn’t grow up with art. I grew up in Florida. I think the first museum exhibition I saw was when I was 18 years old, I studied as an actor, and I didn’t go to art school. So I think I’m very interested in an audience. That would have been like me as a kid. Very, very broad. You know, much bigger. I have great love for an art audience. And public museums are incredible spaces. But I’ve definitely been very spoiled by Miu Miu with this collaboration. So I would only do something that is of the standard and also creative with that creative licence. But I definitely want to make a feature length film, and extend this and I’m super interested in commercials. I grew up on TV. I think this is a space where there is potential for radicality honestly.
AYK: I love what you said earlier about Emotions. This is something that people tend to forget when they want to work on commercials. It’s not only about the sales, but what triggers you to go and buy this product.
CBE: I do have to say, though, that I’m very lucky to be an artist because when I entered this space, and I know I’m not naive, I know, this is not always the case. And I think when you ask this question of what has opened me up to, and it’s the possibility of remaining an artist and being unreasonable and not having to function within the system, but really being strategic and saying, like, I want to talk directly to people, like how can I do that? I think that’s a muscle that in this moment, and I think I would be a fool not to at least try to understand and learn about
AYK: What projects do you currently have in the pipeline? What are you working on now that Miu Miu is done?
CBE: Before I got the new invitation, I finished my latest film, which is called Reality or Not, which was with this group of teenage girls as they’re invited to participate in a reality TV show about how they want to live together. So I’m focused on touring that. It opens tomorrow in a fantastic group exhibition at Lafayette anticipations in Paris, and is touring in many different sites. And I plan to do the next project: the phase of research around this last human translator and the memory that escapes her and belting that out into a whole world and expanding on it.
AYK: Very exciting. Thank you. And my last question for you. Because our magazine is called sorbet. What is your favourite flavour of sorbet?
CBE: So cute! Oh my god, I love sorbet. I have a really specific one. Bashir’s rose flavoured sorbet which is a Lebanese ice cream place in Paris.
AYK: It’s near the Centre Pompidou.
CBE: Exactly. I love that place.
AYK: I love that place.
CBE: It is the only place in that area that I will stand in line for 30 minutes to get the ice cream. Rain, shine, whatever
AYK: With extra pistachio on top.
CBE: Oh 100%.
AYK: Thank you so much. This has been really enjoyable. I really liked the discourse we had and I wish you all the best of luck. I really appreciate that. Good luck
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