In the second part of this special story, meet the Parisian visual artists we have brought together with Valentino
Photography Kyle Weeks
Styling Laëtitia Gimenez Adam
In this second part of Nataal’s story with FARFETCH and Valentino, we profile the six Paris-based visual artists who are featured here wearing catwalk looks from Valentino’s AW21 Act collection with Valentino Garavani accessories. These emerging talents are invigorating the city’s creative community with their inspirational and challenging work. As this season sees Valentino’s creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli pushing the house’s romantic codes into new territory that feels at once minimal and sensual, these artists likewise take us into the frontier.
“My Valentino look is very graphic and it almost makes me feel like a statue, like an art piece”
MATY BIAYENDA
“My art has always been about who I am and the different path that I’ve been finding for myself. I’m trying to define my femininity and where I come,” says Maty Biayenda of her introspective practice. Born in Namibia to Congolese and French parents, she grew up painting and illustrating and is currently studying textile design at École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs. Drawing on inspirations as far reaching as Impressionism, noughties R&B and the films of Djibril Diop Mambéty, she creates her own interpretation of Black beauty across toile de jouy-like cloths. Her women look super fly whether riding a horse, pole dancing or gossiping on the phone. And as her engrossing Instagram feed reveals, Biayenda also takes style seriously. “What you wear can impact how you feel. It can empower you, or you can dress in a way that has a story to tell,” she reveals. “My Valentino and Valentino Garavani look is very graphic and it almost makes me feel like a statue, like an art piece.”
FABIEN CONTI
Fabien Conti’s large-scale paintings of lone figures amid foreboding scenes of nature ask the viewer to consider their own complicity in the global climate crisis. “I hope they are meditative works reflecting a human tragedy, both predicted and observed, creating landscapes with an atmosphere that is tempestuous yet calm,” he says. The Beaux-Arts de Paris student often uses gradients of colour to recreate a windswept atmosphere, the skies ranging from dark blacks to blood reds. As for his Valentino look, it resonates with his appreciation of minimalism. “I enjoy fashion and I appreciate wearing these beautiful pieces. I have a few Valentino items in my wardrobe and what I love about them is that they’re simple, artistic and have great details.”
“I often use science fiction to talk about subjects such as gender, identity and future technology”
ALIZÉE QUITMAN
Multi-disciplinary artist Alizée Quitman studied at L'École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Visuels de La Cambre in Brussels before recently establishing herself in Paris. Her experimental practice addresses the body with recent works delving into human organs as a way explore our obsession with outward appearances. “I want to make space for the body through installation, sculpture, performance and jewellery,” she says. “I often use science fiction to talk about subjects such as gender, identity and future technology. I also look at the origins of my father, who is from Martinique.” Her jewellery, recently worn by Kelsey Lu, is made from old cutlery and other upcycled metal objects that she melts into organic forms. “I’ve been making jewellery for women to wear to defend themselves. It looks chic and soft but can be put on the neck or face and act like a knuckle duster.”
JOSUÉ COMOE
Of Ivorian and Ghanaian descent, Josué Comoe began modelling in Paris aged 16 and has since found his voice as an artist with exhibitions across France. “I learnt a lot about creativity through modelling and it gave me a way of seeing,” he recalls. “In my paintings and drawings now, my compositions and use of space stem from all of these experiences. For me, art and fashion are the same thing, it’s living.” His portraiture uses geometry and the interplay between dark and light to create a visual language that imagines the invisible. “It’s about transcendence through space and time, it’s about the spiritual path. I believe that spirituality is what brings us all together in the same circle, so my works are a way to find a visual code that can set us free.” As such, Valentino’s AW21 monochrome looks speak to him. “I usually wear black and white because it seems simple but then makes you look again. Even though black is not a colour, there is everything in the black, it can be political. And when you wear black and white, it makes you feel strong as well as vulnerable because of the duality. In that way, it’s like art.”
“For me, art and fashion are the same thing, it’s living”
“I was always obsessed with photographic archives but it was hard to find an archive of Black people. So, it was important to me to create one”
ALEXIA FIASCO
Alexia Fiasco was drawn to photography as a way to create an archive of Black lives that she felt was missing, both in the public and personal sphere. Studying at Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie in Berlin before returning to Paris, her ongoing body of work, The Denial, employs a fictional documentary style to imagine the memories her non-existent family photo album could have contained. “My father is from Cape Verde but he left for Paris when he was 13 and raised me with no history of my roots. So, two years ago I decided to go to Cape Verde to meet my family. After two months of getting to know them, we built a family album from the stories that they told me.” Fiasco is also co-founder of Fille De Blédards, a collective of artists creating a space for work by women artists from minority backgrounds.
ELLADJ LINCY DELOUMEAUX
Guadeloupe-born painter Elladj Lincy Deloumeaux is still studying at Beaux-Arts de Paris and yet has already enjoyed his first major solo with Cécile Fakhoury gallery in Abidjan. His portraits exude a softness and sense of nostalgia that reflects his deep empathy with his subjects, who appear deep in thought or simply going about their daily lives. “My Caribbean heritage and African roots inspire me a lot and I have done much research into cosmogony and spirituality,” he says. “People are made of many complex and plural layers, so that's the way I try to work. My paintings bring together familial, matrimonial, spiritual and symbolic references.” As the artist’s star rises, the Paris art scene is also opening up to him. “There's a very ebullient youth in Paris,” he adds. “It’s important for me to make connections with other artists here. It brings richness and experience and feeds into the great energy of the city.”
SEE PART ONE OF THIS VALENTINO STORY HERE
Visit FARFETCH
Photography Kyle Weeks
Styling Laëtitia Gimenez Adam,
at Streeters
Creative direction Marie Gomis-Trezise
Film direction Remember You Were Made to be Used
Hair Yann Turchi
Make-up Aurore Gibrien
Nails Beatrice Eni
Set design Leonne Faulks
Words Helen Jennings
Photography assistance Aurele Ferrero,
Chloe May Truong, Anthony Karayan
Digital operation Oliver Looren
Film assistance Florenti Marti,
Sekou Camara
Film sound FX093
Styling assistance Lise Breton
Make-up assistance Claire Laugeois,
Fay Bio-Toura
Hair assistance Melissa Nerovique
Set design assistance Louis Niermans
Production Farago
Art direction Precious Opara,
and Delali Ayivi
Cast
Alexia Fiasco
Alizée Quitman
Elladj Lincy Deloumeaux
Fabien Conti
Josué Comoe
Maty Biayenda
Published on 11/10/2021