Ua bare room, a chair, a poem and some mirrors: this is the dream room by Bottega Veneta. In the new short film What Are Dreams of the Maison, Jacob Elordi crosses the border between reality and imagination guided by the visionary gaze of the famous photographer Duane Michals. In a suspended black and white, made of mannequins, feathers and silence, the Australian actor moves around the room as if in a lucid dreamwhere fashion becomes introspection and every gesture is transformed into visual poetry.
A journey into the unconscious by Duane Michals
In What Are Dreams, Duane Michals incorporates all the elements that made his visual language unique: the stratification between reality and imaginationthe poetic dimension and that sense of mystery that envelops every gesture. Turned in black and white in the artist’s New York homethe short film becomes a journey into the unconscious. While observing objects. the Australian actor intensely interprets the poem of the same name written by Michals himself and published in the book Questions Without Answers (2001). The images, as in the most authentic tradition of surrealism, they undermine logic and open up wonderevoking the pictorial references of Magritte And de Chiricobut also the narrative delicacy typical of Michals’ work.
Elegance and introspection: Elordi dresses Bottega Veneta
In the short film, Jacob Elordi dresses creations by Bottega Veneta that reflect the minimalist and sculptural aesthetic of the Maison: tailored garments with fluid volumes and fine materialsin a continuous dialogue between structure and freedom. In this context, clothes become symbolic objectsalmost extensions of the protagonist’s identity: one second skin which transforms together with his thoughts. There fashionhere, is not a simple aesthetic element, but an integral part of the story. With What Are Dreams, Bottega Veneta confirms your own cultured and experimental vision: a maison capable of talking about art, introspection and beauty with a timeless language.
Duane Michals, the poet of the image
Michals, today ninety-two years oldhe said in an interview with Artnet News dI have received «great creative freedom» by the brand, which allowed him to translate his idea of dream and beauty into images. With his narrative sequencesthe overlays hey handwritten texts in the margins of the photosMichals has built a unique aesthetic, capable of blending word and image, dream and memory, reality and imagination. He has always investigated “the invisible of the human being”: desires, fears, dreams that inhabit the mind. In his career he has collaborated with magazines and fashion houses – da Vogue to Esquireuntil Bottega Venetawith whom he already signed a campaign in 1985.
Today, over sixty years after his debut, he continues to work with the same curiosity as always, between photography, poetry and short films. «I’m not interested in documenting reality», he concluded the interview, «but reveal the magic that runs through it».
Jacob Elordi, the perfect face for Michals
What Are Dreams It also comes at a key time for Jacob Elordiwhich this year is the protagonist of two of the most anticipated literary transpositions of the century: the actor plays the Monster in Frankenstein Of Guillermo del Toropresented in Venice and coming soon NetflixAnd Heathcliff in the new Wuthering Heights Of Emerald Fennell. Two roles that confirm his ability to embody figures tormented, sensual and complex – ideal for Michals’ visionary language.
Bottega Veneta between art and fashion
The campaign is part of the broader one dialogue between Bottega Veneta and the world of contemporary art: the Maison, now led by creative director Louise Trotterrecently celebrated the sculptor Barbara Chase-Riboud in the project Craft is Our Language.
A way to reiterate that, always, craftsmanship and art they are the heart of the Bottega Veneta language. With What Are Dreamsthe fashion house signs one reflection on desire and imaginationWhere elegance becomes an aesthetic and spiritual experience together.
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