Today marks the launch of CIFF Paris, a four-day event that highlights a series of artists and industry leaders making strides to elevate inclusivity and sustainability in the cultural sphere.
The event takes place at Garage Amelot during Paris Fashion Week and includes work by Souvenir Official, Berlin-based 032c, Machine-A's Stavros Karelis, and, among many others, Highsnobiety. For the event, we partnered with Tokyo-based artist and animator Jun Inagawa to create an exhibition of selected works. Take a look around the space and the work on display via the gallery above.
Ahead of the launch, Highsnobiety editor-at-large Christopher Morency caught up with Karelis to get an insight into the project, which, according to Karelis, covers "all the important aspects developed by CIFF through the years: inclusivity, sustainability, and supporting new talents."
Read our interview with Karelis about CIFF Paris below.
How did the CIFF partnership come about?
I have done previous exhibitions with CIFF in Copenhagen. The director asked me to curate an exhibition for the special projects area. Every time, I try to bring something different: collaborators, people I work with and I respect and have something important to say.
The first one was about brands and interaction, like Virgil Abloh with [designer] Max Lamb. The second was about highlighting an important cause, the Little Sun Foundation, with [photographer] Nick Knight, Naomi Campbell, Virgil Abloh, and [artist] Olafur Eliasson. This is the first time it’s traveling to Paris.
The approach to this whole project is how we can collaborate together and highlighting causes in our industry, thinking about education, innovation, and also all the good things we wanted to highlight and talk about.
How did you approach the curation of the project?
I was thinking about Machine-A’s world. It’s always about thinking much bigger than what’s happening in the retail space alone. Especially what young people think about; they have so many amazing ideas. It’s all about newness. It’s about taking those ideas and giving them a setup to create something unique.
We have four graduates from Central Saint Martins coming. I always want to work with them because they always have something interesting to offer and share. It’s also a lot about gender fluidity, with Alice Potts, for example, creating garments with the sweat of cyclists. Also with politics, we always have to think about the context that we’re in.
If you think about Highsnobiety with Jun, it’s about how you can bring in collaborators and bring in something amazing. We also have Maison Margiela with Nick Knight and thinking about working in the virtual reality space.
What did you want to achieve with it?
In our industry, there are two main things we have to think about. One is mobility. This [showcase] should be able to present itself in any city. It’s about creating a platform for people to come together and collaborate, any place in the world. It should be democratic. This is what I really enjoy when I work with CIFF.
The second part is about always pushing the boundaries with projects like this. It’s a big question what the current system of fashion is. Every partner is somehow connected with the fashion industry. The fashion industry is changing so fast, all these people are here to challenge the system and propose new ways of how to create something more special.
CIFF Paris Garage Amelot, 133 Rue Amelot 75011 Paris
