State Of The Art: Gucci Taps Yorgos Lanthimos For Cruise 2020 Art Book
Gucci has collaborated with four-time Oscar nominee Yorgos Lanthimos on a limited edition artbook, titled Ωοτοκία, which views the luxury house's Cruise 2020 collection through the lens of youth and old age. Best known for films like The Lobster and The Favourite, the film and stage director has translated Alessandro Michele's unique vision into a series of photographs, shot entirely in the Leda Gallery of the Villa Albani Torlonia in Rome.
Designed by architect Carlo Marchionni in the 18th-century, the estate is home to a vast number of antique Greek and Roman sculptures, including the statue of Leda and the Swan, which serves as inspiration for this project. Elderly men and women are dusted with white powder to mimic the pallor of marble, while younger models pose among them clad in Gucci's colourful and eccentric looks, inviting observers to reflect on the complicated relationship between eternal works of art and transient humanity.
The theme and location reference the myth of Leda, who was seduced by Zeus in the form of a swan and lays two eggs that hatch into her children, as does the title of the book, Ωοτοκία or Oviparity, which is the zoological term for the production of eggs by animals.
The book will be published in November and distributed by IDEA Books at the Gucci Garden in Florence and the Gucci Wooster in New York. Thanks to this new project, the Leda Gallery in Villa Albani Torlonia can be restored.
