Screen And Heard: Inside Miu Miu’s Empowering Tales & Tellers Exhibition
Miu Miu brings together the world’s most inspiring female filmmakers to share their tales in the most telling of ways…
The style and art worlds collided in the best fashion at the recent Art Basel Public Program in Paris. The official partner of the program, Miu Miu, played host to a five-day special project termed Tales & Tellers.
Miu Miu’s Tales first launched in 2011 with the main objective to put female filmmakers in the spotlight and give them a platform to express their views on femininity, womanhood and the female gaze. Taking place at the Palais d’Lena, the headquarters of France’s economic, social and environmental council, the space also acts as the stage for the Miu Miu runway shows.
During the exhibition, 28 short films and videos were on loop in the palaces’ theatre, whilst outside in the halls, a set of experiences and live performances ran simultaneously throughout the day. The protagonists in the films wore Miu Miu, which added a clever and contemporary twist to the story telling.
Curated by interdisciplinary artist Goshka Macuga and convened by Elvira Dyangani Ose, Director of MACBA, Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, the project is important for many cultural and creative reasons. “This is a project that presents and honours filmmakers and artists that have contributed to enhance our ideas of femininity, to enhance our idea of womanhood, taking vanity sometimes as the starting point, a point to challenge, and sometimes an archetype to overcome,’’ explains Elvira.
Throughout the exhibition, specialist panel talks ran during the day with an impressive ticket of speakers including Saudi filmmaker Haifaa Al Mansour, Moroccan artist Meriem Bennani, actor Chloë Sevigny and Academy Award-winning Costume Designer (think Great Gatsby, Romeo & Juliet, Moulin Rouge and Elvis), Catherine Martin.
A longtime friend and collaborator with Miuccia Prada, Catherine said of the project, “I think fashion and film are indivisible because it’s a fundamental expression of who you are as a human. I think that it is an extraordinary thing that Miu Miu gives this opportunity to women without the strings. They’re not saying ‘make a fashion film.’ They ask you to include the clothes in the way that you see fit. And to me, that investment over a long period of time has created a community, a collective.”
Saudi Arabia’s first female filmmaker and cultural activist Haifaa Al Mansour, also showed her appreciation to the project for giving the opportunity for this niche group to come and collaborate together. “I want to thank Miu Miu for bringing all the female filmmakers together. Because female filmmakers, we feel lonely, a lot, in so many ways. We are alone, working, and usually with a lot of men. Having this kind of solidarity is very important among women, professional women and filmmakers, because we are a minority.”
The awarded and accomplished Los Angeles-based filmmaker also touched on her experience working in the Middle East (particularly) in a not-so-typical vocation for women. “I come from Saudi Arabia, which for so long has been a segregated society. We learned from a really early age how to come together and support each other. I’m a very brave filmmaker. People don’t expect me brave. I’m small. I’m old, and I’m tired, and I don’t speak English,” says Haifaa (in perfect English).
Sometimes sombre, but always thought-provoking, the exhibition pushed boundaries in the right direction and left its onlookers musing and applauding Miu Miu’s always cleverly cool collabs. The Middle Eastern flag was held high, as was the final message from Haifaa: “We’re done being honest and the ‘nice girls.’ We are way more than that. And nothing should define us. Our circumstances should not define us. And the big picture should not overshadow who we are as people.”
The Wedding Singer’s Daughter: Directed By Haifaa Al Mansour
Set in the 1980s in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the wedding singer is about to take centre stage until the power suddenly gets cut off. The singer’s daughter is the heroine of the story, with Haifa commenting: “For me, the little girl represents the future and the future belongs to outsiders.”
From Harper’s Bazaar Arabia’s November 2024 issue
