Le Chaos par Charles de Vilmorin
Margot: I’m really glad you’re doing this exhibition in Hyères, it’s a beautiful project! What is your main inspiration?
Charles: The Raft of the Medusa, I love that painting! I find it powerful, brutal, and extremely poetic all at once, and I like those contradictions. You know that this contradictory side is part of my work. I want to recreate these emotions in the exhibition and show this part of me.
Margot: I see very well what you mean. So are you going to highlight this aspect in your collection? The staging? How do you see things?
Charles: I’ve decided to paint a fresco all over the walls, in a very spontaneous way. It’s a real challenge, one that will generate strength but also imperfections, just like my collection. It is also my role as president of the jury to be sincere and to show the various facets of my creativity.
Margot: It is important to bring out this side of you, especially as it is thanks to these upheavals that you can create!
Charles: Yes, that’s right. You see, for example, when I launched my first collection, everyone found it joyful and dreamlike, with its colours and shapes, but at that time I wasn’t really at my best. Colour is kind of my safe place. When I presented my black collection, on the other hand, I was confident, and that’s why I wanted to take a few more risks and show something else!
Margot: Yes, I know, I understand! I think it’s essential to show that sometimes there is something powerful and beautiful in the doubts and weaknesses. In a way, that’s what you want to represent!
Charles: Exactly! When I’m creating, it’s often a bit traumatic because I tap into my unconscious, my vices. What comes out of it is imperfect, but sincere and powerful.
Margot: And how are you going to present the collection?
Charles: There will be lots of swans, horses and faces made of broken, ruined plaster: they will give a glimpse of the collection, which is a contrast between very pure and saturated styles, always with the idea of showing the two sides that form a whole. For the sculptures, I worked with Damien Moulierac, whose art I really like: it borders on the trashy but is always very poetic and offbeat.
Margot: It’s going to be beautiful! Actually, we’re kind of going to enter your unconscious and see what’s going on when you’re creating.
Charles: Yes, that’s the idea, all this accompanied by immersive music composed by artist Amakuno for my last fashion show. I want it to be an experience. Music is my first source of inspiration, it heightens emotions and gives character to the visuals. To me, it’s impossible to dissociate the visual from the auditory, which together create even more meaning.
Margot: I totally agree, music puts you in a different state and helps you to understand what you’re seeing! You told me you were going to paint a fresco. Do you have some idea of what it’s going to represent?
Charles: Yes. As you know, in art, I’m very sensitive to transformed bodies, imaginary creatures, aliens… I want to represent a composition of faces, inhuman, alien, phantasmagorical bodies, of all colours, with a certain nod to artists like Dalí and Man Ray.
Margot: I can’t wait to see that! Is there a link between the fresco and your collection?
Charles: Yes, there will be two silhouettes from my first collection, completely hand-painted. The fresco reproduces on the wall the same technique used on the fabric. The rest of the collection consists of recent silhouettes in black, white, and saturated colours.
Margot: Thank you for sharing all this with me. I can now imagine what the exhibition will be like, and I’m eager to see it!
Charles: I’m really excited about this project, it is a psychedelic experience that I hope will be generous and expressive.
I hope you will enjoy it!
Margot Marty
