OUTSIDE, SILENCE

MIRANDA JULY: THE FORCE OF JULY

The Visionary. Ever so often a person comes along with a voice that has the ability to create change; the potential to alter opinions, to question the invisible guideline for life and to answer with a clear conception full of understanding and relevance. Miranda July is one of those people.

From the liberal San Francisco suburb of Berkeley, California, a centrality of bohemian lifestyle in the mid-seventies, Miranda July has steadily followed the progressive mentality of her roots. As a young adult, July began writing plays and staging them at local music clubs, and after she had moved to Portland, Oregon, joined a punk scene, "given lesbianism a whirl and cut off all her hair," she started experimenting with making short films. The "Original Motion Picture Soundtrack" to the James Bond film Thunderball, lodged in a shut drawer of her first apartment kitchenette, inspired July to create an original motion picture of her own. Atlanta was the title of her first film, a ten-minute story of a preteen Olympic swimmer and her overbearing mother preparing for the 1996 Olympic games, in which July acts in both roles. The use of video imagery quickly penetrated her performance work as she graduated from small clubs to more theatrical performance venues throughout the country, including New York's performance art hub The Kitchen.

It wasn't until 2005 that she would release her first feature film, the offbeat Me and You and Everyone We Know, which won the Caméra d'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival and immediately gifted her the notoriety of a true filmmaker in international regard. Despite the success of the film and its frenzy of media and offers to fund another, July felt no interest in embarking on a Hollywood journey, and so set out to publish a collection of short stories that she had built upon over several years. Sixteen stories of sex, self and romance form the much praised No One Belongs Here More Than You. In her sententious writing style, July's voice is one of honesty and genuineness—her charming and captivating personality is reflected in every word, page by page.

In the summer of 2007, July began working on her second feature-length film. Beginning with a break-up and initially developed as a performance, Things We Don't Understand and Are Definitely Not Going to Talk About evolved into the 2011 film The Future, a darker story than that of Me and You, focusing on feelings of commitment and time and embedded with quirks involving a metaphoric t-shirt and anthropomorphizing the moon and a cat named Paw-Paw. A thirty-something couple, Sophie and Jason, fear their impending loss of freedom as they plan to adopt the very old, sick stray cat in a month's time, realizing that in this last month they must do something meaningful with their lives. Just as she was finishing up the screenplay, July hit a brick wall.

Armed with a beginning and an end to her story, but lacking an essential middle for Jason, who sells tress door-to-door for an environmental volunteer group, she found that everyday distractions had gotten the better of her, so much so that she began working on an entirely new project, a book, but only by accident; perhaps in a subconscious effort to delay the completion of her troubling screenplay. Reading the PennySaver, tucked into piles of coupons amongst Tuesday's junk mail became an afternoon ritual, and her avid curiosity to learn more about the anonymous seller of the used hairdryer and the vintage leather jacket led her to call the listed numbers and ask for an interview, hoping to answer the questions that besotted her. These interviews unexpectedly grew into It Chooses You, and July's own experience building the book gave her the story that her main character so desperately needed. Jason would, in a sense, become the fictional Miranda; he would make the PennySaver expedition on a whim as she did, striving to find some deep, cosmic revelation in the process. The title of the book even derives from the film's script. Jason: "I'm gonna let it choose me. I just have to be alert and listen."

One often finds themselves having somewhat of an epiphany when discovering the work of Miranda July; her candid approach to representing both the deep and not-so-deep emotions of people provides an explanation to some of our most profound thoughts, as well as the mundane wonderings of everyday life: What connection do you have to the strangers you meet in passing? Do you have the same daily concerns, worries, priorities? These are the settings of July's esoteric chronicles. Her work is devoted to exposing life's truths worth talking about; to ask the questions formerly unanswered and never asked. She urges to examine the complexities of the human condition and achieves it with grace, wit, and humility, venturing away from the quotidian—recognizing it but not analyzing it—and instead translates it into something relative and all at once easy to understand. Oftentimes brilliantly peculiar, blunt, and altogether mystifying, and maintaining success in nearly every medium imaginable, Miranda July is an artist in every aspect of the word.

Extract from the first anniversary issue of BITE Magazine. Issue 04: Rinse & Repeat is now available for purchase here.

INTERVIEW | GONZALO BÉNARD: A PERFECT STRANGER

Gonzalo Bénard sits at his computer. Through the screen, an image of a young man standing bedside, walking to a door, rearranging books on their shelf. Camera at hand, he himself is absent. Only a clicking finger remains to decipher shadows flitting across the Venetian blind. Now the observer becomes the observed, as I spoke to the enigmatic artist to turn the stranger into the familiar.

Hello Gonzalo. Tell me, how did the idea for this project, B Shot by a Stranger, come about?
Gonzalo Bénard: I was living in Barcelona when one night, I noticed all of the windows of the buildings in front of my balcony with different people living in them; in different stages, different rituals. You could see one light turned on and someone passing by, and another window with someone else cooking, and another one with someone else reading, etc. These people didn't know each other but they linked together for me in the same concrete block - anonymous loners living their lives. I wanted to catch those moments but I didn't want to be like a stalker, an intrusive. But the idea was in my mind, and I knew that one day later on I would pick it up for a project. 
Later on I took a sabbatical year in my country house, far from the world, with no one in sight for miles. I soon missed shooting people as an observer of life, as a creator inspired by human nature, so one day talking with a good friend through webcam, I noticed an amazing light from his window sculpting his face, and I asked him not to move so that I could take his photo. I realized then that I had an open door for the project, being far away from his world, using the best of technology to be connected. Then, while checking Facebook one night, I saw in a friend's post that his plans for that night had been cancelled without a plan B, quite lost facing his own loneliness. And that was the click. I told him then that I had a plan B for him, and B Shot by a Stranger started that night.

DR: How did you feel during, and after, this first experience? Did the result meet your expectations of the original idea?
GB: With the first shooting I was not properly a stranger as he was already a friend, but I did feel awkward as he was sharing his private moments with me for the first time. You usually don't think that a handsome, popular guy like him could have lonely moments, and he seemed quite secure, but there he was, having a breakdown in front of me. As a friend, I had mixed feelings as we already had emotional ties being friends. However, I was a stranger as was he, because it was our first time sharing that intimacy. I couldn't let any emotions to come up, and for that, I had my defense: the camera, the lens. I was not there - just my eye, just the camera was. And a camera is a voyeuristic tool, even if you aren't. However, being in the presence of someone who shares his own intimate loneliness made me feel even more respectful of him, and I kept learning that shooting after shooting. I knew my own boundaries - not the loners ones that changed one after another in these humans' amazing differentness.  

DR: What are your biggest influences? And what kept you inspired throughout the process of this project?
GB: Anonymous people, nonsense people, human nature. Including you and each one of the models. And me, as in the people from whom I get inspiration; sometimes from my own nonsense. 

DR: What has been your goal throughout this project, and have you achieved it? What is it that you hope viewers will take away from seeing these photographs?
GB: I don't know if there has been a main goal, I guess that there are different and parallel goals that were being built and achieved throughout the project. Loneliness has been described as the illness of this century and I wanted to explore that and understand it. Other goals were the experimentation of new photographic techniques and approaches. Achieved. Creating something new and pleasant. Achieved. Also, it was quite important to me to lift the loners' spirits, to show them that they can find something positive in their loneliness; that they're needed, especially by themselves. If this was achieved, only each of the volunteers can say, but I would guess that all of them had a good experience. Being part of an artistic project can fulfill anyone. 
I'm going to put the viewers and the models who view their own photos in the same category, as I had some curious responses from them. They said that they felt like voyeurs of themselves. This is not a voyeur/exhibitionist project with the cultural charge of these words - I prefer the observer and the observed ones. I played witness to their own private moments, they shared them. And here, there is a triangle to complete: the viewer closes the dialogue, and they will be voyeurs. I'm hoping that they will be observers most of all with this sociological project; that they can learn, especially the lonely viewers, to do something to rid their loneliness. I hope that they can turn their loneliness into enjoying being with themselves, to participate more in life, to enjoy more, to believe more. Even if they like the photographs just for the aesthetic and quality, I really hope that something deeper will stay in their subconscious.

DR: Speaking of the aesthetic of the photographs - the lack of colour, the soft focus, the casual nudity - these all seem to lend a certain atmosphere to each image. For me, the series evokes an array of emotions: sadness, nostalgia, romanticism, melancholy, etc. Why do you think the composition took such a fragile route? Was this a conscious or subconscious decision?
GB: It was completely conscious. Loneliness often comes with sadness, nostalgia, melancholy - a missing part within the loner; the opposite of being alone with yourself, which can bring joy and pleasant times. Aesthetically, the lack of colour, focus and clothing is to not distract from the main concept. It also gives a better feeling of a "spying camera". Clothing can serve as protection for some, you can even label someone just by what they wear, and I wanted the models to be enveloped in their own vulnerability. Nudity makes one more fragile as you have nothing to protect you, both physically and metaphorically, and loneliness can make you more fragile as a human being. I wanted to portray that vulnerability, that nakedness; the unprotected being. And another reason for the soft focus is that I wanted to protect the identity of the models somewhat, and also so that they could represent feeling and emotion, therefore the viewer can focus more on the concept rather than the specific person; to go deeper.

DR: Do you find that this project has affected the way that you interact with people on a daily basis; your friends, everyday strangers? Has it affected your approach to your other artwork in any way? 
GB: The more you know people, the more you accept and respect them, even if they don't make sense at times. On a daily basis I don't deal with the intimate moments of others, but I always love to sit down at my terrace to observe people's expressions when they are walking alone, trying to understand their moods - but without interaction. 
As for my artwork, yes, especially when drawing. I have a very intense connection with the act of drawing; using the graphite over paper as I would touch the skin of someone's body with the tip of my finger. Drawing is very fleshy and physical for me which in a way is balanced with the strange, often cold, skinless way of communication that the internet can bring. I also haven't painted for some time, and this project has made me itch to get back into it. Maybe the need to create is my way of embracing, of sharing and venting my own self, from the guts. These photographs were a way to vent to the world, to share what loneliness can mean and how can we all deal with it when we feel it. Maybe loners should have it more present in their minds that they can do something pleasant, not allowing themselves to break down. A loner seeks for attention, but they need their own attention most of all. Maybe the mistake is looking on the outside, when you already have what you need inside. That I will bring up on the next project.

DR: Finally, has this project taught you anything about yourself?
GB: It has taught me that we can't give a hug through the internet when sometimes it is needed on the other side. My screen would have become overheated (laughs). If we are observers, paying attention to details, to human nature, we always end up learning new things. And in facing new things we have new reactions, some unexpected, and all of these experiences help to build our own personality. As one more experience, and at times quite intense, it taught me quite a few things, and maybe stretched some boundaries too. I'm happy that I've never experienced true loneliness, a feeling that I finally understood observing others. As an artist, the project also brought me new ways of expression as I explored different photographic techniques. You can see the evolution of the aesthetic from the beginning to the end of the series. It's interesting how they became much more unfocused and less worried at the end. It also taught me to bring up emotions without a true identity, but just as one more human on earth. Even if I felt needed, but without actually being there; a stranger that was needed for that specific moment. And then you must know when to leave. *

Gonzalo Bénard is an internationally acclaimed visual artist and photographer, based in Lisbon and working in Paris and throughout Europe.
The collective work of this project is featured in the newly-released book, B Shot by a Stranger, available through his website.

IV/XI

Self, April 2012.

REDUX

Raf Simons Autumn-Winter 2005-2006
Jonathan, Alexander, Zeno and Robbie by Willy Vanderperre. Paris, 2005.

PREMIERS DÉSIRS

Premiers Désirs, Florent Routoulp;
Behind the scenes, Ann Demeulemeester fittings;
Unknown;
Unknown;
White Roses in Mason Jar (Morning Light), Rob Brulinski

The sunsets in the South of France sparkle a certain nostalgia and subtle eroticism. These images, along with this track by Aphex Twin, have finally put me in a mood for spring.

LAFAYETTE STREET

From a recent trip to New York.
When wearing trench coats like this one, I like to think I'm channeling the clumsy heroes of French New Wave, like Franz in Godard's Bande à part. But maybe that's just me. They've got a certain uniform that I'm trying to master, but unfortunately I'm missing a hat. I also love this everyday tote bag from my friends at HUSK.

CHRISTOPHE LEMAIRE'S RADICAL SIMPLICITY

To mark his debut at thecorner.com, acclaimed French designer Christophe Lemaire has created the perfect summer wardrobe: a six-piece capsule collection of easy, versatile garments in crisp black and white. Ever since spotting his Fall/Winter 2011 collection, I've stayed fascinated by Christophe's aesthetic: global influences—African, Middle Eastern—with a post-punk and New Wave feeling. The monkish silhouettes and ever-mystifying relaxed/refined combination are right up my alley. Take a look at Samuel Drira's insightful interview.

tVs MIXTAPE | PARISIEN

A mixtape inspired by Kitsuné's recent compilations; my favourites, old and new, for Parisian walks, talks, and parties. L'esprit de Paris.

Download here.
(alternate artwork)

DEVIATED: JUUN. J INSPIRATION

Juun. J always excites me. His Spring collection, entitled Deviated, is minimal, clean and marginally androgynous (a look I always admire but rarely venture to replicate) with skin-tightness and lots of shortsuits. Very geometric. But what struck me most was the gold detailing, namely the golden cuffs on every wrist in sight. So after a little help from Andrew, I was led to Etsy, and now I've got a bang on lookalike pair of cuffs that really stand up as great pieces on their own, without having to live up to any expectations. They're also a bit of a novelty in my wardrobe as I'm usually not much of an accessorizer apart from the occasional ring and my everyday watch.

I have a new routine: When I wake up I immediately make a cup of coffee (I have a coffeemaker in my room, for sleepless working nights and convenience in the mornings), slip on my favourite secondhand swede jacket and head out to my garden to read; today I chose my just-arrived copy of BITE Magazine.

AFTER HOURS

STILL LIFE

Quince, Cabbage, Melon and Cucumber, Juan Sánchez Cotán c. 1602
Unknown;
Unknown;
Peasants' Jug, Egon Schiele c. 1918;
Still Life, Henri Fantin-Latour c. 1866;

INTERVIEW | ROBERT KNOKE: ABOUT FACE

An extract of my interview with the lovely and talented Robert Knoke, featured in the current issue of BITE Magazine

Bernhard Willhelm, 2008;
Rick Owens, 2008;
Bruce LaBruce, detail;
Kembra Pfahler, 2011;
Matthew Williams, 2011;
Walter Van Beirendonck, detail

German-born and based in New York, artist ROBERT KNOKE is revered internationally for his atmospheric portraits that immortalize some of today's cultural visionaries, from Rick Owens and Patti Smith to Gareth Pugh and The Kills. Conceived at the start of the 1990s, Mr. Knoke's expansive series places its viewer in a mindset of separate realties; his austere figures abstracted and displayed as portrayals of their concentrated energy. With honesty and sharp consistency, Robert Knoke has championed the importance of face and of figure. I spent some time with Robert to discuss abstractions, destruction, and the meaning of inspiration.

So Robert, tell me a bit about yourself. What brought you into the art world?
ROBERT KNOKE: Stupidity? (laughs) Well, my father was an artist and I grew up being at his studio all the time, looking at his work and trying to do what he was doing. When I got older, I realized that I had continued doing the same thing. So after my sixteenth birthday or so, I told myself that art is what I want to do for the rest of my life, no matter if I make a living off of it or not. That's it. Well, that's what I feel about art… the art world is a different story.

DR: Do you consider yourself part of that art world? What are your thoughts on the art world of today?
RK: Sure, I’m part of it. But selling my work is not the reason why I’m doing what I’m doing in the first place. It’s just funny to see that the importance of an artist is valued by how much money he or she makes. If you are successful money wise, you've made it. I think that any big business orientated world – art, music, film, fashion, etc. – is to be watched with a certain mistrust. People with money rule this world, not people with culture.

DR: Definitely. I think most fields have become far too money-oriented. People are blinded by it, especially in creative venues where it should be the complete opposite. Do you think the art world is dying, or does it have a future?
RK: Yes, of course it has a future! There will always be great art out there, no matter how bad the times and conditions are. As long as there is substance to it, everything is okay.

DR: Let's talk about your work. How would you describe your drawings? What artistic genre do you fit into, if any?
RK: Technically my work is in-between drawing and painting and it's about portraiture of course, although my work is not only about portraiture. I actually don't know the genre. Because my drawing style looks fast in its gesture, some people say my work is expressionistic, but I'm certainly not an expressionist. I'm very much interested in the abstractions that surround or destroy the people I'm drawing. I think it's a mix of all kinds of things that you can do on paper.

DR: And what draws you to those people to want to produce their portrait? How do you choose your subjects?
RK: When I first started the series, I thought about what kind of people I wanted to draw. I didn’t want to draw family members or close friends because it made me feel uncomfortable. I don’t like to draw people that I've known for a very long time, but I also didn’t want to draw a stranger that I have nothing in common with. That's the reason why I choose people mostly from cultural fields – other artists, musicians, writers and designers that I like very much. The series is a documentation of people I love and at the same time a sort of a self-portrait.

DR: So it's your interest in these people that reflects you personally in your work; the fact that they inspire you is a form of being represented through them.
RK: It’s not so much about representation of me or of them, it’s about pooling energy. It’s a certain energy that my subjects have that I feel connected to and that makes me want to produce a drawing. Most of my subjects are quite different from me, but there's something there that touches me. I’m not interested in a representation of myself through other people, nor representing my subjects. In that case, my work isn't really portraiture. I rather use my subjects to set free an atmosphere that I see, but that only works with certain people.

DR: Many of those people work in fashion, is the fashion industry of particular importance to you and your work?
RK: The drawings of the fashion designers just got the most attention, I think. Maybe because fashion is such an important cultural statement of our time and almost as important as art. Sometimes I think it’s even more interesting than what the art world has to offer right now. The music world is something that I follow very much as well. I think that if I do drawings of musicians or visual artists that I like, I should also draw some of my favorite fashion designers.

DR: Is every portrait you've created of someone you've met personally? Is this element of personal interaction a requirement for you?
RK: Yes, I meet all of my subjects personally to take their photographs. It's very important to have that personal impression, but I don’t like to have them sit for me when I do the drawing. It irritates me when I feel someone else's physical presence when I draw. I don’t like to be watched and I need to be alone. I can also work whenever I want without being dependent on my subject. That's one reason why I take photos first. I think another reason is that the photograph makes the subject more abstract. It’s the first step to doing that final portrait.

DR: I feel that you seem to somehow separate your subjects from their celebrity and give them almost a sense of anonymity, is this concept something you attempt to convey?
RK: I've actually never thought about that. Maybe it's because I don’t want to illustrate their personality or who they are and what they're doing. All I’m interested in is there appearance and what I can do with it. In that sense, my drawings really have nothing to do with my subjects.

DR: You use very simple mediums: markers, ballpoint pens, etc. There's a contrast between these materials that I think evoke a certain innocence and naivety against the mature, detailed portraits they produce, which is an interesting concept. You also work predominately in black and white. Was it an intentional decision to stay minimal?
RK: Yes, it was intentional. When I started the series, I just wanted to concentrate on the drawing instead of thinking about color and how to use it. Black ink on white paper is simple, and I wanted to keep it straightforward. Each drawing also stayed in just one format (70x100cm). But since the portraits developed over the last few years, I’m thinking more about color and have already used it in some of my recent drawings. I also use colored glitter, another cheap medium that I really like. I have glitter in all kind of shades.*

*Extract from BITE Magazine Issue Three, read the interview in full online here (pp. 16-23).
Robert is part of a group exhibition with Envoy Enterprises, NP Contemporary Art, and Mute Records entitled FG.Ft, celebrating the career of Frank Tovey/Fad Gadget, showing from today, March 1st to April 8th at Dixon Place, New York City, and hosts his own exhibitions this fall at New York's Envoy Enterprises and Cologne's Teapot Gallery.

A FAREWELL TO RAF SIMONS

Floral bouquets lining the Jil Sander runway, housed in glass boxes atop stark white pillars; Raf Simons' emotional exit

After nearly seven years as creative director, Raf Simons' final collection at Jil Sander last Saturday was so beautiful and romantic with its light, powdery colours and soft, ultra-feminine silhouettes. As a tearful Raf emerged to greet a roomful of standing ovations, the entire event felt strangely pure and, not to sound eye-rollingly mawkish, incredibly moving. I feel like booking a direct flight to Antwerp, just to give him a hug. Ms. Sander has got some very large shoes to fill.

MAISON DARRÉ

Parisien furniture maker and fashion designer Vincent Darré at home and at work in his shop, Maison Darré

I stumbled upon these delicious photos deep in the archives of The Selby, and having remembered seeing them before—and admiring them once again—I decided that they needed sharing.
With its bits and bobs and curious eccentricities, the apartment reminds me of a workspace designed for a refined Salvador Dalí, but more French and more elegant despite its somewhat dystopian ambience. I want to visit soon.