New Gucci Photo-Book Takes Cruise 2020 Collection Back To Antiquity

Gucci have released a glimpse into their upcoming photo-book Ωοτοκία (Oviparity) following the announcement of the project earlier this year. In lieu of launching their first high jewellery collection, the book is the next venture for the ever-growing luxury powerhouse under creative director Alessandro Michele. Photographed by Yorgos Lanthimos- the stage director, producer and screenwriter extraordinaire- the portfolio of images merge past and present in typical Gucci-Michele time-warped style within the historic grounds of Rome's Leda Gallery at the Villa Albani Torlonia. Ωοτοκία (Oviparity) will help to fund the Leda's restoration, with sculpture quite literally coming to life through Lanthimos' surreal and theatrical lens.

During his celebrated tenure at the luxury Italian fashion house, Alessandro Michele has long turned to mythology and antiquity in his construction of a deliciously maximalist Gucci world. Michele uses campaigns to time-hop between a multitude of time periods as he collaborates with creators. Harmony Korine recently realised the Gucci Cruise 2020 collection at a 1970s Hollywood-style villa party worn by rapper Gucci Mane. Ωοτοκία (Oviparity) now sees the collection in the light of Roman and Greek antiquity as captured by Lanthimos within the grounds of the Villa Albani Torlonia. Once more, Gucci joins one visionary with another as the Greek film and theatre director Lanthimos- first brought on board for the Gucci Men's Cruise 2020 campaign- brings Michele's multi-faceted vision to fruition.

At the centre of the Torlonia's grounds is a statue entitled Leda and the Swan, after which the art gallery is named. Ωοτοκία (Oviparity) alludes to the Greek myth upon which the statue is based- where Leda is seduced by Zeus in the form of a swan, and lays two eggs from which her children are hatched- as Oviparity shares its name with the zoological term meaning the production of eggs by an animal. A thing of beauty in itself, the book comes in a sliding, earthy-linen hard-back encasement. Fold out pages reveal the portfolio of photographs which are also an exploration of the authenticity of the Leda and the Swan statue, which is a first-century Roman copy of an earlier Greek statue from 4th century BC attributed to Timotheus. In Ωοτοκία (Oviparity), Lanthimos captures elderly men and women with powdered white skin mimicking marble statues who pose like artists' models as they interact with youthful Gucci wearers. In a theatrical play on reality set within the Gucci universe, the scene is somewhat reminiscent of the surreal worlds Lanthimos creates in his productions. Michele's designs are more than surface level deep, hence their allure, and the series of images found in Ωοτοκία (Oviparity) are intended to prompt '...the viewer to consider the relationship between the eternal, beautiful sculpted statues and their transient, living subject matter: humanity' (Gucci). The portfolio treats the Cruise 2020 collection like operatic costume, inherent with a sense of delicate, historic beauty.

Oviparity is published by IDEA books November 2020.