You Are a Sculpture

Documented by the Swiss photographer Senta Simond, the ANEST COLLECTIVE Spring Summer 2022 collection becomes a conduit for expressions of shape and movement around the human body. Set in a Brutalist ‘nonplace’ with chalk white walls and raw cement floors, spare elements of Modernist furniture including Mario Botta’s 1982 ‘Prima’ chair populate the otherwise empty void.?

Brought to life by Anna van Dieren of the Dutch National Ballet and Paris-based contemporary dancer Sulian Rios, gestures from the codex of contemporary choreography are amplified to reveal the ergonomic lines and flexibility of each silhouette.

Posing together or alone the dancers embody cinematic archetypes that go beyond portraiture and fashion to become both a frank and sensual documentation of the body and garment. A short film captures both dancers in perpetual motion, expounding on the fluidity of fabrics and silhouettes alike in a series of vignettes.?

Reflecting on the union of masculine and feminine bodies, the dancers move in and out of frame exploring the boundaries of touch and negative space – creating shapes that reveal the 360° design philosophy of each ANEST COLLECTIVE creation. An ambient voice-over features the voices of Anna and Sulian themselves to deliver a suite of rhetorical questions in an abstract stream of consciousness.

“This campaign is about light, movement, and the study of the sculptural figure,” says Pierre Consorti of Paris-based art direction studio Ohlman Consorti. “Senta has a sensual and delicate rapport with her subject. She takes what the body gives, rendering intimacy bold and iconic. The tension between the soul in movement and the freezing of time speak to the trust that is formed in a relationship.”