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Virgil Abloh - Nike, ICONS

Virgil Abloh - Nike, ICONS

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La basket comme hyper-objet

Nike et Virgil Abloh galvanisent 10 icônes de l’histoire des sneakers
En 2016, le géant du sportswear Nike et le créateur de mode Virgil Abloh unissaient leurs talents pour composer une collection de sneakers qui mettrait à l’honneur 10 des modèles les plus emblématiques de la marque basée dans l’Oregon. Ce projet, baptisé The Ten, qui réinventa des icônes comme la Air Jordan 1, la Air Max 90, la Air Force 1 et la Air Presto, a galvanisé la sneaker culture.

Les créations de Virgil Abloh, dont le cachet culturel saute aux yeux, exploitent des trésors d’ingéniosité et d’ingénierie. En partant du génie original de la chaussure, grâce au lettrage, au collage et aux techniques de façonnage, Abloh jouait avec le vocabulaire et les éléments structurels pour élaborer un sens nouveau, non sans ironie. Inspiré par l’espièglerie du dadaïsme, par la théorie architecturale et les happenings d’avant-garde, il analysait grâce à quels éléments un modèle était reconnaissable entre mille, puis le déconstruisait pour former un assemblage artistique où chaque chaussure devenait une pièce de design industriel, une sculpture readymade portable.

ICONS retrace l’approche artistique d’Abloh, à la fois créateur et enquêteur, à travers des schémas de prototypes, des échanges de messages entre Abloh et les designers de Nike et des trésors issus des archives Nike. Les virgules d’une paire d’Air Jordans se retrouvent découpées et réappliquées avec du ruban ou du fil, on retrouve les bouts de texte entre guillemets typiques d’Abloh sur les Air Force 1 et les All Stars sont taillées en pièces. L’ouvrage vous ouvre les coulisses et révèle l’approche empirique d’un Abloh bricoleur génial, qui donnait un aspect unique à chaque modèle de sa collection Off-WhiteTM c/o Nike. Ce lexique de la déconstruction se reflète dans la reliure à la Suisse, qui dénude le dos des cahiers et révèle ainsi le processus de fabrication du livre.

Le livre décrit le travail collaboratif mis en place par Abloh et réaffirme la force de l’imprimé. Pour sa conception, Nike et Abloh se sont associés au célèbre studio de création londonien Zak Group. Ensemble, ils ont imaginé un recueil en deux parties égales: d’une part un catalogue, de l’autre une boîte à outil conceptuelle. La première présente la culture visuelle liée à la chaussure de sport, le lexique de la seconde définit les personnages, lieux, objets, idées, matériaux et contextes qui ont permis à ce projet d’exister. Les textes rédigés par Nicholas Schonberger de Nike, l’auteur Troy Patterson, l’historien et conservateur Glenn Adamson et Virgil Abloh lui-même inscrivent cette collaboration dans l’histoire de la mode et du design, tandis que l’avant-propos d’Hiroshi Fujiwara inscrit le projet dans la continuité des collaborations prisées par Nike.
À propos de l’auteur

Virgil Abloh (1980-2021) était un factotum créatif qui défiait toute classification. Il opéra, tour à tour ou simultanément, dans les domaines de l’art, du design et de la culture, mais fit aussi oeuvre de militantisme, de mécénat et de philanthropie partout où il passa. Après son diplôme en ingénierie civile à l’Université du Wisconsin à Madison, il enchaîna sur un master d’architecture à l’Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) de Chicago. Là, Abloh étudia le design Bauhaus conceptualisé par Mies van der Rohe et commença à élaborer les principes de sa propre pratique artistique, pluridisciplinaire. Pendant l’été 2019, le musée d’art contemporain de Chicago accueillit une importante exposition itinérante consacrée au travail d’Abloh — qui attira un nombre record de visiteurs. Abloh était le directeur de la création et fondateur de Off-White™️ et le directeur artistique des collections Homme chez Louis Vuitton, entre autres aventures.


The Sneaker as (Hyper)Object

Nike and Virgil Abloh reinvigorated 10 icons of sneaker history
In 2016, sportswear manufacturer Nike and fashion designer Virgil Abloh joined forces to create a sneaker collection celebrating 10 of the Oregon-based company’s most iconic shoes. With their project The Ten—which reimagined icons like Air Jordan 1, Air Max 90, Air Force 1, and Air Presto, among others—they reinvigorated sneaker culture.

Virgil Abloh’s designs offer deep insights into engineering ingenuity and burst with cultural cachet. Drawing on the genius of the original shoe using lettering, ironic labels, collage, and sculpting techniques, Abloh played with language and sculptural elements to construct new meaning. Inspired by the wit of Dadaism, architectural theory, and avant-garde happenings, he analyzed what makes each shoe iconic and deconstructed it into an artistic assemblage, making each shoe into a piece of industrial design, a readymade sculpture, and a wearable all at once.

ICONS traces Abloh’s investigative, creative process through documentation of the prototypes, original text messages from Abloh to Nike designers, and treasures from the Nike archives. We find Swooshes sliced away from Air Jordans and reapplied with tape or thread, Abloh’s typical text fragments in quotation marks on Air Force 1, and All Stars cut into pieces. We take a look behind the scenes and witness Abloh’s DIY approach, which gave each model in the Off-WhiteTM c/o Nike collection its own unique touch. His deconstructive vocabulary is reflected in the Swiss binding, which showcases an open spine and discloses the production of the book.

The book documents Abloh’s cooperative way of working and reaffirms the power of print. For its design Nike and Abloh partnered with the acclaimed London-based design studio Zak Group. Together they conceived a two-part compendium, equal parts catalog and conceptual toolbox. The first part of the book presents a visual culture of sneakers while a lexicon in the second part defines the key people, places, objects, ideas, materials, and scenes from which the project grew. Texts by Nike’s Nicholas Schonberger, writer Troy Patterson, curator and historian Glenn Adamson, and Virgil Abloh himself frame the collaborative work within fashion and design history. A foreword by Hiroshi Fujiwara places the project within the historical continuum of Nike collaborators.
The author

Virgil Abloh (1980–2021) was a multi-hyphenate creative that often rejected classification on creativity. He operated in the realms of Art, Design, and Culture in conjunction with advocacy, mentoring, and philanthropy in the spaces he occupied. After earning a degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he completed a master’s degree in Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), Chicago. At IIT, while studying a Bauhaus design curriculum devised by Mies van der Rohe, Abloh began to craft the principles of his broader art practice. The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago presented a major traveling survey of Abloh’s work in summer 2019—one of the highest attended exhibitions in the museum’s history. Abloh was the Chief Creative Director and founder of Off-White™️ and from 2018 to 2021 Men’s Artistic Director at Louis Vuitton, amongst other endeavors.

Hardcover
Swiss binding with open spine
25,5 x 29,7 cm
352 pages
ISBN 978-3-8365-8509-5
Anglais / English

© Taschen

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