JOANA
VASCONCELOS

The Portuguese artist renowned for her monumental sculptures and immersive installations manages a fifty-person studio in Lisbon. For the Dior Autumn-Winter 2023-2024 ready-to-wear show, she created a spectacular scenography called Valkyrie Miss Dior. By Marie Épineuil.

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It seems to dance, spreading its multicoloured tentacles all around the catwalk: one wonders whether it’s a gigantic flower, a fantastical animal or a mythological creature, at once eminently powerful and welcoming. One would hardly be surprised to see this wondrous work, called Valkyrie Miss Dior – measuring twenty-four metres long and seven metres high, and weighing more than a ton – spring suddenly to life, moved by the force of its spirit. Its “skin” is woven from twenty different fabrics, incorporating sewing, knitting and crochet: “I developed this installation not only to integrate the fabrics, but also to fill the space, to interact with the models and the audience,” explains Joana Vasconcelos. “That dynamic gives the whole project meaning and explores the three-way relationship between monumental sculpture, the human body and clothing with an extra touch of spirit, like a kind of sculptural dance. It creates a connection between two worlds – visual arts and fashion – and takes them into a new dimension, now personified by the Valkyrie Miss Dior.”

The work is a tribute to Christian Dior’s sister, Catherine, who was decorated by the French government with the Croix de Guerre as well as the Médaille de la Résistance and was made a Member of the British Empire for her “unyielding courage and unfailing sense of duty”. A great lover of gardens and nature, she also inspired the perfume Miss Dior, the House’s very first and now iconic fragrance. For Joana Vasconcelos, Catherine Dior was a Valkyrie like the Nordic divinity, echoing the essential ties between femininity and feminism that Maria Grazia Chiuri emphasizes in each of her collections.

The twin passions for creation and commitment also run in the Vasconcelos family: Joana’s mother and grandmother are both dedicated painters, and her father is a great photographer who has covered armed conflicts, in addition to being a newspaper publisher. Fleeing Salazar’s dictatorship, they obtained political asylum in France, where Joana was born in 1971. After the revolution, they returned to Portugal and settled in Linda-a-Velha, near Lisbon. Joana still lives a few kilometres from there, at the mouth of the Tagus River. A profoundly personal anchor for a feminist who studied drawing and jewellery, and who used to say that she could never have become the artist she is without being Portuguese. Joana Vasconcelos was the first woman and the youngest artist to show at Versailles, in 2012, and the first Portuguese artist to receive a retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. Her work has been recognized with more than thirty awards; the French Ministry of Culture has made her an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters, and she has created an eponymous foundation that grants scholarships, supports social causes and promotes art for all. A modern-day Valkyrie.

JOANAVASCONCELOS

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JOANA
VASCONCELOS