To celebrate the launch of the 2022 book, Anna Gardere and Raphaëlle Bellanger organized an event at 3537, an art center owned by Rei Kawakubo, creator and founder of Comme des Garçons
From high school best friend to co-curators: Anna Gardere and Raphaëlle Bellanger
They grew up together in the ninth arrondissement of Paris, had the same friends and shared thousands of projects and dreams together. During their last year of high school in 2016, observing their creative entourage, and other young Parisians on socials, the best friends soon realize that their generation was filled with artistic aspirations, and begin on asking questions. In search of themselves, they interviewed those fifteen to twenty-five-year-old creatives surrounding them. As themselves; most were autodidacts and while talking to developing artists they slowly began working on what would become the KIDZ project.
A self-published project: KIDZ
Thinking wisely, they went on to meet with publishing houses. Financial constraints, artistic categorisation, top sales objectives – Bellanger and Gardere strongly rejected those criterias and decided to self-publish their first book. «Being in opposition with the requests of this publishing house made us immediately realize what we wanted for the book and for the artists we were showcasing – that meant total freedom», states Bellanger.
«We wanted to offer a format that did not already exist, a kind of platform, those pages can be used to create a new work of art, a diary, a collage or anything the artist wishes. There is all this exercise around memory and archiving that has always interested us. Growing up, we were capturing everything by putting it on blogs or Instagram but all of those are ephemeral and we wanted something that could last in time», adds Gardere.
The duo then selected thirty Parisian profiles and launched the first KIDZ book in May 2017 at the Colette concept store in Paris. Today aged twenty-four, a lot has changed – the women have too. Bellanger just launched Brocca, a brand of luxury ready-to-wear, Gardere graduated from philosophical studies and the pair keeps on working hand in hand on fashion or arts-related communication projects, advising brands on the creative scene or the younger generations.
KIDZ: A well-rounded concept
For the second and third books, KIDZ was made worldwide, bigger and with a larger number of profiles. Selected on the basis of equity between continents and gender representation, the fifty artists are now offered two double pages with the only request to include an original and personal text. In making this selection, the two curators’ opinions most times differ, but the watchword remains to find early stage artistic practices and movements.
«That is why it’s called KIDZ, we try to look at artists that don’t have an established style yet, practices that are more hesitant in a way but that we think are upcoming», says Gardere before adding, «Some artists may be established already but it’s the juxtaposition of those profiles with some less known that will catalyze and promote their work».
The first page of presentation of each artist’s profile is a biographical questionnaire, where creatives chose to share some references and inspirations. Hugo Compte, French fashion photographer writes down Beatrix Kido, Madonna, and Virgil Abloh as his icons while Miles Greenberg, Canadian performance artist and sculptor chose the Japanese manga series Attack On Titan as his favorite TV show.
Gardere and Bellanger adore this questionnaire format — letting the artist select the questions they wish to answer — as defining artists that are in the process of defining themselves is irrelevant. Those answers also say much about the era: «We realized we would have loved to know what our generation’s parents’ icons, favorite movies or books were. What they thought about themselves. And this is the intention we put into those questionnaires», says Bellanger.
KIDZ: A physical object
As keeping a journal, those testimonies had to end up on paper. But making a book was not the most obvious for two girls who had been raised with the internet and cellphones. However it’s the format that would most make a hyphen between generations and it’s the one they chose.
« People aged 60 or 70 wouldn’t go look at a blog or a website but surely can relate to a book, and surprisingly our generation too, » says Bellanger while Gardere adds that « A book is an object that you pass onto the next generation. And we wanted to make a beautiful and big one as those mighty art books we would see at our parents’ house. »
KIDZ: The testimony of a generation
As a time capsule, KIDZ aims to define youth’s sensibility and preoccupation. In the 2020 book, most of the profiles mentioned Just Kids, American singer Patti Smith’s memoir as their favorite title whereas in the last edition, a lessening number of profiles defined their gender through the lens of the feminine-masculine duality. In addition, this year, lots of artists wrote about their identity quest, their roots and the isolation felt during the covid crisis.
KIDZ: An exhibition for a future
To celebrate the launch of the 2022 edition, the young women organized an event on the eighth of December at 3537, an art center owned by Rei Kawakubo, creator and founder of the Japanese brand Comme des Garçons.
For this four day long event, Gardere and Bellanger had been offered a carte blanche by 3537 and curated an exhibition showcasing seventeen of the artists included in their book series. Several live performances were organized on the opening night, and more than a thousand people came to the event.
For some of the young creatives, this event happened to be their first exhibition. Aligned to the concept of the book, the curators helped each artist create a small space in the venue that would resemble them. Elena Mottola, a French fashion stylist, wished to create an art installation and together they imagined a system of cables hanging from the ceiling with some of the best looks she ever created.
Connections between up-and-coming artists in Paris
«Our role is to assist the artists in bringing their ideas to life, sometimes they’re a bit delusional but we push them to be as creative as possible without putting any barriers», states Bellanger while Gardere adds, «It’s unbearable when you have a creative mind, to have adults around you putting barriers all the time. So we try to keep our childish side, we say that nothing is going to be complicated and that every problem has a solution».
During the event — the first time the artists were meeting — Gardere and Bellanger observed that a lot of them already knew each other. «From the beginning we had this dream of making an art residency for all the ‘kidz’ to be able to meet each other. On that night there was a group synergy and that’s not insignificant», affirmed Bellanger. «Not only is this event something we want to do again for the next book launch, but it is also something we want to extend outside the launches», concluded the dynamic duo.
KIDZ
KIDZ is a book that aims to showcase today’s youth creativeness. They offer to a selection of artists two double blank pages that the artists are free to use however they feel like, in an ongoing dialogue with the KIDZ team. In 2016, Raphaelle Bellanger was thinking of a book about creative young people and teamed up with her childhood friend Anna Gardere. They worked together on the concept and made KIDZ a reality.
