Runway Square X Gucci

Six flag bearers of sustainability in India wrote notes, poems, letters about their vision of the future. Their words served as an inspiration to the six artists curated by XXL collective to create site-specific digital artworks for Runway Square editorial - Gucci Off the Grid.

Shot online via phones in true 2020 fashion, the 6 visionaries blend with the digital artworks in a shared experience where fashion met art under the cause of sustainability.

The editorial is woven together by the bags from Gucci’s Off The Grid collection.

*Off The Grid is a circular collection that uses recycled, organic, bio-based and sustainably sourced materials, including ECONYL®️, a regenerated nylon made from nylon off-cuts and pre and post-consumer waste.

Client: Runway Square X Gucci

Location: Multiple

Artist(s): Multiple

Tara Anand X Karuna Ezara Parikh

A tiger - example of endangered species yet symbol of strength and resilience and, of course, of India -overlooks the future from a lush jungle. Along with Karuna, they envision how we can create a better future for the world by rethinking our cities. 

As we are the architects of our future, the artist visualized a green city where the built and the natural environment are no longer alien rather holistically intertwined.

The dreamy treatment of the natural elements such as the sky, the ocean and the flora suggests the essence of the image: a vision for our future.

Osheen Siva X Aishwarya Sharma

Through bold lines, Osheen shaped the figure of an imaginary goddess as a metaphor for womanhood. A celebration of strength, here specially dedicated to the women in fashion - from the ones who manufacture it to the ones who wear it. Thus, Osheen identifies the goddess not only as embodiment of women in fashion but above all as mother nature. We are all creators! 

As a result, Aishwarya is immersed in the composition, holistically becoming part of it embraced by the goddess.

Do X Nayantara Jain

The artist DO here played with the concept of art and imagination.

Nayantara is represented as a Greek goddess with a defined sculptural look despite being contained in a bidimensional painting. The canvas resembles an aquarium where the feeling is almost of water about to overflow. A sense of pressure, where the energy of the ocean and the underwater world is uncontainable. 

The canvas becomes a space for thought and Nayantara at its center looks vibrantely in the viewer's eye, offering access into her magical world. An ecosystem which we are all putting in danger and that we can instead contribute towards with our actions making it as eternal as the Greek sculptures. With this proposal and also by bringing some of the animals out of the frame in a surreal and 3D manner, the artist opens his imagination towards a future which could become real.

A-Kill X Mukul Bhatia

The arched window on the wall becomes the springboard for this piece, becoming, in fact, an opening on the world and suggesting that we can see through and beyond a flat wall also.

Reflecting upon Mukul's words, A-kill builds on the idea of present and future, nature and technology, individual and collective responsibilities. Thus, two young women face each other while holding together the world. On the left we see the personification of nature and on the right of technology. Many times we see them as opposing forces but technology can contribute to our future also by preserving nature. 

The message follows Mukul's idea: we are all in this together and there is no room for polarisation when we think of our future.

Aravani Art X Ekta Rajani

Aravani created a dream of air, water and earth. 

These elements in their continuous ever-regenerating flow, aim to calm the mind while infusing energy in the viewer. The waves of the ocean are dancing, the seeds are flowing and we can reach the moon because as Ekta says "we can create a wave of focused imagination in an ocean of distractions...seeds of possibilities". 

The waves become the symbol of nature as well as flow of actions and even coherence through their constant motion.

Khatra X Trisha Shetty

Trisha is an activist whose words meet actions. The streets for her are the ground where activism can really be built and heard. Therefore, the artist chose to represent a protest where people are coming together to fight for pressing issues which relate to us all. The campaign is for environment and sustainability, along with human rights which form the core of Trisha’s tireless work.

Khatra purposely outlined the protesters with brief strokes which don't highlight any specific features to suggest that everyone has the right to speak despite provenience, age or sex. Echoing Trisha’s words and framing some of them within the placards, the artist aims at stimulating the viewer to connect with the importance of activism.