Photographer Viviane Sassen's first solo exhibition in Japan is being held at two locations in Tokyo. We spoke to her about fashion and art during her visit to Japan.
Originally majoring in fashion, Sassen later studied photography and fine art, resulting in a creative career spanning both art and fashion. "I've always had a love-hate relationship with fashion," she says. While developing personal projects like the one on display, she plans to continue working in fashion.
"Because I do a lot of work in fashion and commercials, some people don't recognize me as an artist. However, in recent years, the boundaries between fashion and art have become blurred, and everything is often lumped together under the broad umbrella of creation. I find this phenomenon in itself stimulating and interesting," Sassen says.
In her work in fashion, it's the diverse people who create the brands that inspire her imagination.
"Behind each brand are people and designers from all walks of life, each with their own unique 'color,' and collaborating with them is interesting in itself. For example, at CARVEN, the designer who was there when we started the project, Guillaume Henry, has an understanding of photography, so I was able to proceed with the project freely. At the same time, I was expected to be highly creative, and his opinions were stimulating. I am also interested in the process of fulfilling the brand's requests, like solving a puzzle. In that sense, there is value in working on projects with a variety of brands, from elegant brands like LANVIN to more innovative brands."
"For me, fashion is like a playground, a place for experimentation," says Sassen, and she enjoys the extroverted creative process while working in fashion. In contrast, she has described art as "a process of deeply exploring one's emotions and bringing out one's own shadows," and sees the process of creating fine art as a very introverted one. "It's as if two different personalities coexist within me, and I create fashion and art with completely different approaches."
However, what all her work has in common is the fascinating nature of photography, a medium that she cannot completely control. Sassen creates her work by drawing compositions that come to her mind, then refining them on the spot as she photographs them. The discrepancy between the imagined image and the actual finished image is what fascinates her about photography.
Upcoming solo exhibitions include the ICA (Institut of Contemporary Art) in London and the Kunstmuseum Winterthur in Switzerland, but she has yet to decide on any new projects as a photographer. Recently, she has published a series of catalogs of her work, and her exhibition at the Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam, which began in March, expanded her media from photography to video and sound installations. It will be exciting to see what direction she takes as a photographer in the future.
