dasha zhukova is an ambitious russian woman as well as, in no particular order, roman abramovici’s baby mama (they have a 20 month old boy together), philantropist, former magazine editor (pop), fashion designer (she has the line kova&t together with a childhood friend) and last but not least a pretty big shot in the world of contemporary art (she opened the garage center for contemporary culture in moscow, in 2008). she also found the time to study homeopathy…
on september the 5th, she is launching a new art/fashion magazine called garage. using her experience in publishing and well aware of the attention a new magazine needs to attract, she commissioned three different covers to contemporary art super stars.
the scandal factor was embedded: the damien hirst+hedi slimane cover depicts a naked woman whose modesty is covered by a removable sticker that entices you to peel slowly and see. in case you dare to, you will find the butterfly-tattooed vagina of london-based illustrator shauna taylor. of course, the people are outraged…
dinos chapman (of the infamous british bad boy duo the chapman brothers) collaborated with nick knight and made a tiny lily donaldson version in a doll house and the final alternative cover shows a happy face tattoo design by richard prince. all three covers have the same motto: i will not wear any more boring tattoos (john baldessari). the world is full of boring tattoos and i totally think people could do with a little help from these artists.
miss zhukova is smart and wants to be the girl with the most cake. fortunately, beside the financial power, she also seems to have the brains and balls to pull this one off: a magazine glamorizing art and fashion and embodying cross over. also: hiring every creative out there, newcomers or stars. it will not be a best-seller, but i imagine that’s not the point: the butterfly pussy cover will get everybody’s attention and it will be hunted down as a collector’s item.
the magazine will use talent such as uomo vogue’s giovana bataglia, prada ambassador and street style blogger favourite shala monroque, realist photographer juergen teller and relevant artists such as martina abramovic, jeff koons and paul mccarthy, etc, and it will be a huge instrument advertising zasha to the world as an eclectic, knowing business woman with her fingers in all the right pies and hopefully will establish her as a player on the field that matters: the rarefied very high end world of the incredibly rich AND the amazingly creative.
zasha seems to know what she’s doing…i, for one, will be watching her!
ps: this name dropping game is insane! i didn’t link to all the names above, although they’re all interesting and relevant.
