María de las Mercedes Capitán, a.k.a. Coco Capitán is a 24-years-old artist-photographer (although she prefers not to define herself by the latter half of that title) protagonist of the Gucci‘s fashion shows since the Fall Winter collection 2017.

She belongs to a new generation of artists, the image-makers, who have returned to shooting on film in search of an aesthetic that stands apart. Coco is the spokeswoman for the 21st century: “What are we going to do with all this future?”has become viral among the web and even in the streets. She justified her intent: for me, that main sentence just feels so relevant to this moment we are all in right now, where no one knows what is going to happen and especially with these major shifts in political power. 

Nowadays Internet and the social media, such Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook, literally bombard users with information, mostly pictures, GiF or memes that are empty of meaning. The use of words is more powerful than the images. Her works give a new interpretation to Marshall McLuhan quote “The medium is the message” turning it into “the message is the medium”. In fact, the relationship between the message and the audience crosses the boundaries between offline-online interactions. It is essential for the understanding of the artwork and the viewers really pay attention to the meaning of each word.

Along with her works Ignasi Monreal, a Spanish artist recreates the internet-friendly atmosphere of the earliest 90s. When he started his collaboration with Gucci, Ignasi decided to combine his past working experience as a fashion illustrator, which mostly represents the way for giving a more personal touch and a free interpretation to an artwork, with photography, which adds details to the creative composition. Moreover, Comics, illustrations and Surrealism are the major influences for his artworks. His decision to join the fashion community came up since he drew women with very high high-heels as a Comic & Illustration teenager student. Ignasi’s colourful pop-eye paintings perfectly match with the extravagant and eclectic Gucci’s designs.

Both the artists have gained the attention of the Gucci’s creative director Alessandro Michele, who decided to creates a partnership with the brand since the Fall/Winter 2017/2018 collection. Surprisingly, it is not the first time that Gucci has an artistic collaboration. In fact, in the past, the Maison has collaborated with Unskilled Worker and Yujo Higuchi.

From a personal point of view, the responsibility of the two artists is to invite audiences in believing to the stories and open their minds to imagine alternatives, taking distances from their realities, especially in a historic period of economic instability, corrupted democracy that does not represent the voice it says stands for in the Western Countries, the imperial conquest of capitalism as a dominant ideology which makes people think that they need things they actually don’t.

Please make yourself questioning on the present and try to believe in a story.