Giorgio Armani inaugurates the exhibition “Guy Bourdin: Storyteller” at the Armani/Silos space

To coincide with Milan Fashion Week, Giorgio Armani inaugurates the exhibition “Guy Bourdin: Storyteller” at the Armani/Silos space. Intended to pay tribute to the work of the French photographer, the idea behind the exhibition is to portray his compositional and narrative intent, delving beyond the provocation that has always been associated with his work.

In the vein of filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock and artist Edward Hopper, whom he greatly admired, Guy Bourdin was essentially a storyteller, capable of condens- ing entire novels, usually crime or noir, into a single shot.
For the exhibition at Armani/Silos, Giorgio Armani and the Guy Bourdin Estate have selected one hundred photographs, including both iconic shots and lesser-known images.

The use of saturated colours – a defining characteristic of Guy Bourdin’s style – is explored in an entire room of reds, greens and pinks, as is his take on the deconstructed form, especially when playing with mannequins, and his unmistakable composition. Twenty-one black and white photographs show how immediate Bourdin’s expressive ability is, even with the simplest of contrasts. One room explores Bourdin’s love of cinema, a central element in his creativity, featuring a selection of advertising campaign images showing what appear to be crime scenes or police chases, alluding to his fascination with Al- fred Hitchcock and the theme of the “mysterious plot”.

The Guy Bourdin: Storyteller exhibition will be open to the public from 24 February to 31 August 2023.