Miu Miu Tales & Tellers

Tales & Tellers is an immersive, site-specific art project and series of screenings and conversations. Influenced by Miu Miu’s collaborations across the spectrum of filmmaking and art, Tales & Tellers is conceived by artist Goshka Macuga and convened by curator Elvira Dyangani Ose, and staged at the Palais d’Iéna, Paris from 16-20 October 2024 as part of Art Basel Paris, Public Program Official partner.

Since its inception, Miu Miu has explored femininity, vanity and the female gaze via women narrating women. This has initiat ed a rich, thought provoking analysis of how women view themselves and the world around them. Hence, in 2011, in Venice, the Miu Miu Women’s Tales series began in collaboration with Giornate degli Autori. It offered female filmmakers a significant platform to present their unique views on the plurality of womanhood T aking a comprehensive reappraisal of vanity as a point of departure, the celebrated short film series most importantly afforded opportunities for these filmmakers to challenge and overcome through their practice.

Women’s Tales sees womanhood as an ongoing process poetic, political, imaginative whose role in formulating contemporary societies is often overlooked or effaced. Women’s Tales presents myriad perspectives in the shape of stories and genres. Establishing female voices in cinema runs in parallel to a more than century long struggle for women to establish their position within culture and society. Using the short form format, the Tales tell us what needs to be shown to appreciate female life in all its complex, joyous , aestheticized plurality.

Alongside the Tales , over the past three years, the biannual Miu Miu runway presentations at the Palais d’Iéna in Paris have become vehicles for further dialogues with female artists, expanding Miuccia Prada’s interest in working across disciplines , through conceptual site specific installation s and moving images . The fashion shows provid e a stage for a n artistic statement that takes advantage of the notion of fashion as an “instant language …” This highlights
the potential of art to go beyond the here and n ow of the artistic experience.

Tales & Tellers c onversations bring together all these different filmmakers and artists to exchange about their lives and work, their adversities, aspirations, and dreams. These Conversations take us on personal journeys investigating the ever shifting concepts of contemporary life and their roots whilst return ing to a deep understanding of what womanhood means today. Furthermore, the panels encourage us all to appreciate the individuals behind any story or narrative, prompting us to reflect on the intended audience for those stories and the potential for spectatorship to become tellers themselves.