Sylvie Fleury
Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss
September 10–October 2, 1999
Munich

Some art pieces tend somewhat to summarize the main ingredients of an artist's work. Sylvie Fleury's 'Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss' certainly wraps together many topics visited and discussed by the artist through much of her production that count as a seminal contribution to todays contemporary art forum these past years. The Dress, as an art object and as a dress, is emblematic of such investigations by Sylvie Fleury which focus among various fields on art as wrapping device, art as prosthesis, art as customizing processes, art as vehicle on cruise control to the Unknown and further on, recalls the questioning of gender identity and emblems by means of sexual accessorizing and fetishism and other such themes displayed in her works.

Technics of transfer, sampling or transcoding are a quite typical set in the contemporary language modus and Sylvie Fleury's strategies are very explicit about that cultural challenge. She will often use a given cultural product and restage all the deconstructed elements into a new intricate set on its new stage. The Fashion System has been almost obvious territory for her art, and she has been highly recognized for her works in that line since the early nineties. A point made clear in those series is how ikons are built to transport a message, whether it be significant or blank of any meaning, and introduce a reference point that cannot be avoided. The handling of these ikons, their marketing through advertising and media support create from nill an identity, framing then on a style, an aesthetic, a language. Western art uses similar paths, and Sylvie Fleury's work critically reports this parallel efficiently.

 

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Her pieces also evoke strongly the emotional perception of ikons, whatever they could be, in the realm of sensuality and sexuality. This is a peculiarity of a generation of woman artists who invest all assets of femininity in the instrumentation of their art, introducing a weaponry cautiously set aside mostly before. In this perspective, it is interesting to notice how strongly her art deals with skin, indeed a classic theme for painters since ever, but very radically discussed here. Far from customizing to cosmetics, from wallpaintings to fashion media headline topics, the mutant shapes of bodily envelopes combine the addictive and submissive with the individual freedom to identity shaping and the power of image gunnery.

The 'Formular One Dress' deals with so much of all this. And more. It certainly has to do with transfer, converting a utility Hero uniform of a supposedly man's world into a tool of feminine seduction, matching functions often weighed in trivial zones, but obviously perennial socially. Hot Rod iconography (the dress is lined with flames inside) and corporate sponsor badges knit a tattooed identity on a space age fabric designed for outrageous speed. Track speed, catwalk trips, gallery exposure. It could be fantasy, it could be the world, and definitely ingredients to both. If it's art, it must fit, if it's a dress, it should fit better.

 

Installation Views
Sylvie Fleury – Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss – Munich
Sylvie Fleury
Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss
Installation view, Philomene Magers Projekte, Munich, September 10–October 2, 1999

Sylvie Fleury
Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss
Installation view, Philomene Magers Projekte, Munich, September 10–October 2, 1999

Sylvie Fleury – Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss – Munich
Sylvie Fleury
Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss
Installation view, Philomene Magers Projekte, Munich, September 10–October 2, 1999

Sylvie Fleury
Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss
Installation view, Philomene Magers Projekte, Munich, September 10–October 2, 1999

Sylvie Fleury – Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss – Munich
Sylvie Fleury
Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss
Installation view, Philomene Magers Projekte, Munich, September 10–October 2, 1999

Sylvie Fleury
Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss
Installation view, Philomene Magers Projekte, Munich, September 10–October 2, 1999

Sylvie Fleury – Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss – Munich
Sylvie Fleury
Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss
Installation view, Philomene Magers Projekte, Munich, September 10–October 2, 1999

Sylvie Fleury
Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss
Installation view, Philomene Magers Projekte, Munich, September 10–October 2, 1999

Sylvie Fleury – Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss – Munich
Sylvie Fleury
Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss
Installation view, Philomene Magers Projekte, Munich, September 10–October 2, 1999

Sylvie Fleury
Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss
Installation view, Philomene Magers Projekte, Munich, September 10–October 2, 1999

Sylvie Fleury – Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss – Munich
Sylvie Fleury
Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss
Installation view, Philomene Magers Projekte, Munich, September 10–October 2, 1999

Sylvie Fleury
Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss
Installation view, Philomene Magers Projekte, Munich, September 10–October 2, 1999
Photo: Ingo Kniest

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Details
Sylvie Fleury – Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss – Munich

Sylvie Fleury
Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss
Installation view, Philomene Magers Projekte, Munich, September 10–October 2, 1999

Sylvie Fleury – Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss – Munich

Sylvie Fleury
Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss
Installation view, Philomene Magers Projekte, Munich, September 10–October 2, 1999

Sylvie Fleury – Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss – Munich

Sylvie Fleury
Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss
Installation view, Philomene Magers Projekte, Munich, September 10–October 2, 1999

Sylvie Fleury – Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss – Munich

Sylvie Fleury
Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss
Installation view, Philomene Magers Projekte, Munich, September 10–October 2, 1999

Sylvie Fleury – Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss – Munich

Sylvie Fleury
Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss
Installation view, Philomene Magers Projekte, Munich, September 10–October 2, 1999

Sylvie Fleury – Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss – Munich

Sylvie Fleury
Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss
Installation view, Philomene Magers Projekte, Munich, September 10–October 2, 1999
Photo: Ingo Kniest

Details
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Exhibited Works
Sylvie Fleury – Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss – Munich
Sylvie Fleury
Hot Heels, 1999

Sylvie Fleury
Hot Heels, 1999
Neon, dark blue
200 × 150 cm
78 3/4 × 59 inches

Sylvie Fleury – Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss – Munich
Sylvie Fleury
Hot Heels, 1999

Sylvie Fleury
Hot Heels, 1999
Neon, dark red
200 × 150 cm
78 3/4 × 59 inches

Sylvie Fleury – Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss – Munich
Sylvie Fleury
Hot Heels, 1999

Sylvie Fleury
Hot Heels, 1999
Neon, turquoise
200 × 150 cm
78 3/4 × 59 inches

Sylvie Fleury – Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss – Munich
Sylvie Fleury
Formula One Dress, 1999
More views

Sylvie Fleury
Formula One Dress, 1999
Hand-tailord dress with original fireproof F1 fabric, original F1 logos, zipper and lining with flames

More views
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Details
Sylvie Fleury – Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss – Munich

Sylvie Fleury
Hot Heels, 1999
Neon, dark blue
200 × 150 cm
78 3/4 × 59 inches

Sylvie Fleury
Hot Heels, 1999
Sylvie Fleury – Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss – Munich

Sylvie Fleury
Hot Heels, 1999
Neon, dark red
200 × 150 cm
78 3/4 × 59 inches

Sylvie Fleury
Hot Heels, 1999
Sylvie Fleury – Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss – Munich

Sylvie Fleury
Hot Heels, 1999
Neon, turquoise
200 × 150 cm
78 3/4 × 59 inches

Sylvie Fleury
Hot Heels, 1999
Sylvie Fleury – Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss – Munich

Sylvie Fleury
Formula One Dress, 1999
Hand-tailord dress with original fireproof F1 fabric, original F1 logos, zipper and lining with flames

Sylvie Fleury
Formula One Dress, 1999
Sylvie Fleury – Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss – Munich
Sylvie Fleury – Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss – Munich

Sylvie Fleury
Formula One Dress, 1999 (detail)

Sylvie Fleury
Formula One Dress, 1999
Sylvie Fleury – Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss – Munich
Sylvie Fleury – Formula One Dress for Hugo Boss – Munich

Sylvie Fleury
Formula One Dress, 1999 (detail)

Sylvie Fleury
Formula One Dress, 1999
Details
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