Hedi Slimane 'I Love USA'

I LOVE USA, LOS ANGELES APRIL 2010 ©HEDI SLIMANE

Commissioned by online fashion shop thecorner.com, this new film by Hedi Slimane is the second in the series ‘Fashion Film’, following a project by Nick Knight. On Hedi Slimane’s site, the background to the project is explained: “Sidney is a 15 yo California girl from Venice Beach. Hedi found her at Coachella Festival in 2009. Wolf is a 15 yo California boy from Laurel Canyon. Hedi found him at Coachella Festival in 2010. Sidney and Wolf had never met, but had heard of each other. They met on the beach on camera with Hedi, filming their encounter. Sidney and Wolf are both shy and hardly spoke to each other. They walked together on the beach. Sidney was holding her poms-poms, Wolf was playing his cello. This is beginning of I Love U.S.A. project. U.S.A. is actually the nickname Hedi had given to Sidney (u. Sidney.a). She appears often on Hedi’s photographic diary, as the representation of California, Hedi’s idea of California, and ideal California girl. Hedi wanted Sidney to experiment with her own idea of cheerleading, a tradition in American youth culture. Sidney improvises in this piece, along with Wolf, who improvises on his cello. Wolf wears a wolf halloween mask, as a teen indie transposition of Peter and the wolf, the Prokoviev piece, and Little Red Riding Hood.  I Love U.S.A. is about a certain idea of Californian youth and culture. This film project is related to Hedi’s forthcoming book. It is also the title of Hedi Slimane’ s forthcoming exhibition (Feb 2011) at Galerie Almine Rech in Paris. I Love U.S.A. is structured like most of Hedi’s work over the past decade, and based on an arythmic synchronisation.”
www.hedislimane.com