KAPPA
CREATIVE DIRECTION
According to official history the Kappa logo was born of accident. Apocryphal or not, its genesis can be traced back to a moment in 1969 when, during swimsuit shoot in Turin, the camera flash jammed and the couple being shot were immortalized as a stark graphic outline that went on to travel the world. Fifty years on the Italian clothing company are celebrating the so-called ‘omni’ logo - the first ever clothing logo to include the human form - with a performance by Vanessa Beecroft that riffs of the ideas of equality and mutual support captured in the original pose. Utilizing the otherworldly kinetic topography of the Lot 11 skatepark in downtown Miami extends the form of live portraiture for which Beecroft has become known into a tableau vivant that cross-hatches her interests in minimalism, performance art, film and fashion. Referencing the famously hallucinatory scene from Michealangelo Antonioni’s Zabriski Point - filmed in 1969 and released the following year - where the young lovers multiply on the dunes, Beecroft has explained the original concept from one to fifty couples in various different configurations. By animating the Kappa logo in this way , she invites us to explore not just the ever evolving relationship between the individuals – here represented by the Omini couple - but also that of a brand to the world at large.
