Earlier this month in New York, artist Goshka Macuga led the second iteration of Tales & Tellers, Miu Miu’s free public activation of Women’s Tales – the brand’s series of short films made by women, with the guiding principle of promoting and foregrounding women’s work and perspectives. Taking the main characters and themes from previous films commissioned over the last 14 years, Tales & Tellers brings them to life in a series of performance artworks. Macuga unites various characters in a new way, re-energising their stories alongside a publication of accompanying essays. In celebrating unconventional women and welcoming visitors to participate in events and discussions, Miu Miu – as one of the world’s most eminent, desirable brands – is using something exclusive to offer something accessible.
The women portrayed in these stories include a stand-up comic, a young woman moving into a new apartment, an all-girl skateboard gang, and many more nuanced identities and roles. There are 29 films directed by the likes of Angès Varda, Dakota Fanning, Chloë Sevigny, and Janicza Bravo, with a 30th set to premiere this year.
Macuga’s activation, staged with her collaborator, the opera and theatre director Fabio Cherstich, and convened by the curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art Barcelona, Elvira Dyangani Ose, opened during Frieze New York after showing for the first time during Art Basel Paris in 2024. “I think it’s key in this moment to understand that there’s still time to fight for what we want. This is still a moment to engage with the possibility of transformation and never give up,” Dyangani Ose explains, reflecting on these performances and films coming to the United States. ”We have seen in the US recently that some of those rights are not guaranteed. I think it’s a time to recognise that we are also revolutionary beings, and we need to be called to action.”
Previous directors who have participated in Women’s Tales over the years were invited to be involved in this most recent iteration. Watching their protagonists break out of the screen and into a physical space gave their characters a second life through conceptual art, moving together through the sculptural installations in the space. “It’s not even about my film. I’ve created this character as a mirroring image of me, and I’m assuming every director who made a character sees something of themselves in it. We projected ourselves on the screen, but these characters are not interacting,” explained Antonetta Almat Kusijanović, the director of Stane – the Women’s Tales short film exploring the story of a woman balancing power and relationships in a patriarchal family business.
Tales & Tellers New York transported the concept of the first exhibition from the daylight of Paris to the New York night-time with a retro-futuristic theme, all neon lights and smoke. A slightly different line-up of films and a choice of venue in the Terminal Warehouse in Chelsea created a different atmosphere as the performances worked with the history of the building as a nightclub, a sex club, a factory, and a rail building to bring the essence of the project to life.
In contrast to the light-filled forum of Palais d’Iéna, the New York space evoked nightlife and rebellion. “Through the use of architecture and what we implemented with props, stages, lighting, and sound, we are trying to create symbolic meanings and suggestions for people to go on a journey,” Macuga explains. “It’s about shifting… a state you are in, and the state you can evolve into. It’s about the transformation of emotions and thoughts.”
Moving through the space, the performers engaged with the audience. We were stopped by a young woman speaking French to a group of dancers who join hands before erupting into a rave, tapping into the building’s previous identity as an infamous 80s nightclub, the Tunnel. At points during the exhibition, a curtain lifted to reveal a mist-filled garden packed with characters, static, and separated by a window.
Cherstich’s role is to take Macuga’s conceptual work and, with her, stage it for the public. “I’m an artist, but I like to work with other artists using my knowledge as a theatre and opera director to achieve something. So, in this way, I’m a translator,” he explains of the carefully choreographed army of performers who brought this vision to life. “Goshka broke the frame of the screen, she made the characters alive, mixing the worlds of cinema and performance.”
Visit the gallery above for a closer look.
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