On the heels of Acne Studios' spring/summer 2027 collection, we look at the artist who turned the Paris location for Denim Hystoria into a space for dissolving memories and perceptions
When Acne Studios took over Le Collège des Bernadins last night for its spring/summer 2027 Womenswear collection, Denim Hystoria, theatrical grandeur met the weathered, the untethered, and the timeworn. Showing how contrary ideas are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but can elevate, recalibrate, and even heighten perceptions, Denim Hystoria was a meeting of Acne Studios’ signature denim material and historical escapism.
The collection presented an exercise in cultural and aesthetic collision – a thematic tone that resonated in the set design comprising the standout oeuvres of Baku-based contemporary artist Faig Ahmed.
Azerbaijani artist Faig Ahmed's work adorns the interiors of Le Collège des Bernadins, the site of Acne Studios' SS27 collection, Denim Hystoria. Photo: Acne Studios
Photo: Acne Studios
Born in 1982, in Sumqayit, Azerbaijan, Faig Ahmed is a Baku-based contemporary artist who explores the tension between memory and perception, and the interplay between cultural and technological systems. Often monumental in scale, his works have increasingly moved beyond the carpet, spanning textiles, sculpture, installation, video and sound, and have been on show at the Venice Biennale, where he represented Azerbaijan, as well as in major collections ranging from the Art Institute of Chicago, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, to the National Gallery of Victoria.
Ahmed’s installations rework aesthetic codes of traditional Azerbaijani carpets into sculptural, conceptual works that have a distinct spatial resonance. With a practice that leans into the tension between tradition and transformation, Ahmed approaches traditional carpets not as fixed representatives of cultural customs, but as ever-evolving systems of information that can be tools for disruption, and for expanding dialogue in contemporary visual culture.
For Denim Hystoria, Ahmed transformed the Paris location with carpets strung up high that enshrouded the full length of each wall, before reaching the floor, where they spilled out, in pooled formations, representing the melting of memories and blending of lines as an echo of the counter-narrative of Acne Studio's collection.