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Silent Models

Performance by Olivier Saillard, with Tilda Swinton

  • Events, Paris
  • Fri 20 Mar → Sat 21 Mar 2026, 21:00
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Olivier Saillard Le Musée Vivant de la Mode 2026 bis
Le Musée Vivant de la Mode © Olivier Saillard Photo © Gabriele Rosati

Location

Studio Marie-Claude Beaud

Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain

Porte Saint-Honoré

Directions

In shop windows, and as the pedestals of fashion exhibitions, mannequins made from wood or cardboard, plastic or metal, are trying to replace the human body and its movements, which they capture. The abstract reduction of a clothes hanger—a vestige of a neck and exposed shoulders—the naturalism of a 1930s' mannequin head, and the dressmaker's bust devoid of a face and arms, all recount the strange story of the silhouette since the nineteenth century. 

Whether fully embodying the pieces, or conversely, presenting a neutral stance, vacillating between absence and presence, Tilda Swinton initiates a silent dialogue with the commercial sculptures that have been used to display clothing on store racks and in museums. 

During a futile dressing session, she confronts the fragility and vulnerability of clothing with these derisory or sublime pedestals, in gestures that stretch out in the eternity of a pause.

Olivier Saillard Spectacle 2026 1

Olivier Saillard

Olivier Saillard is a graduate in art history, former director of the Palais Galliera – Paris Fashion Museum, currently director of the Alaïa Foundation and artistic, image and culture director for the J.M. Weston brand. Since then, alongside his work as a historian, he has pursued a poetic reflection presented in the form of performances, the most notable of which, Impossible Wardrobe with Tilda Swinton, inaugurated a ten-year cycle of collaboration. Similarly, Models Never Talk with a studio of famous models, established a new form in response to conventional fashion shows.

In 2018, he founded 'Moda Povera', a poetic, performative, and pedagogical clothing creation company based on the transformation of ordinary and modest garments, magnified by haute couture knowledge and techniques.

Credits

Conception Olivier Saillard
With Tilda Swinton

Artistic collaborator: Gael Mamine
Assistants: Zoé Guedard, Robinson Boursault
Sewing: Romain Blot, Guy Chassaing
Hair: Cicci Svahn
Makeup: MAC Cosmetics
With the exceptional collaborations of: Adeline André, Erdal Pinarci, Les Mains de mamie, Sylvie Saillard
Manufacturing envelope books: Caleb Igoulmimene, Anne Bourguignon – Procop
Set construction: Ateliers Artigo

Studio manager: Aymar Crosnier – Studio Olivier Saillard
Production: Briac Geffrault – Studio Olivier Saillard
Artistic direction and graphic design: Antoine Jean, Marie Marotel, Mathieu Delion – Funny Bones
Press relations: Nathalie Ours – PR Consulting, Meriem Otsmane
Commission and financial support: Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain
Coproduction: Studio Olivier Saillard
With the support of: la Ménagerie de verre, as part of the StudioLab program

Acknowledgements: Fondation Azzedine Alaïa – Carla Sozzani president, J. M. Weston, Monsieur Helmut Lang, Monsieur Christian Lacroix, Jean-Philippe Pons, Kiyoto Koseki, Titouan Meillarec, Véronique Belloir, Palais Galliera – Émilie Hammen, Alexandre Samson, Didier Ludot

  • Olivier Saillard Le Musée Vivant de la Mode 2026 3bis

    Daily performance : The Living Museum of Fashion

    From March 8 to 21st, everyday at 5 pm, The Living Museum of Fashion is an unprecedented performance through which Olivier Saillard attempts to construct an ephemeral yet attainable edifice. Specially designed and imagined for the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, this performance is included with your exhibition ticket.

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Le Musée Vivant de la Mode Olivier Saillard 2026 FR c1a

The Living Museum of Fashion

A text by Olivier Saillard

In this text conceived as a manifesto, Olivier Saillard argues for the idea of a living museum of fashion which, unlike traditional museums that present fashion as static objects, restores life to garments through movement, gesture, and intimacy.
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