Speaking with: Juan Corrales from Bouquet

INTERVIEW FLORENCE TÉTIER
ALL PICTURES JUAN CORRALES

https://www.instagram.com/bouquet.mag/

Hi Juan, who are you? What do you do? And, what’s your background?

Hey Florence! My name is Juan Corrales I am stylist and co-founder of an art edition collective called Bouquet. I was born in São Paulo, Brasil and came to France when I was 14. I studied fashion in Paris and I’ve been working in fashion and art for three years now.

What/who is Bouquet? Please explain your concept.

Bouquet is a series of artist books made by an ongoing trans and non-conforming inclusive collective that my friend Théophile Merchadou Pineau and I founded two years ago. We work with young artists, photographers, music producers, designers and invite them to produce an exclusive content for us that can be a step aside from their usual practice/medium.

So far we’ve launched two issues, both are limited of respective 150 and 100 editions, with handmade prints and binds. In the beginning, our main aim was to deconstruct and understand the format of a magazine through the connections it allows, and to explore the construction of an editorial narrative.

Why « Bouquet »? What is the meaning behind the name?

Because it’s the same word in several languages, and also because the word induces a set of works that could be presented as individual fanzines, however, we’ve chosen to present them as a whole collective edition.

Where are you based? Could you do Bouquet from another city?

We don’t have a geographic location, as long we can have an Internet connection and access to our emails, we can collaborate and work on Bouquet with no physical constraints. For instance, a lot of the people we’ve collaborated with so far have been from all over the world: Peru, Mexico, Ecuador, Brasil, France, UK, Germany, Madagascar, and others. In that way, we don’t belong to any specific physical place, except for the moments when the editorial team needs to gather up. We do think we can do Bouquet anywhere.

Thress words to describe Bouquet:

Mutation, release and decentralization.

Explain your logo concept:

Our logo changes with every new publication project in correspondence with the themes and aesthetics. The issue can be identified by the typography or the graphic design. We don’t stick to a chronological order or time-lapse, each issue remains Bouquet, with no other specificity other than the cover and the content.

Is Bouquet a political project? If yes, how?

Yes, the collective is constructed horizontally, meaning that every person involved can take the place that they want in the project. We are also completely self-financed, self-directed, with only original content, no ads and an all non-profit purpose. We try our best to have our editions with the least environmental impact possible and to develop hand-made techniques.

We propose a free platform that focuses on subversive and/or marginalized identities, highlighting their voices and work. In that way, Bouquet allows people to showcase and develop their own individual experiences with no censorship. It’s also a way to connect people that share a similar mindset, in a world that often wants to shut us down.

Can you select a few spreads that represent the publication the best?

From left to right : Enantios Dromos photography Pedro Ferreira prothesis Ecto Corporation styling Carolina DomingosEdito from Bouquet 1; Photography Pedro Ferreira style Carolina Domingos, graphics Théophile Merchadou Pineau ; Photography and style Juan Corrales and Laetitia Gimenez all clothing Faucon Friedlander graphics Théophile Merchadou Pineau ; Tonie, photography and morphings Théophile Merchadou Pineau ; Ready to win, artworks by Dj Lostboi ; graphics Théophile Merchadou Pineau, photography and text Harilay Rabenjamina, style Zouzoudago

You have a lot of texts in the publication, what do they stand for?

The texts published are mainly personal works from our contributors mostly with a militant dimension that takes different forms, for example: diary excerpts, performance scores and fictions. Also, we always keep the texts in their original language in order to confront the reader with their own cultural access and invite them to be more curious. For our second issue, we wrote a collective text for our « Edito » that also works as a poetic-political manifesto.

Tell us about your exhibition at Balice Hertling.

Well, at the beginning we were only looking for a place to launch our second issue, and Daniele Balice invited us to hold an exhibition at their project space in Belleville. Considering the format of this issue, a collection of 32 posters made from collages, we curated an exhibition in relation to the edition where we presented the « magazine » and works from some contributors: Pedro Ferreira, Théophile Merchadou-Pineau, Jane King, Coco Magnusson, Enantios Dromos, Colombe D’humières, Matthias Garcia, Aodhan Madden and myself.

What are your inspirations? What causes are important to you?

Well, my inspiration comes from everywhere, but a lot of it comes from popular culture, music, and the people I am surrounded by. What I really love is to being involved in projects that either exaggerate reality or reposition it. I don’t enjoy creating only aesthetic standards, that’s already so much stuff and people that need to be seen as they really are, so I think there is a documentary aspect as well in a lot of my work. I think what is important for me is to reinterpret the significance of the garments or images and their social standards, looking for a break between things and ideas.

There’s an urge to reposition who can access and who can create fashion and art today. The market is more important than the information behind it, and at some point, the business is killing both creation and the planet. I think that we are living in a tremendous eco-political crisis right now, and with fascists everywhere we need fashion, art, cinema and music to become more aware than ever. of what they create. As huge information sources, we need to be not only creating content, but creating things that actually make for change, it’s much more about the process than the result. When I work on editorials, for instance, it’s really important for me to be surrounded by people who not only want to create a visual story, but to tell a real one, so starting from that the casting is the heart of what we are creating.

Name your favourite artists ever?

My friends and contributors from Bouquet!

What’s the last website you visited?

I was watching Castelo Ra Tim Bum, a TV series that I grew up with.

Your all time fav magazine cover?

Can’t think of any now, maybe they are about to be made.

A book recommendation?

I’m reading the last Paul B. Preciado right now, it’s called Un Appartement Sur Uranus.

A holiday destination?

Anywhere in Brasil that hasn’t been destroyed yet.

A young fashion brand we should follow?

The Brasilian collective Estileras and Nicolas Guichard a young designer from Reunion island.

A current exhibition we should visit?

The last one I visited was the Honey Suckle Company at ICA in London.

What’s your favourite garment your own?

This emo Care Beer t-shirt I found in Tbilisi.

Can you create a Spotify playlist for us that we could share?

Listen here!

RBD - Sálvame (live)
Malibu - Nana (Like A Star Made for Me)
Linn da Quebrada ft. Liniker - Serei A
Gilberto Gil - Iansa (live)
Yseult (ft Jok’Air) - 5H
Cock Robin - When your heart is weak
Kate Bush - Hounds of Love
Linn da Quebrada - Mulher
Belchior - Como nossos pais
Lyzza - Ex é EX
Alien Sex Fiend - Ignore The Machine
Pujolll - Merda
Boladona - Mc Tati Quebra Barraco
Ludmilla - Vem Amor
White Prata - Coma os ricos
Mc Naninha - Trabalho Lindo
Pujolll - Bye Bye
Pabllo Vittar - Amor de que
Piensa en mi - Luz Casal
Fleetwood Mac - The chain