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Bambi mortuary

MASTER IN ART-DIRECTION // FLOWERS BY BORNAY

BAMBI MORTUARY is an aesthetic strategy to open a conversation about the journey of grief.  Here you’ll find the documentation of the process, from the conception of the concept to the production of a floral installation and its photographs. 

A special acknowledgment to the book that inspired our creative process, The year of magical thinking, by the marvelous and pragmatic Joan Didion. 

This project took place within the framework of Elisava’s Art Direction and New Narratives Master, which fosters an environment of multidisciplinary and multicultural creators, as well as an organized design methodology.

BRIEF
Concepts & Roses: develop a unique concept and express it in the floral language.
in addition make a creative book to explain about the process 

OVERALL THEME DIRECTING

Illusions, exploring how our mind sees the unreal.

REQUIRMENTS

Applying the 4D creative model: discover, define, develop and direct.

COLLABORATION
FlowersbyBornay, floral art studio based in Barcelona. 

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take a look over the creative process or the project 

We chose the word 'Bambi' as a universal symbol of grief, pain, innocence, and childhood, in a dark fantasy sort of way. Also, as Bambi's original writer said, "I want to show that the world is not a perfect sunny place."

Then the word 'Mortuary' represents the moment when you have to confront reality while your mind is still in the state of grieving, in a state of magical thinking. The tension between these two universes expresses the sensation of illusion.

The project discusses the connection between grief and "magical thinking", as described by Joan Didion in her book "The Year of Magical Thinking."

Grief creates an illusion that alters perception, leading to irrational beliefs and a return to childlike thinking.

we gatherd keywords as:personal loss / pain / death / paralyzed / mourn / cemetery / void / separation / loneliness / silence / spells / fantasy.

related to grief and inspired the creative concept of "Bambi Mortuary" as a symbolic place to face the reality of death through the veil of magical thinking.

Discover, visual flaneurs

Visual imaginarium: surrendering to the irrational, following our hunches

Visual flâneurs exploring an array of inspirations—from the streets of Barcelona to various media and libraries. We started with 222 images, including everything from antique ceramics to contemporary photography, laying them out to find unexpected connections.

We went back to think about the topic of illusion and crafted a couple of collages, mixing the different images we had gathered. The goal of working with a collage is to manipulate the images to create a visual message. Each visual message was related to an illusion, from which we would later create three concepts.

thinking of the importance of perception when talking about illusions, reminded us of a specific passage in the book The doors of perception, by Aldous Huxley. 

we tried to place ourselves first, and then the outside viewer, in the position of the person who’s experiencing the world through an illusion, who’s perception of the world is being altered. We were left then with three collages, each of them represented an illusion, and was the starting point for a concept. One of those three collages is “the loop of grief”, which talks about the illusion through which you see the world while you are in the process of grieving. 

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Define

Our creative concept stemmed from the illusion created by grief, as explained by Joan Didion. We selected keywords such as personal loss, pain, death, and fantasy, leading to the concept of BAMBI MORTUARY. This symbolizes a space where the innocence of 'Bambi' meets the harsh reality of a 'Mortuary.'

We looked for images to help us communicate this concept and ended up with a concept board

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Develop

We translated our concept into expressive attributes:

Tone

Enchanted, unsettling, sensual, dynamic

 

Genre

Dark fantasy, whimsical, mystery

 

Style

Expressionist and sublime

 

Time & Place

Inspired by Tadao Ando’s architectural style, with an emphasis on emptiness and an undefined time.

We sourced visuals and materials to convey this blend of colorful fantasy and cold reality, focusing on flowers representing Bambi and natural elements like rocks and moss for the mortuary.

After defining these attributes, we needed visuals to answer the question, ‘How are we going to communicate this concept?’ The immediate image that came to mind was a juxtaposition of colorful fantasy—Bambi, representing magical thinking—and a gray, sharp-edged space—mortuary, a cold place where you face the reality of death. These two components are blended by the veil of magical thinking, which would be represented in the images through the lighting decisions.

 

We searched for textures that could convey this sensation and wound up in a mix a of gray marble  and adobe plaster to give a cold and sharp environment, then we looked for inspiration in  artists

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We did an initial scouting of the space, it was provided by FlowersbyBornay.  Where we pre-selected some of the corners inside Bornay that had a similar feel to our references.

Then it was time to focus on the main material: flowers. We wanted flowers to represent Bambi, to represent a dark fantasy where you randomly found magic in the middle of the forest, to embody color and contrast.

 

Lastly, as a vessel for the enchanted Bambi, we wanted to create an organic fantasy forest, that would serve as a passage between the darkness of the mortuary and the colorfulness of Bambi, we were inspired by rocks, dried stems and green moss setups.

 

For Bambi a combination of different magic-seemly flowers, for the vessel a mix of death and alive vegetation, which led us to a couple of sketches for the installation.

And for the lightning ideas, we tried out digital options which served as a guide for the photo process. We were set to get materials, equipment and to jump into production.

Direct

We built our installation in a controlled light environment, experimenting with different lighting techniques and floral arrangements to create a dynamic and whimsical final piece. The finishing touch was a vintage Bambi toy, adding a whimsical and uncanny element that tied the project together.

After much tweaking, testing, moving around, laughing and stressing, we got our shot. 

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WHO IS IT FOR?

Inspired by projects like "Midnight Gospel," "The School of Life," and The New Yorker’s "Conception Series," this project aims to masterfully discuss complex psychological issues through relatable narratives. We envision gifting our installation to Alain de Botton, founder of The School of Life, as an invitation to explore BAMBI MORTUARY further as a creative concept and aesthetic strategy, potentially inspiring an animated series or a book on grief.