Experimental Animator Lucy Ellis Named Winner of Rabanne Arts Factory Powered by Dazed

For 58 years, art has been a driving force behind Rabanne’s mission to galvanize a more visionary, creative and inclusive future.

In 2023, the Maison continued this legacy with the creation of the Rabanne Arts Factory powered by Dazed: a worldwide search for the next generation of digital image-makers.

Visualizing New Realities

In a call for entries across the Rabanne and Dazed media platforms last year, participants were asked to submit their images with a brief to “visualize new realities.” Rabanne then announced a partnership with Art Basel, a global contemporary art fair. As part of this collaboration, at Art Basel in Basel in June 2024, the Maison’s Artistic Director Julien Dossena and cofounder of Dazed Media, Jefferson Hack, appeared in a panel discussion entitled, “The Rabanne Arts Factory: Opening Spaces for New Imagery.”

Rabanne Arts Factory’s first winner, Lucy Ellis, was selected from six finalists from three world-renowned art schools (Central Saint Martins in London, Ecole Duperré in Paris and Istituto Marangoni in Florence) as well as from Dazed Club and Community, who merge traditional and digital art practices to deploy technology as a means of storytelling.

Ellis, an experimental animator studying for a BA in fine art with creative computing, uses her work to explore the physical proximity between humans and devices. Using scrap and found materials to craft new identities and narratives, Ellis explores upon the ephemeral nature of existence while creating immersive experiences that resonated deeply with the Arts Factory judges.

Her work questions our connection to the moving image in a digital age, touching themes of image compression and quality, errors in the digital frame, obsolete technology and the contrast between technophilia and technophobia.

Art Exhibit

As the Rabanne Arts Factory winner, Ellis will showcase her work at Art Basel Miami Beach from Dec. 6-8, creating her own distinct universe in a 40-square-meter space at the public accessible Grand Ballroom in the Miami Beach Convention Center. Throughout the fair, visitors will have the opportunity to watch Ellis create art in real time as she live-edits animated works.

In addition to gaining visibility and showcasing her art on a global stage at Art Basel Miami Beach, Ellis will receive a financial reward to support her future as an artist.

“It was a pleasure to hear the thoughts and analyses of Claude, Venus and Jefferson,” said Julien Dossena, artistic director, Rabanne. “We all agreed that the original universe of Lucy Ellis, already so complete, was the right one to be the winner.”