Jean Paul Gaultier reflects his view of cinema and fashion at CaixaForum Madrid

The Deputy Director General of the "la Caixa" Foundation, Elisa Durán; the director of La Cinémathèque française, Frédéric Bonnaud; the fashion designer and artistic director of the exhibition, Jean Paul Gaultier, and the film expert at La Cinémathèque française and co-curator of the exhibition, Florence Tissot, presented the exhibition Cinema and Fashion. By Jean Paul Gaultier.

Co-organised by the "la Caixa" Foundation and La Cinémathèque française, it proposes an eclectic journey through different genres and styles, uniting cinema and fashion in a sumptuous parade with great designers and film stars. All this from the personal and subjective vision of the couturier Jean Paul Gaultier who, beyond his film obsessions and fashion fetishes, reflects on the role of both industries in society as potential engines of transformation. After its run at La Cinémathèque française in Paris, the exhibition arrives for the first time in Spain, where it can be seen at CaixaForum Madrid until 5 June, and later at CaixaForum Barcelona.

As part of its cultural programme, the "la Caixa" Foundation devotes special attention to the most characteristic artistic manifestations of the 20th century. The exhibitions dedicated to cinema are part of this line. Thus, the institution has dedicated retrospectives to great names in the world of cinema, such as Charles Chaplin, Federico Fellini and Georges Méliès, and to pioneering companies such as Pixar and Disney. Thanks to the collaboration with La Cinémathèque française, joint projects such as Art and Cinema or Vampires. The Evolution of the Myth.

Divided into five distinct areas, the signature exhibition Cinema and Fashion. By Jean Paul Gaultier reviews the presence of the world of fashion in cinema, the collaborations of great couturiers in film costumes and the creation of male and female archetypes. The enfant terrible of fashion emphasises key aspects such as female empowerment and pays attention to heterodox figures of male and female warriors, androgynes and transvestites, as well as the influence of rock, punk and queer cultures that have had such an impact on fashion in recent years.

The exhibition, dedicated to the memory of the filmmaker Tonie Marshall, brings together a heterogeneous collection of more than 100 pieces of clothing shown in nearly 80 looks, fragments of more than 90 films and 125 graphic representations (posters, sketches, stills and photographs), including originals and reproductions, mostly from the prestigious collection of La Cinémathèque française, complemented by works by more than twenty national and international lenders.

Among the nearly 80 iconic film looks are dresses worn by Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), Catherine Deneuve in The Mississippi Mermaid (1969) and in 8 Women (2002), Grace Kelly in Rear Window (1954); Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct (1992); Marilyn Monroe in Naked Eve (1950); Marlene Dietrich in The Song of Songs (1933); Penelope Cruz in La niña de tus ojos (1998); Brad Davies in Querelle (1982) or the corset worn by Madonna on her 1990 Blond Ambition World Tour (designed by Jean Paul Gaultier himself).

Also, the Superman costumes (worn by Christopher Reeve); The Mask of Zorro (1998), with Antonio Banderas; the shorts worn by Sylvester Stallone in Rocky, or the costumes worn by Victoria Abril in Kika (1993) which, along with those of other films such as Bad Education (2004) or The Fifth Element (1997), were designed by Gaultier. Also on display are haute couture designs by Coco Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Pierre Cardin, Hubert de Givenchy, Manuel Pertegaz, Balenciaga and Sybilla, among others.

The couturier's credo is to sexualise bodies, feminise male silhouettes, give prominence to powerful women. All this impregnated with Anglo-American camp culture: from The Rocky Horror Picture Show to Divine, with films such as Pink Flamingos (1972), and in tune with the emerging avant-garde and emancipation movements, defending at all times that for him there is no single type of beauty.

"In 1976, when I presented my first collection in Paris, I was considered to be an iconoclast, a departure from Parisian chic good taste. In fact, only English and Japanese journalists spoke and wrote well about my show. It is true that I did not agree with the dictum that women must at all costs be "hyper-feminine". But what does that mean exactly, to wear frilly or patterned dresses, with flowers, with little printed birds? Well, that's not my style! In London it was the other way round, I saw women in rebellious attitudes. There were also some at the Palace, in Paris, but in London, this eccentricity was everywhere: in the street, the styles were incredible, with a marked taste for difference and, moreover, always with a sense of humour," recalls Jean Paul Gaultier.

In the image of the sailor in Querelle (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1982), a homoerotic symbol, or the bohemian androgynous look of Jane Birkin, exacerbated in Je t'aime moi non plus (Serge Gainsbourg, 1976), Cinema and Fashion. Jean Gaultier describes how clothes find a magnificent resonance chamber in the cinema, a medium that has never ceased to break taboos. All this, in a great melting pot of references, a radical change of codes and the dissolution of borders.

The exhibition is divided into five areas: Falbalas, a film that marked the career of Jean Paul Gaultier; ♂ ♀, which examines male and female archetypes on the big screen; Transgressions, on the beginnings of androgyny in Hollywood; Pop and Metal, which highlights the revolutionary fashion of the 1960s, coinciding with the space age and the underground; and Parades, as the ultimate celebration of fashion, and its representation in film.

For Gaultier, the ecosystem of cinema and fashion in Spain has always been an inspiration. His close relationship dates back to his childhood, when he began to spend summer holidays with his family in the Basque Country. He has first-hand knowledge of a large part of Spain, the customs, the language and recognises that certain aspects of the traditional aesthetics of the sixties form part of his creative universe.

That is why, for this occasion, at CaixaForum Madrid, he pays tribute to Spanish cinema with new nods to figures of reference for him such as Pedro Almodóvar, Rossy de Palma, Sara Montiel, Javier Bardem and even Don Quixote, and also to designers such as Balenciaga and Paco Rabanne.

In parallel to the exhibition, CaixaForum Madrid is organising two innovative cycles on the film and fashion industries: Prêt-à... regarder!, curated by the multifaceted artist Rossy de Palma, where five feature films will be screened in which, for her, the relationship between fashion and cinema is paradigmatic and essential; and Cultura de moda, which proposes dialogues between creators, artists and experts, to reflect, debate and shed light on the relationship established between fashion and music, literature, architecture and art, curated by the fashion specialist Charo Mora, with the participation of profiles such as Palomo Spain and Sita Abellán.

In addition, the "la Caixa" Foundation completes the exhibition with the publication of a catalogue featuring an extensive interview with Jean Paul Gaultier, in which he narrates his career and his creative process, paying tribute to his references and inspirations. All this is complemented with images of films included in the exhibition and interviews with personalities such as the filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar, the photographer and film director William Klein and the actress, film director, novelist and costume designer Josiane Balasko.