Item Idem
Cyril Duval (born December 31, 1977), who works under the name Item Idem, is a French conceptual artist, designer, and filmmaker. He lives and works in Taipei, Taiwan. Biography Duval was born in Paris, France, in 1977. His mother worked for the luxury goods manufacturer Hermès, while his father was an interior decorator. Duval studied for six years at the École nationale supérieure d'arts de Paris-Cergy, before moving to Tokyo in 2004. Career Duval's work encompasses conceptual art, film, sculpture, product design, and visual communication. His alter ego Item Idem (Latin for "the same"), operates as a brand for the artist, whose work often builds on top of existing fashion and retail brands. The New York Times reviewed one of Duval's performances as "Celine Dion at the Oscars channeling René Magritte," while the writer John Stones has described the artist's persona as "Austin Powers pretending to be Philippe Starck, art directed by Marcel Duchamp and scripted by Oscar Wilde." Retail design and installations In 2004, Duval was discovered by Sarah Andelman, the creative director of Colette. The Paris-based boutique teamed Duval up with the Japanese fashion label Comme des Garçons in Tokyo. His work began to incorporate interior design and conceptual installations. In 2004, Duval collaborated with other artists on a relational aesthetics-inspired, multidisciplinary space called Caniche Courage, and later transformed his three-story Shibuya residence into a living exhibition. Duval initiated a series of staged retail and working environments, beginning with The Wrong Store (2006) in Paris, a collaboration with Tobi Wong conceived as an ersatz gift-shop counterpart to Maurizio Cattelan's Wrong Gallery. Back in Tokyo, he transformed the window display of a fashion boutique into a temporary work space titled The Wrong Office, which he followed up with The Wrong Motel. Duval collaborated with Bernhard Willhelm on the German fashion designer's flagship store at the PARCO department store in Shibuya, Tokyo. The shop's re-use of cardboard, plastic, and rope materials was inspired by the resourcefulness of Japan's homeless communities. The store won the Best Shop Concept for FRAME magazine's 2007 Great Indoors Award. In 2009, Duval participated in the Cycles and Seasons fashion and art event in Moscow. In 2011, Duval was the first artist-in-residence at BLESS HOME, an apartment-cum-shop in Berlin, which became his temporary studio while serving as the art director for Bruce LaBruce's production of Pierrot Lunaire. In 2015, he built an installation as an interior for Airbnb's Art House for Art Basel Hong Kong. Duval has worked with a number of art publications, including as the Fashion Director for Tokion (2005), Fashion Features Director for Modern Weekly China (2013), Special Projects coordinator for Flash Art (2006), and as a collaborator with 032c, T: The New York Times Style Magazine, and LEAP Magazine. He has also worked on large-scale commercial projects for CELINE and Ford. Exhibitions and collaborations In 2007, Duval reconfigured CELINE's Tokyo store to host his exhibition Displaysthetics during DesignTide Tokyo. In 2008, he participated in Fredric Snitzer Gallery's show in Miami, Death by