To celebrate the evolution of their ’Diana’ bag, the global luxury brand Gucci collaborated with talented Congolese artist Cinthia Mulanga.
The digital project seeks to encourage creativity and self-expression by inviting artists to create their own interpretations of a new range of Gucci bags. Cinthia Mulanga’s paintings are featured in the campaign for the Diana tote bag designed by Alessandro Michele. The work features two Black women, one seen holding the reimagined Diana tote bag, beloved for its bamboo handle, which was first presented in 1991.
See Cynthia’s work for the collaboration below:
Vivid colours and domestic settings characterize Cinthia’s mixed-media pieces. She focuses on her lived experience by interrogating the constructs of beauty for African women and the manifestation of this construct psychologically and physically. Historically, art has perhaps been created for and viewed through a Western gaze; one of the aspects that makes Cinthia’s work special is that it is relatable and women, especially young Black women can look at her work, and the settings depicted in her work and see parts of themselves. It is thus no surprise that a global brand like Gucci tapped into Cinthia’s magic for a digital interpretation of Alessandro Michele’s design.
Cinthia has exhibited work in Paris and London and at this year’s Investec Cape Town Art Fair with Batho Projects. She also worked on a range of silk scarves with other African artists, ’Made the life raft’ for L’MAD Collection in partnership with the Latitudes online art platform.
