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High Summer 2024 Interview
Staging “The Performance” with Rita Lino
Images: Rita Lino
Words: Meghan Costelloe
Date: 23.05.2024
“The Performance” is Aeyde’s HS24 film illustrating the ways in which footwear and accessories seamlessly attune to the body, but also, how the body is a powerful mechanism and medium of expression. In this collaboration, we partnered with photographer and interdisciplinary artist Rita Lino, whose legion body of work and artistic sensibilities so closely align with Aeyde’s HS24 concept that the collaboration felt preordained. While dancer Yvonne Wadewitz plays the protagonist in Aeyde’s seasonal film, in this conversation, we turn the lens to the artist behind the camera. In this interview, Lino reflects on her enriching collaboration with Wadewitz, how the idea of sensuality is a misnomer for Lino’s personal work, and how she is releasing herself from artistic obsessions.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

“The moment you start talking about movements and body and what you can do, it's fine—you can speak. It's universal. We find a connection.”
I showed her references that have to be shown in person, and she got it immediately. I started telling her some poses that would be great to start, some in the middle and some in the end. She improvised and sent me WhatsApp messages and videos, and I would say, “Go more for here, go more for there.” On the day of the shoot, she was just so prepared. So, we didn’t rehearse the choreography before but we exchanged a lot of moments. For a typical photoshoot, I would not spend ten days preparing the shoot, but it was a preparation that required more than me coming as a photographer.

MC: In “The Performance” choreographed by Yvonne, there’s something quite primal about how she moves her body.

RL: That’s how she connected what we wanted to do, sensually. But for me, that was the hardest thing–and the most important thing, too. Sometimes, I think people see my work, and most of my work is still images, right? And there is a certain sensuality in it. But actually, I’m not that sensual in a traditional sense. It’s a different kind of sensuality and sometimes I am misunderstood because of that. A quite primal movement that comes, for me, is sexy. For me, it’s strong. It was very important that it was not an organic kind of fluid dance. It needed to be more mechanical, machine-like, and powerful. Those were the words I used because they apply to my personal work, too.

MC: Did you find any parallels between your practice as an interdisciplinary artist and hers as a dancer?

RL: Her interest is the body and what you can do with it. I don’t know her personal taste when it comes to dance–just that she was excited–and that our common interest was [the body].

MC: Her body is her medium, essentially.

RL: Completely.

MC: What’s your take on performance artists and dancers using their bodies as mediums?

RL: All my self-portraits lately, in the last five years, I shoot a lot of my body, and I don’t really shoot my face. Your face is your identity–it’s who you are. And then the body is just the machine. There’s a sentence I repeat to myself: I use my body, my own body, as a tool. My body just cannot do what Yvonne’s can do. She does the same, but that’s, I think, our main commonality. So, we understood each other very well.

“In the last five years, I shoot a lot of my body, and I don’t really shoot my face. Your face is your identity–it’s who you are. And then the body is just the machine.”

MC: What role, if any, does fashion, styling, clothing, and costuming play in your work?

RL: It’s very important. Any prop you put in front of the camera is so important, and that’s why I [in my previous work] always decided to photograph naked. There’s a certain honesty… No–it’s very honest. And sometimes, when you cannot get the right styling or the right shoe, I’d rather not have anything. Since the day we met, there was one thing I wanted to ask her. I left that to ask her in the end because I didn’t know her. I asked her, “Would you be okay to be naked?” And on the shoot, she made everyone comfortable asking her things to do because we could feel that she was strong enough to say, “No, I don’t want to do it,” or “Yes, let’s do it.” It was a really good exchange. She trusts me, and I trust her.

MC: You’ve acknowledged the body as a subject you consistently explore in your work. Is it your defining artistic obsession?

RL: It was… I’m pausing now. It was an obsession. I can feel the need to turn or do a little sneak peek in other departments. But it was, and it’s always going to be with me. I don’t know if it’s my only obsession, but it is an obsession. 

Watch “The Performance” on Aeyde Film.

Discover the HS24 Kollektion here.

Watch on Aeyde Film:

”The Performance”
A film by Rita Lino
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