For the upcoming exhibition of Iris van Herpen at the Brooklyn Museum, Four Bent Corners partnered with director Diana Markosian to create a film celebrating one of fashion’s most visionary voices.
A pioneer in the use of emerging technologies, Iris van Herpen continuously pushes beyond conventional ideas of clothing, merging traditional couture craftsmanship with innovation and experimentation. Her work exists between worlds: art and science, nature and technology, movement and form.
Produced across two weeks leading up to the shoot, our process centered around two locations deeply connected to Iris’s creative practice.
The first brought us to the sand dunes of North Holland, landscapes whose shifting forms and fluid movement echo the organic structures found throughout her designs. The second led us into the contemplative spaces of Embassy of the Free Mind, an institution dedicated to questioning, discovery, and opening pathways to ancient and contemporary wisdom.
The contrast between these environments became a visual conversation. One shaped by movement and natural force, the other by stillness and reflection.
As a former ballet dancer, Diana’s perspective often begins with movement before image. Her work treats the body not as something fixed, but as an emotional instrument, where gesture, rhythm, and physical presence carry narrative weight. That sensitivity informed the film’s approach, allowing choreography and environment to become storytelling devices rather than simply subjects within a frame.
The visual language was captured by cinematographer Zoë Que on the Alexa 35 Extreme, while choreography by Fanny Sage guided performers Alanna Archibald and Matchima Josephine Flos through a series of movements that responded to both space and garment.
Together, the team created a film that moves between fashion, performance, and portraiture. A celebration not only of Iris van Herpen’s historic exhibition, but of the ideas, environments, and collaborators that continue to shape her world.