Ten years after their first collaboration, French artist Malika Favre returns alongside Sri Lankan creator Kumkum Fernando to design the poster for the 61st Montreux Jazz Festival. Blending retro-futuristic aesthetics with a Flower Power spirit, this four-handed artwork celebrates music as an experience that is at once spiritual, physical, and universal.
A profusion of vibrant colours, lush floral motifs and an enigmatic figure resembling a jukebox or a sacred altar: the collaborative work by Malika Favre and Kumkum Fernando immediately catches the eye. This is only the second time in the Festival’s history – following the iconic duo of Keith Haring and Andy Warhol in 1986 – that a poster has been created by four hands.
“I fell in love with the Festival from my very first visit in 2017. The poster I designed for that edition is still one of my favourite creations today. I knew it would be hard to match, so I wanted to take the opposite approach: a work bursting with colour, as maximalist as the first one was minimalist. Kumkum was the ideal artist for the job. ”
– Malika favre
A UNIVERSAL EXPERIENCE AND A NOD TO THE SUMMER OF LOVE
Drawing inspiration from a variety of time periods – ranging from ancient South Asian traditions to retrofuturism and the hippies of the 1960s – the two artists have created a timeless, almost divine entity. The floral motifs, which evoke the quays of Montreux and the Flower Power movement, conceal within them female faces and kisses – symbols of sensuality and pleasure. This is a clear nod to the history of the Festival, which was founded during the Summer of Love in 1967 and will celebrate its sixtieth anniversary next year.
“The breakthrough came when we noticed the similarity between the shape of certain religious altars and that of a jukebox. We envisioned a gateway to a sacred universe of music, acting both as a retro-futuristic robot and a mythological being.”
– Kumkum fernando
A CUSTOM VINYL CABINET
From the very beginning, the idea was to give the poster’s central figure a three-dimensional existence, in line with Kumkum’s body of work. It thus takes the form of a custom-built vinyl cabinet, featuring a dedicated compartment for the turntable and drawers to store records.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Malika Favre is a French artist and illustrator based in Barcelona. Her striking visual language, which explores optical illusions between positive and negative spaces, has led her to collaborate with the world’s most prestigious publications such as The New Yorker and Vogue.
Kumkum Fernando is a Sri Lankan artist whose work bridges ancient mythology and imaginary futures. His colorful sculptures, inspired by South Asian heritage, inhabit a world where the sacred and the fantastic coexist.
A TRADITION OF CARTE BLANCHE SINCE 1967
Since 1967, the Festival has given Swiss and international artists carte blanche to design its official poster. In 1982, Jean Tinguely left his indelible mark, which has become the festival’s instantly recognisable logo. Keith Haring created three versions in 1983, then teamed up with Andy Warhol in 1986. David Bowie took part in 1995, as did, more recently, Yoann Lemoine (Woodkid), Christian Marclay, Lakwena and Kévin Germanier.
