Vanessa Beecroft: VB53

"VB 53" provides documentation of Vanessa Beecroft's most recent performance at Pitti Immagine Uomo 66 in Florence's Horticultural Garden. 21 models of varying appearance and race were planted in a mass of earth in the tepidarium. All were nude except for a single accessory: Helmut Lang shoes that wrapped around their ankles, separating their bare legs from the bare, rough earth. According to Beecroft, "The sole is reference to land art. Very dark and humid, like the rich foam of cultivated fields... The performance juxtaposes the purity of the female body, their nudity, with the dirty color of the soil and its material. Some models look like lillies, others like potatoes. Lilies and potatoes can also grow in filth." The 50 images in this book illuminate Beecroft's signature issues: the body, beauty and identity.