«IT'S CALLED GOSSIP AND OF COURSE IT'S AN OBSESSION OF MINE»

Andy Warhol and Max Bill, Jean Tinguely and Shigeo Fukuda, Keith Haring and Bernhard Luginbühl: each has taken a turn a sharing his inspiration and artistic talents to create an official poster for the Montreux Jazz Festival. These iconic posters, crafted by some of the kings of the contemporary art world, are unique objects that embody a certain idea of prestige.
By now, it seems fairly obvious that the musical Rendez-vous of the Riviera attaches such great importance to this modest-sized square of paper. Isn’t the poster the first object of seduction that professionals use to start wooing the public as early as possible? Isn’t it an essential communication strategy tool for any self-respecting festival? Still, Montreux’s ambitions on this front are unsurpassed. The festival invests in graphics and reaps the benefits: not only do posters and T-shirt sales generate huge revenues, the object canm also take on cult status and end up in the hands of collectors. The body of artwork has now inspired a book, Esthètes d’affiches (Poster Esthete), by the musician, journalist and literature professor Jean-Jacques Tordjman.

-www.worldcrunch