Filmmaker Asa Mader Casts the Supermodel in his Experimental 3D
Installation Ray of Life
Having appeared as the face of Chloe, Versace and Kenzo, Estonian supermodel
Carmen Kass floats ethereally through a dark void in director Asa Mader’s
atmospheric new film, Ray of Life. Known for his multi-dimensional fashion and
cinematic narratives, including collaborations with Mikhail Baryshnikov,
Lou Doillon and Lea Seydoux, Mader made the short as an exploration of one
woman’s search for the source of light. “There’s a theory that the entire
universe is nothing but a holographic projection from a black hole, and in which
we find eternity,” says the Paris-based filmmaker. A fascination with Professor
Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time and theories of black holes led Mader,
a self-professed science geek in a family of painters, to collaborate with luxury
fashion label Jay Ahr’s Artistic Director Jonathan Riss and FashionLab, an
experimental design center for 3D technologies, on Kass’s moody search for
illumination. “The film is essentially about immortalizing all the things we
cannot reach—of looking and wanting to find a forever,” explains Mader.
Ray of Life is currently showing as panoramic 35-meter holographic projections
in the Piazza Strozzi in Florence during the sartorial summits Firenze4Ever
and Pitti Immagine Uomo.