On the occasion of Paris Photo, Nike, Gaze Magazine, and Kourtrajmeuf celebrate the new generation of creative and ambitious women. Forward: the Shox Z.
Behind the curtains of the venue, the first images appear: suspended portraits, moving screens, plays of light. Here, the Shox Z is everywhere. More than a product, the pair becomes the backbone of a narrative that is part of an initiative led by the sportswear brand. Bringing together 21 emerging creators: 10 guided by Gaze Magazine, 11 by Kourtrajmeuf, they have come to shape their own vision of ambition, giving the Nike Shox Z a central role. That of a common thread that connects the female voices gathered for the occasion.
Heir to the boldness of the 2000s, the silhouette is back in a refined version. A symbol of innovation, futurism, and energy. Its unique, almost provocative lines translate a new urban form and reflect the multiple feminine identities. Today, the Shox does not seek to please, but proudly claims its difference.
From the first steps, the twenty-one artists occupy the space. Some with raw images, others through video. An ecosystem where each piece dialogues with the others, as if to recompose a sensitive map of feminine ambition. Clarence Edgard-Rosa, founder of Gaze Magazine, summarizes a feeling: “When you are a young artist, you are rather alone in your artistic direction.” The exhibition is precisely positioned against this solitude: it creates a common space where approaches intersect, influence each other, and illuminate.
When the Shox Z becomes a language
Among these voices, that of Kim-My occupies a unique place. A self-taught photographer, she has shaped her gaze in the night. A territory where movement and abstraction become tools to question the narratives we inherit, those we deconstruct. Her project, titled “Leap of Faith”, sketches a sisterly world: three pillars of her own reality. For her, ambition has nothing individual, Kim-My articulates it as a collective, almost organic principle: “For me, ambition is necessarily collective. If you think you can do things alone, that’s not true.” The Shox Z becomes a symbol of shared energy, a spring that never propels a body alone, but with a trajectory supported by others. Her work makes it an extension of this idea, that of a movement in multiples.
The interpretation proposed by Louise Sauvard is part of another tradition. Her photography, which blurs documentary and fiction, focuses on the teenage girl’s room: a domestic and enclosed space where ambition is crafted. Inspired by the visual grammar of Ambush and Nike, she questions what constitutes the norm, and above all, what must be transgressed to escape it. For her too, the Shox Z plays a narrative role.
Around them, the other creators extend the exploration. Textures, silhouettes, filmed fragments. Each work revisits the pair through the unique vision of the creators, a sensation, an idea, a movement. The spring columns of the Shox Z, its stripped lines, its architectural structure become motifs of interpretation that each appropriates.
A space where ambition is embodied
In the second room, the short films follow one another. Lighting, pulsed, bodies in suspension, repeated gestures: so many micro-narratives supported by Kourtrajmeuf that reaffirm the central place of the Shox Z in contemporary creation. Not as a simple design object, but as what Nike seeks to make of it: a catalyst. An element capable of carrying personal narratives while remaining rooted in sports and street culture. At the heart of this room, that of Emma Lazli Bert. A multidisciplinary artist, she mixes video, installation, and writing to explore the relationship between transmission, reality, and hybridity.
"I wanted to create a tale. Perhaps with a bit of luck, this subterfuge will take you along. I chose to film my friend Badboo who, through her vocation, embodies what ambition is. She is an artist, a friend, and a complex being who grew up surrounded by lyrical stories, of women, who like me, leave her restless and give her the desire to make the world something of her own."
Emma Lazli Bert
Multidisciplinary artist
The whole composes a dense, structured exhibition that goes beyond the simple highlighting of a product. By entrusting the Shox Z to these creators, Nike is not just signing an exhibition, but opening a conversation. A conversation about the future of design, about the space left for female voices, about what a pair can become when it transcends the status of an object.
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