photo: Cassie Hunter
Today, we discover Nelly Zagury, who we have been following for a long time and who is an artist full of talent. She has just published a book, full of sweetness and femininity, Songs of My Fantasy.
So, Nelly, who are you?
My job can take many forms but the vocation is always the same: to bring fantasies and dreams to life. I have designed costumes for films and operas, worked on set design for luxury brands, co-founded the jewelry brand Holy Faya, directed music videos and assisted contemporary artists in the creation of their work.
Tell us about your latest book?
"Songs Of My Fantasy" is a small book in French and English that I wrote and illustrated. It consists of erotic tales written as poems, and accompanied by paintings that I made in the same spirit. I have always wanted to create an opera, and writing this collection is the first step of the work.
I want to offer a sensual and uncomplicated feminism, an erotic space, free and imagined by a woman, out of any constraints or language. Eroticism is for me a way to celebrate creation and the magic of life. To re-appropriate this subject is a therapeutic experience. Sexuality and its staging are still dominated by men. The prohibitions obscure what, for me, is simply the beauty of the imagination.
To tackle this subject is to speak of desire and frustration in a world where women are still heir to the evils of guilt, for the luckiest of us. These tales are a mixture of my dreams, real life stories and pure fantasy. I had a lot of fun writing them.
Translating the poems was extremely rewarding. Going from French to English, or the other way around, with the constraint of rhyming words, allowed me to understand how much language is a cultural weapon. Some ideas, sensations or images are not translatable. I had to think differently, to really write twice.
photo: Cassie Hunter
What are your sources of inspiration?
In the last few months, I've been watching a lot of Stéphane Bern's "Secrets of History" on Youtube. I love it. These portraits of "historical" women are fabulous.
I listened to all the episodes of France Culture that invited the extraordinary Malek Chebel. He was an Algerian scholar, an anthropologist of religions, and a perfect connoisseur of Arab eroticism and the "Islam of lights".
I immersed myself in Homer's Odyssey and admired the Christine & The Queens show directed by LaHorde. I visited the Getty Villa and the beautiful "Underworld" exhibit on life after death.
It's very important to me to dance (whether it's taking hip hop classes or just partying) and have a "social life". My friends are my primary inspirations and they are the ones I debate with.
I also have a pantheon of imaginary artist "mentors" that I consult in my head when I am in doubt. I look at their work or their background, and it reactivates the sacred fire or just the desire to continue - Jean Cocteau, Missy Elliott, Tomi Ungerer, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Jean-Paul Goude, Beyonce, William Blake, among others.
Tell us about your hair, where do your beautiful curls come from?
I don't really know if my hair comes from my mother or my father. My brother and sister also inherited it, so it's a big embarrassment! My mother has curly hair. She is French with Greek origins. But it could also come from my father who comes from Morocco. My family name "Zagury" originally refers to a tribe of Berber Jews from the desert of Zagora.
It's funny, my grandmother is also a native of Zagora!
Wow! We must have common ancestors then...
We have 3 classic questions:
Your #hairtop:
Leave in a touch of conditioner, without rinsing, to nourish and protect the curls.
Your #hairflop:
What's the point of blow-drying? The last one I did, I looked like a pony.
Your #hairtips:
The diffuser, head down, for gentle drying and maximum volume.
When you meet a girl with curly hair, you instantly understand each other. There's always a knowing glance. We know how hard it was not to embody the classic beauty and to have to tame our hair mass! It takes courage to wear our crown! Long live the curls!
