Modem Map Paris June 2025
Cover by Francesco Colucci
Modem is proud to present Lucano-born, London-based visual artist Francesco Colucci, whose striking visual manifesto, “SOCIAL MEDIA” (2025, London), graces the cover of the Modem Map Paris. Known for his boundary-pushing fusion of sculpture, costume, and fashion, Colucci dismantles the ideals of digital perfection with a grotesque yet mesmerizing post-human figure - constructed from hyper-real prosthetics, silicone muscles, and multiplied facial features.
His work confronts the fractured aesthetics of contemporary image culture, where hyper-femininity, algorithmic influence, and visual distortion collide. The piece channels a hybrid body that is both seductive and disturbing, a synthetic icon shaped by the expectations and excesses of the social media age.
“My work explores the absurd beauty we’ve created and consumed online - how we’re constantly reshaping ourselves to match unattainable digital ideals,” Colucci explains. “This figure is not just a critique; it’s also a mirror.”
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Rooted in a background of performance, textile experimentation, and radical material reuse, Colucci’s practice navigates the intersections of identity, fashion, and transformation. His visceral approach has earned comparisons to Leigh Bowery, Alexander McQueen, and Martin Margiela - yet his language remains entirely his own: raw, poetic, and provocatively unfiltered.
Colucci’s work has been featured in Vogue, M Le Monde, and Harper’s Bazaar, and he has created installations for institutions including the V&A Museum, where he was named Designer of the Year in 2024 for their Fashion in Motion series. His celebrated collaboration with TRAID in London - transforming discarded garments into sculptural statements on waste and desire - continues to inform his vision of fashion as a vehicle for storytelling and resistance.
Now, as the fashion world converges in Paris for the Spring/Summer 2026 menswear season, Francesco Colucci’s arresting cover for Modem sets the tone: an invitation to question, to reimagine, and to confront the shifting codes of beauty in our digital age.
In celebration of Francesco’s selection for the June Modem Map cover, we had the pleasure of speaking with him.
Interview with Francesco Colucci
Modem: Your cover work, “SOCIAL MEDIA”, presents a hybrid figure that is both uncanny and beautiful. What was the starting point for this piece?
Francesco Colucci: It began with a question: What does beauty look like when it’s no longer human? I wanted to explore how social media has warped our physical expectations - how we construct faces and bodies through filters, surgery, and performance until they become entirely synthetic. The figure on the cover is an exaggeration, but also a reflection. It’s not fantasy - it’s what we already are, in fragments.
Modem: There’s a very sculptural, tactile element to your work, even when it’s addressing virtual culture. Why is materiality so important to you?
Francesco Colucci: Because everything starts from the body. No matter how virtual our lives become, we still live in skin, in flesh, in objects. I use silicone, fabric scraps, prosthetics - materials that feel visceral and imperfect - to remind us of that physicality. It’s also about transformation. These materials have a past, a story, and I reshape them to tell a new one.
Modem: Your work often crosses boundaries - between art and fashion, costume and sculpture. How do you navigate those intersections?
Francesco Colucci: I don’t believe in fixed categories. For me, a garment can be a sculpture, a performance can be fashion. I trained in fine arts in Rome, but I’ve always been drawn to the theatrical, the performative. Fashion is just one of the languages I use - it’s immediate, it speaks to identity, and it can be incredibly subversive when you treat it as art.
Modem: Much of your practice deals with identity - constructed, fluid, and sometimes fractured. What draws you to that theme?
Francesco Colucci: Identity is the most powerful and unstable material we have. It’s shaped by memory, culture, trauma, desire - and now, by algorithms. In my work, I’m trying to make visible what often goes unseen: the pressure to conform, the violence of beauty standards, the masks we wear. But also the freedom to reinvent ourselves, to reclaim our bodies and stories.
Modem: Finally, what does it mean to you to have your work featured on the Modem Map during Paris Fashion Week?
Francesco Colucci: Modem has always celebrated artists who challenge the status quo. Being part of that conversation during such a pivotal moment in fashion - when ideas around gender, beauty, and digital identity are all being questioned - feels very aligned with my work. I hope the piece provokes people, makes them stop, and maybe even see themselves differently.
For inquiries, reach out via email or follow his journey on Instagram @francesco_colucci_visualartist and @francesco_colucci_wanda.
www.francescocolucci.com
Modem Map Cover - Photographed sculpture by Francesco Colucci in London, UK in 2025.
