BillyBoy* & Lala (Switzerland)

Born in the 1960s, Austrian artist BillyBoy* was an adopted child and grew up between the United States and Europe. He went to the Montessori School in New York where he could express his instinctive creative sense: he became independent at the early age of 16. His first move was to open an alternative art gallery named Pizzaz Gallery in New York where he showed his own paintings and collages as well as other unknown artists works. Later he opened a decoration and art gallery on the West Coast, (in the famous art community of Newport, Oregon) promoting designs from the 1950s and 1960s as well as vintage clothes named Fly By Nite. At that time he had a modernist house filled with 50s designer furniture, a 1950 Cadillac and a modernistic painting studio. Since a very early age he had had a passion for fashion dolls, notably the Barbie doll, although he collected many others, all of which he collected thoroughly and with a feverish passion. He initiated the first US Barbie adult collector’s club. He also actively collected vintage fashions notably French haute couture garments and accessories with a predilection for Elsa Schiaparelli who he considers as his muse.

As a performance artist in these years he invented the character of Mister Modern, a post-modern dandy double who lives amongst 1950s artifacts and his own artworks. Mr Modern is the subject of various storyboards, photographs, super 8 short movies, early video (which was quite brand new at the time) and happenings, such as his "Science Fair of Art". Eclectic, BillyBoy* was also a modelIn the mid 1970s, BillyBoy* opened his own alternative couture house in his Art Deco filled apartment on Park Avenue named Surreal Couture.

In 1979, BillyBoy* took the decision to leave New York and moved to Paris.

BillyBoy* met Jean Pierre Lestrade, a.k.a Lala, at the time leader of the camp New Wave band Lala et les Emotions in which he is the singer and songwriter. BillyBoy* asked Lala to help him find an apartment in Paris and they moved in together in October of 1983. They instantly started working on projects, notably creating jewellery in the kitchen of their apartment.

His 1983 encounter with BillyBoy* marked the beginning of a wide-ranging collaboration. It included the production of exhibitions on Barbie and Schiaparelli, the joint creation of Surreal Bijoux (Jean-Pierre Lestrade directed the company throughout its entire existence and worked on every jewel ever produced), the translation into French of BillyBoy*s books (Barbie, Her Life and Times, and his encyclopaedia on Bleuette), as well as numerous articles, notably for VOGUE and ELLE, Quebec.

The invention of Mdvanii in 1987 is the start of an intense creative process which would result in a multi-faceted artistic collaboration with BillyBoy* from the year 1989 onwards.

Since 1997, Jean-Pierre Lestrade has been living with BillyBoy* in Switzerland, where they pursue their artistic career and endeavours. JPL also directs the Fondation Tanagra, manages its internet site and continues to develop the project for a future museum.

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