BIRKENSTOCK, OPENING CEREMONY CELEBRATE THE WORKS OF RENÉ MAGRITTE

Birkenstock has teamed up with Opening Ceremony to celebrate artist René Magritte with the launch of a limited-edition capsule featuring iconic Surrealist works by the Belgian master.

In two highly detailed reproductions, Magritte’s oil paintings are featured on the classic Birkenstock Boston clog silhouettes: L’Empire des Lumières [The Empire of Lights] (1954) and Le Faux Miroir [The False Mirror] (1929).

Referencing his famous L’Empire des Lumières, Magritte once said, “[A]n idea cannot be seen with the eyes. What is represented in a picture is what is visible to the eyes, it is the thing or things that must have been ideated. Thus, what are represented in the picture ‘The Empire of Light’ are the things I ideated, i.e. a nighttime landscape and a sky such as we see during the day. The landscape evokes night and the sky evokes day. I call this power: poetry.”

In one of Magritte’s renditions of Le Faux Miroir, a single large eye stares out from an iris painted as a bright cloud-filled sky. Or, is it that the viewer is looking at the eye? Eyes have long been a favorite subject among Surrealists, as a portal between the inner/subjective and outer/objective worlds.

Carol Lim and Humberto Leon of Opening Ceremony noted, “We founded Opening Ceremony with the goal of celebrating creativity in all forms. Partnering again with the Magritte Foundation to rework the Birkenstock Boston clogs is a testament to our commitment of supporting the arts. As long-time admirers of René Magritte’s surrealist works, we couldn’t be more excited about reinterpreting L’Empire des Lumières and Le Faux Miroir for Birkenstock.”

The limited-edition Birkenstock Boston with Opening Ceremony and René Magritte retails for $180 and is exclusively available only in the U.S. for men and women.