Cooks, soccer players, designers, poets eight figures who are changing the world

The truth is that, contrary to the saying, 8 is not the same as 80. There are many people who try to improve the world with their work and inspiration and others who, in addition to doing their own thing (or precisely because they have global visibility) extend the day and his efforts to help others, which is not always the next.

There is no room for 80 here, but the 8 characters that Magazine has chosen to show that the world does move cover a large part of the problems, inequalities and challenges that beset the planet and those of us who inhabit it. From feminism and the recognition of minority groups to the conservation of the planet; from racism to child hunger; from solidarity to respect and inclusivity of all bodies...

global campaigns

From feminism and the recognition of minority groups to the conservation of the planet; from racism to child hunger; from solidarity to respect and inclusivity of all bodies...

A cook (Dominique Crenn) who embroiders it in the kitchen and who claims the role of women in haute cuisine and fights to make visible the LGTBI + collective to which she belongs. And no, we're not talking about his girlfriend. A designer (Daan Roosengaarde) who seeks a balance between beauty and nature, between natural and artificial light.

A footballer (Marcus Rashford) who takes to the streets against child hunger. A couturier duo (Ester Manas) who organize shows with sensual and dazzling models (it doesn't matter if they have size 32 or 50). And a scientist who has cooked recipes from 4,000 years ago. She is a Catalan professor at Harvard. She is called Patricia Jurado González. If you want to know her (and know them), welcome to reading her.

Amanda Gorman/Writer

When poetry moves mountains and sounds like freedom

Celaya already said it, poetry is a weapon loaded with the future. It transforms personalities, it converts millions of readers, it breaks through like bad (or good) grass. Prize-winning poetry such as that of Louise Glück (Nobel 2020), that of Bob Dylan (2016). Or in the form of editorial manna with young figures such as the Canadian Rupi Kaur or the American Amanda Gorman who have taken their lyrical works to a new dimension, that of social networks and a personal and intellectual elegance that Chimamanda Ngozi introduced a few years ago. and that goes back, at least, to Oscar Wilde and his unbeatable aura.

follow the trail

Like Chimamanda Ngozi or Rupi Kaur, Amanda Gorman walks the path of powerful ideas... with great personal style

This is an era where these troubadours are as impressive as what they recite. Watching Gorman gesticulate her poem The Hill We Climb (published in Spanish by Lumen and in Catalan by Univers) at the inauguration of President Joe Biden, one might think that only the verses are important, but that is not the case: the gaze of the poet, how she is dressed and combed are also a message, a political manifesto... and part of an image contract outside the editorial. It is her voice and everything that surrounds her, from the cover of Vogue to the verses recited in the last Superbowl. Also the story of overcoming her - raised by a single mother, with a lot of effort - with a moral without a moral: girls, boys, books save, heal, elevate...

Dominique Crenn / Cook 3 stars

Activist in favor of women in the kitchen and the LGTBI + collective

Poetry, culinary astronomy, feminist vindication and solidarity with the disadvantaged. Paradigm of Californian chic, French of North African origin, born in Versailles, based in San Francisco, she is the first chef in the US to get a second and a third Michelin star. In 2021 she has been designated Icon of Gastronomy by 50Best for "her leadership, humanity, inspiration and tireless campaign against injustices inside and outside the hospitality industry".

Recognition

In 2021, Dominique Crenn has been awarded for "her leadership and her humanity in the face of injustices inside and outside the hospitality industry"

Crenn has established herself as an advocate for women in haute cuisine. “Now that we have raised our voice, the work and the pleasure really starts now,” she says. The chef who cooks ethereal, juicy and beautiful dishes (and who has given up meat on her menu), has raised her voice in favor of the LGTBI + collective, to which she belongs, and has rolled up her sleeves to collect funds in various humanitarian campaigns .

Esther Manas / couturiers

Sizes and respect for all

For decades, haute couture imposed that women's bodies adapt to the canons of beauty imposed by men. Canons that, in part, are still valid, but that are increasingly questioned by the response of a good handful of brands and designers who understand fashion as a political artifact and who are committed to naturalness, to celebrating the body as it is , beautiful in its diversity and in its cultural identity. The firm led by Ester Manas and Balthazar Delepierre seeks the sustainability of garments in an industry that is not and inclusiveness with collections that dress all women: from size 32 to 50, with flexible and sensual garments.

pattern change

Ester Manas has stomped on the catwalks in recent months endorsed by several international awards and recognitions

Ester Manas has stomped on the catwalks in recent months endorsed by a series of international awards and recognitions (semi-finals of the prestigious LVMH 2020 award, finalists of the H&M design award, Galeries Lafayette H&M award...) and previous work at Balenciaga, Paco Rabanne or the Swedish Acné Studios. Her philosophy is simple: a model, if she is elastic and intelligent enough she can dress women of very different bodies. Her parades, which always have a powerful scenographic element, have an artistic and museum point. And her models break all the pre-established ideas if there are many left to break. Her mottos: “Size does not matter” or “Dress different”.

Kehinde Wiley / Artist

When 'black models' also matter

In the era of tearing down statues of colonialist and slave-owning politicians, the painter Kehinde Wiley dedicates himself to reinterpreting them with his peculiar style that connects with Black power, and Black Lives Matter... and the art of the great masters. Velázquez's Felipe IV on horseback is transformed into that of a young man with the look of a rapper, including a cap and flowers everywhere.

In the famous Napoleon Crossing the Alps by Jacques-Louis David with the rearing horse, he becomes a painting in which the landscape is replaced by wallpaper and Napoleon's scarf takes on more feminine tones... In love with and faithful follower of the great portraitists of the history, it is not surprising that the American artist is now the protagonist of a retrospective of his work at the National Gallery in London sharing space with his colleagues Reynolds, Gainsborough, Tiziano, Ingres...

An exceptional model

The most famous person who has posed for Wiley is a certain Barack Obama, the rest are anonymous people he meets on the street

His models are always painted black men and women who appear in the same clothes in which they are found on the street, sometimes in the same pose as the protagonists of the great Golden Age painter Hans Memling, one of the first of the story that focuses on the common people beyond kings, nobles and clergy. Perhaps the most famous model Wiley has had is a certain Barack Obama, who posed for him for a commission from the Brooklyn Museum. His funniest series is in which, one by one, some of the most famous black artists like Lynette Yiadom-Boakye parade. Kerry James Marshall or the incomparable Yinka Shonibare.

Marcus Rashford / Footballer

To the attack against child hunger

In the midst of a pandemic, a young elite footballer took to the streets to alleviate another persistent virus: tens of thousands of children in the United Kingdom are at risk of starvation. Dickensian airs in 2022. Marcus Rashford, international for Manchester United, already saw many people who lived on the street on his way to training when he was little. The image of him stuck with her. Also his own experience: "For us, going to food banks was not unusual," he confessed recently.

champion

Rashford's initiative goes beyond solidarity, it exposes the inaction of the UK Conservative government

Rashford's initiative, which has had lasting effects in recent months, and which has earned him global recognition, goes beyond solidarity: it has exposed the inaction of a government that reacted late to the soccer player's demand and that after a few months of a first budget item, he forgot about it. Rashford then turned to the private sector, to continue raising funds. Queen Elizabeth II has granted him the title of Member of the British Empire because his figure has crossed the limits of the Theater of Dreams, the popular name of Old Trafford, the stadium where he plays, to go down into the mud of realities.

Patricia Jurado / Scientist

Pioneer gastronomic archeology in the world

A menu from 4,000 years ago. Who is changing the world? Famous figures who create trends and have millions of followers? Or above all anonymous people, whose work opens unsuspected paths of knowledge and research. The Catalan Patricia Jurado, gourmet and scientist, is one of them. She has a degree in Gastronomic Sciences from the Basque Culinary Center in San Sebastián, she is a researcher and professor at Harvard in the Department of Science and Cuisine, where she has specialized in the world of fermentations and breads and in culinary archeology .

We have reproduced four recipes written on Babylonian tablets. The list of ingredients is complete, the instructions are more concise”

Laugh at the foam of the great chefs whose names you are imagining right now because they have been in the kitchen for 4,000 years. She was discovered by the team she is part of at Harvard: "We have reproduced four recipes written on some Babylonian tablets that are in the Yale museum," she tells Magazine. "The list of ingredients is complete, but the preparation instructions are more concise," she adds. They are the oldest recipes in history now carefully reproduced, such as lamb stew, with explanations that speak of cultural exchanges, of dishes that would now be prohibited, of surprising ingredients. The future in the remote past. We are what we eat… and what we ate.

Daan Roosengaarde / Designer

Light at the service of a cleaner and more beautiful planet

And there was light. There are visionaries who dream of taking millionaires to the stars and there are others who remember that by turning off all the lights, both at home and on the street, you can enjoy that heavenly Sistine Chapel that is as unattainable as ours. The Dutch designer Daan Roosengarde has managed to create projects that connect with art, caring for the planet and the study of new refractive materials that create magical atmospheres such as the unforgettable cycle path that lights up at night and that reproduces the stars of the most famous night by Vincent van Gogh in his native Nuenen.

Turning off the switch is also a sign against the prices of electricity and collection, of sharing with your neighbors”

“We have managed to get a Dutch town to turn off all its lights to enjoy the sky, the shooting stars. 80% of the world's population cannot enjoy it”, explains Roosengaarde on the other side of the screen. "Turning off the switch is also a sign against electricity prices -he indicates-, and of recollection, of communing with your neighbors, this project comes with the support of UNESCO and at the right time".

Roosengaarde has succeeded in turning light into a landscape within a landscape. His projects, beyond beauty, seek to improve the health of the planet. A tower that absorbs pollution, a night sun that cleanses the covid... and even noiseless pyrotechnics. He will test it in March in Bilbao.

Eight figures that (also) change the world

Molly Goddard. Dressmaker

Pia Leon. cook

The Drift. Designers Collective

Naomi Osaka. Tennis player

External reference. Architects' collective

Elif Shafak. writer

Carmen Palacios Berraquero. Physical

Pippilotti Rist. video artist