El Silencio and the Art of Seduction

With a career spanning fashion photography, artistic direction, styling, filmmaking and illustration, Ali Mahdavi’s artistry defies neat categorisation. Known for his boundary-breaking creativity, Mahdavi traverses disciplines with dizzying fluency, underpinned by his fascination with beauty and the human form. 

Forced to flee his native Iran with his family in 1981, Mahdavi studied fine art and fashion design in Paris and London. As an artist, photographer and designer for labels including Thierry Mugler, Mahdavi gained renown for his innovative use of lighting, working across campaigns and editorials for names such as Cartier, Balmain, Vogue and i-D Magazine and photographing fashion stars such as Karl Lagerfeld, John Galliano and Jean Paul Gaultier. He later won acclaim as artistic director of the Crazy Horse Paris cabaret, directing the Désirs revue with guest stars including his muse Dita Von Teese, and in 2011 he was awarded the principal prize at the Grand Prix du Centre du Luxe for his outstanding contribution to the Arts.

Throughout, Mahdavi has gained a name for works that simmer with beauty, tension and eroticism – a talent that finds fresh form in his latest creative foray, as he curates a new avant-garde cabaret production at Ibiza’s El Silencio. Set on the rugged coastline of 

Cala Molí, this chic beach club has attracted a fervent following on the island since opening in 2021. The venue is part of Arnaud Frisch and Antoine Caton’s renowned Silencio group, known for its cutting-edge arts and nightlife curation, bringing together global creatives across its two club venues in Paris, plus pop-ups at Art Basel Miami, Venice Biennale and Cannes Film Festival. El Silencio follows suit, drawing an in-the-know crowd with breezy Balearic architecture by Moredesign, cuisine by award-winning chef Mauro Colagreco and immersive arts installations against the bay’s sunset views.

El Silencio’s new production - which opened to raptourous applause on June 30 and will run nightly throughout the summer season - marks El Silencio’s first venture into cabaret – and promises a contemporary reinvention of the concept. Fusing influences from the 19th-century French bordel Le Chabanais with the Spanish Movida, alongside Mahdavi’s vision of Ibiza as a place of sensuality and freedom, the cabaret is an erotically charged show that he describes as a ‘love affair between Ibiza and Paris’. 

Performances choreographed by Djanis Bouzyani, assisted by Alexandra Trovato, bridge cabaret dance, acrobatics, flamenco and pole-dance, bringing together a diverse group of acclaimed international performers, including Santa Catalina, Mina Serrano and Stessy Emelie, alongside Ibiza-connected artists such as Francesca Pey and Estela Cruz. Innovative video projections accompany the sensual performances, while live sets by resident DJ and producer Urumi, featuring tracks by Rosalía and FKA Twigs, add a vibrant Ibiza energy.

True to form, Mahdavi’s multidisciplinary skills play out in everything from the production’s artistic concept to its lighting and costume designs, as well as a newly redesigned interior for the club in collaboration with interior designer Jordan de Puch – which sees bright pops of near-florescent chromatics collide with a play on the erotic codes of 19th-century French bordels. The production evokes Mahdavi’s wide-ranging inspirations, from the films of Pedro Almodóvar to Helmut Newton’s iconic Rue Aubriot image, classic Hollywood film noir, and the works of director David Lynch (who also designed the interiors of Silencio’s famed original Parisian venue), the latter bringing what Mahdavi describes as a vision of ‘beauty that is never conventional, something subversive and mysterious’. Combining Mahdavi’s inimitable creative vision with El Silencio’s cutting-edge style, this new production looks set to be the island’s hottest summer ticket.