AMSTERDAM - 15 February, 2024 - Today WeTransfer announces The Day I Met Björk, an exhibition and a free, downloadable zine of unseen photographs of Björk by Spike Jonze, curated by Humberto Leon.

To bring the images to fans around the world, a limited edition commemorative zine featuring never-before-seen contact sheets and a conversation between Jonze and Leon is available to download now globally for free at https://spike-jonze-bjork-zine.wetransfer.com. Limited physical copies are available at the exhibition.

The exhibition, opening February 15 at Leon’s Los Angeles restaurant and gallery space Arroz & Fun, unveils over 25 previously unseen images taken in summer 1995 at the Chateau Marmont in the days prior to shooting the seminal music video “It’s Oh So Quiet.”

Of the thousands of photos taken that day, only six were published, becoming classics in the Björk canon. Leon discovered the outtakes, which have long been treasured by Björk fans, while helping Spike organize his archive.

Humberto Leon said: “When I came across these photos at Spike’s I knew, as a longtime fan of both he and Björk, that they were special and needed to be seen. I remember being a college kid and seeing the originals in Detour, they were instantly iconic to me. It’s an honor to help bring these photos out from the archive for fans everywhere to see for the first time.”

Holly Fraser, VP, Content at WeTransfer said: “What has always excited us the most at WeTransfer is how our platform can enable artists to share their ideas with the world and have them seen and enjoyed by millions of people. The meeting of Spike Jonze and Björk almost 30 years ago resulted in now iconic photography and one of the most referential music videos of the 90s. The fact that we now get to revisit that meeting and share never-before-seen images with people around the world is so exciting. Working with curator Humberto Leon on this project has been a joy and we hope that the photography in this zine will inspire a whole new generation in the same way that it did for many of us the first time around."

WeTransfer’s support of The Day I Met Björk is testament to their dedication to nurturing the arts and fostering a sense of community among creators, using their platform as a dynamic creative hub where creators can distribute content to their fans. The platform has allocated 30% of its advertising inventory to support creatives and donates 1% of its revenue to emerging artists through The Supporting Act Foundation.

WePresent, the arts platform of WeTransfer, has collaborated with artists including Marina Abramović, Solange Knowles, Russell Tovey, FKA twigs and David Sedaris, bringing their most ambitious creative ideas to life. The platform commissions original projects ranging from exhibitions to films, illustrations, photography series, and industry events. One of these commissions, the acclaimed short film “The Long Goodbye” by actor and musician Riz Ahmed and director Aneil Karia, won an Oscar in 2022 for Best Live Action Short Film.

Download images via WeTransfer HERE

About WeTransfer

WeTransfer, the most creative platform for sharing ideas, makes it easy for creative professionals and creators to share and distribute content, and collaborate with teams. With an average of 80 million monthly active users in 190 countries, WeTransfer is a certified B Corporation™ and a long-time champion of using business as a force for good. Since its founding in 2009, the company has donated up to 30% of its advertising real estate to raise awareness for artists, creative work, and the world’s most pressing issues. In 2021, it launched the Supporting Act Foundation to support emerging artists through bursaries and grants.

About Humberto Leon

Humberto Leon is the co-founder of Opening Ceremony, a cult fashion brand that launched in 2002, first as a retail destination in New York, Los Angeles, and Tokyo, and then as an eponymous label of women’s and men’s ready-to-wear, footwear, accessories. From 2011 to 2019, Leon served as the co-creative director of the French fashion house KENZO. As the campaign for the release of his Fall/Winter 2018 collection at KENZO, Leon wrote and directed his first film, The Everything, starring Milla Jovovich, Alexandra Shipps, Kodi Smit McFee, and Regina Hall. In 2020, Leon opened his first restaurant in Eagle Rock, California. CHIFA has received the prestigious Bib Gourmand Award by the MICHELIN Guide and earned a coveted spot on Condé Nast’s “The Best New Restaurants in the World” and the Los Angeles Times “101 Best Restaurants” lists for 2021. In 2022, Leon debuted his first music video, Growing Up by the Linda Linda’s, a collaboration with Opening Ceremony, Warby Parker and Apple Music to critical acclaim. Leon designed opened his second and third restaurants in 2023, Monarch in Arcadia, California and Arroz & Fun in Lincoln Heights, California. The restaurants have been featured in numerous publications including the Los Angeles Times, Eater, Bon Appetit. Leon is the creative director to the girl group competition Dream Academy and the winning group KATSEYE, a partnership between Hype and Universal Music Group.