8. Dear New York by Luis Úrculo

The wizard of object artistry Luis Urculo is back, this time with a film titled Dear New York for Zara. This latest effort is a homage to the structures of New York City in celebration of Zara’s new flagship store on Fifth Avenue.

Here, Urculo uses an array of unassuming objects to bring to life the buzzing cityscape of the Big Apple in all its forms and industrial fabrication—with buildings borne out of cardboard box toting human robots, an assortment of vintage glassware, or individual stacks of books, blankets and crates topped with a birdcage, iron or brush respectively. There’s also rulers and measuring tape to reflect Manhattan’s eponymous grid system of streets, text and notebooks evoking the linear patterns of buildings and even a trusty arm becomes an artistic canvas, tattooed with the East River bridge.

These carefully curated object assortments are set against blank backdrops, often using light, shadows and small movements to subtly animate them with aspects of daily city life—such as the shadows that move across the ladder arrangement to resemble a bridge or the crane dropping books—hinting at the ongoing transformation, production and energy all too associated with the city that never sleeps.

Zara are known for their collaborations with cult creatives like Todd Selby, so it’s no surprise they’ve cottoned onto Urculo’s distinct talent in their latest initiative as part of their ongoing commitment to fuse fashion with the very best in art and design.