History has long been defined by duels. Perhaps more a matter of narrative convenience than objective truth, the world’s most pivotal cultural and historical moments are routinely framed as a face-off between two sides. Our appetite for such neat oppositions is ubiquitous: we gamble on them, tell our stories by them, live our lives trying to be ‘one thing’ and not ‘another’.
We formulate underdogs and favorites, winners and losers, more binaries than you can shake a stick at.Duels comprise much of the art and entertainment we consume; they underpin systems of order and morality: from the perennial, popularized juxtaposition of good versus bad, to the artist’s fixation on the destructively creative spirit, we are fed such diametrics from day dot.One side versus another, lobbing arrows, cavalry, or venomous TikToks in either direction. Male versus female, Jekyll versus Hyde, left versus right: see what I mean?On the occasion of the release of the new B.zero1 collection, Bvlgari, in collaboration with Highsnobiety, explores dualities of its own.
Aptly sharing a name with the digital age’s most elemental binary, the B.zero1 brings together in a single ring jewelry’s two traditionally opposing shades: silver and gold. Long considered a faux pas—at times even a bad omen—to be worn together, the two or four bands of the B.zero1 ring, with its steel core flanked by gold, form a luxurious visual argument for unexpected combination.As a celebration of the collection, musical prodigies Kaytranada and La Niña—two artists with vastly different approaches to their practice—are brought together to craft a piece inspired by the B.zero1 ring.