Esther Perbandt is a free spirit, an artist, one of the most influential avant-garde designers in our country and has been on a digital journey since the finale of the Heid Klum show “Making The Cut”. Somehow logical that the Berlin-based Esther Perbandt turned the red carpet into a fashion catwalk at the US premiere of “The Matrix Resurrections” of all things.

San Francisco – Blockbuster with a star-studded cast: Six days before Christmas, fans received an early present, as the fourth part of the legendary MATRIX series celebrated its premiere at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco.

Besides the big stars of the blockbuster production – Neil Patrick Harris, Priyanka Chopra, Christina Ricci, Jana Pinkett Smith, Carrie-Ann Moss (“Trinity”) and Keanu Reeves (“Neo”) – designer Esther Perbandt was also in attendance. And the Berlin “Queen of Black” turned the red carpet into a catwalk without further ado, because “Matrix” director Lana Wachowski had invited her artist friend to outfit her, her wife and some of the guests and cast. The result – a performance the likes of which even Hollywood has rarely seen: 17 premiere guests – in addition to Lana Wachowski and wife Karin Winslow, Tom Tykwer and wife Marie Steinmann, among others – together on the red carpet, all in black, all in Esther Perbandt.
And soon all wearing the “gold-pill-necklace”. A necklace made of solid sterling silver, gold-plated, designed and produced by Esther Perbandt and Lana Wachowski as a gift for the cast and crew of “The Matrix Resurrections” and bearing the inscription “Free Your Mind”.

“Free Your Mind” – one of the core sentences of the Matrix series. And a motto that could also have been chosen by Esther Perbandt. Whether as a designer or as an artist: her theme is infinity, embodied by the tone black with its multidimensional meanings. The various shades of black stand for sublimity, for the sum of all colours, as well as for the universe, infinity, difference in supposed sameness, but also symbolically for the origins in everything. In black lies the beginning. Black tones let the light speak. Black and light have an existential coexistence.

“I’m absolutely overwhelmed,” Perbandt, who is also seen in the film itself in a short clip at a rooftop party, said after the premiere. “It’s as if the Matrix and Perbandt were made for each other.
were made for each other. And so were Lana Wachowski, Karin Winslow and myself. The two of them are an absolute inspiration – and of course I’m very happy that they appreciate my work too.” Among other things, the US director and her wife had travelled to Leipzig especially to visit Perbandts’ vernissage “Art Noir”, took the opportunity to buy one of her large-format textile works – and extended the invitation to the premiere.