Alex Prager says YES! We’re Open! for the 2023 Lavazza Calendar

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Premium Italian coffee brand Lavazza unveiled its annual calendar for 2023 and it focuses – perhaps a little too soon – on how venues have reopened after the COVID quarantine and celebrates how people are reconnecting with one another. Titled “YES! We’re Open!” the 12 month calendar was photographed by Alex Prager.

The 2023 Lavazza Calendar

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Designed and produced by Italian agency Armando Testa, this year’s Lavazza Calendar features the photos of esteemed Los-Angeles based photographer Alex Prager whose Hyundai Music Library project we shared with you here.

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Cover

The theme of the 2023 calendar is the message conveyed by Prager’s colorful images of bars and cafés across the world following the coronavirus pandemic – YES! We’re Open! Lavazza’s calendar, which has both a static and 25-second video counterpart for each month, serves as an invitation to come in and enjoy an experience of pleasure and conviviality together.

Cover (video):
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YES! We’re OPEN! embodies the underlying concept that the beauty of humanity is in rediscovering its vitality and curiosity through connecting individuals. Bars and cafés provide us with an inclusive place for cultures and identities to come together over a cup of coffee. The images throughout the calendar perfectly capture the essence, warmth and restorative capacity of Lavazza’s coffee enjoyed between both new and old acquaintances within a cafe.

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January

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February

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“With this new art project Lavazza intends to convey important messages about diversity and inclusion, and it does so by starting out from its own origins and base, coffee, which has always been a byword for sociality, like the countless places that serve it. Over the last ten years, the Calendar has become a sort of manifesto for us, in which we use art as a means of focusing on things we feel deeply about and are in line with the company’s vision and commitments,” shared Lavazza Group Board Member Francesca Lavazza.

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March

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In the 2023 Calendar, the “café” is seen as both a real and metaphorical place where Alex Prager highlights the unique characteristics of individuals to support the overarching theme of celebrating individual differences. Welcoming by nature and open for use by all, Lavazza’s cafés exemplify an ideal world where all individuals can be themselves and feel at home.

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April

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Prager’s series of images, which alternate between broad views and revealing close-ups, are characterized by their meticulous construction and subtly provocative humor. Her taste for quotation, one of the main characteristics found in her photography, combines allusions to classic Hollywood, fragments of experimental cinema, fiction and hyperrealism, pop iconography and staged photography. The final result is a composition of saturated colors that represent the unpredictable and vibrant lives of the people she chooses.

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May

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June

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July

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I wanted to make something about humanity and connection in a world that’s ever changing and unreliable.

To explore the ways people have connected through the ages and how that relates to us now. Communication is the universal way that we solve problems and brings about a greater understanding of the world and each other. It joins us together in situations that are out of our control, and allows us to see the world from a perspective of love and kindness towards each other.

No matter our different backgrounds, or ethnicity, age, religion or political stance, our emotions are the same and unite us in our differences.

The American myth is over. But I still like happy endings.
– Alex Prager

Artist Alex Prager
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August

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September

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October

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November

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December

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Look behind the scenes, at several interviews, backstage photos and more; including an interactive easter egg hunt here.

All images courtesy of Lavazza