Jean Cocteau is an artist who appeals to the imagination. He expressed himself in almost every possible artistic medium: from poetry and literature, visual art and design to theatre and this personal favourite medium: film. But even more than for his work, Cocteau was known for his remarkable life. He surrounded himself with celebrities like Sergei Diaghilev, Edith Piaf, Pablo Picasso and Coco Chanel and was regularly condemned for his homosexuality and drug use.

Cocteau's oeuvre heralds the multidisciplinary practices of today's designers and artists. Jean Cocteau: Metamorphosis sheds light on his continued self-transformation and his quest for identity. In today's society, in which the emancipation debate is once more popular and personal image and identity formation are to a large degree open to manipulation, Cocteau's life and work are still very topical. Like the young people that adopt digital identities today, Cocteau continuously played the various media to look at himself – and ensure he was looked at – in different ways. Jean Cocteau: Metamorphosis presents a large number of his many faces, in both text and image.

Jean Cocteau is an artist who appeals to the imagination. He expressed himself in almost every possible artistic medium: from poetry and literature, visual art and design to theatre and this personal favourite medium: film. But even more than for his work, Cocteau was known for his remarkable life. He surrounded himself with celebrities like Sergei Diaghilev, Edith Piaf, Pablo Picasso and Coco Chanel and was regularly condemned for his homosexuality and drug use.

Cocteau's oeuvre heralds the multidisciplinary practices of today's designers and artists. Jean Cocteau: Metamorphosis sheds light on his continued self-transformation and his quest for identity. In today's society, in which the emancipation debate is once more popular and personal image and identity formation are to a large degree open to manipulation, Cocteau's life and work are still very topical. Like the young people that adopt digital identities today, Cocteau continuously played the various media to look at himself – and ensure he was looked at – in different ways. Jean Cocteau: Metamorphosis presents a large number of his many faces, in both text and image.