Maison Martell has tapped Ghanaian visual artist Prince Gyasi as its latest creative partner. The collaboration brings his distinct visual language to a house with more than three centuries of history, with Prince Gyasi drawing on his Ghanaian perspective to rework Martell’s heritage.

That perspective has been taking shape for years across photography, art, fashion and design. Prince Gyasi first got into photography as a teenaager, shooting on an iPhone around Accra before turning his lens towards the people and culture around him. His 2019 project ‘A Great Day in Accra’ with Apple later put Ghana’s Hiplife scene and some of its key figures in front of a much bigger audience.

Since then, Prince Gyasi’s work has moved between African culture, fashion and art. He teamed up with Olivier Rousteing for Balmain’s Fall 2022 collection, reworking ‘The Little Prince’ through his own imagery, then returned for the brand’s Fall 2024 menswear show, with his photographs printed across the clothes. He’s also worked with Off-White and Converse, while his 2024 Pirelli Calendar shoot made him the first African artist to photograph the publication. In 2023, TIME named him one of its Next Generation Leaders.

Colour has always been central to Gyasi’s work. His saturated images are informed by synaesthesia, where colour becomes tied to words and emotions, and he uses that relationship to look at Africa on his own terms. His work feels rooted in place while still looking ahead, imagining new ways for the continent to be seen.

The Martell linkup kicks off with a short film shot at Château de Chanteloup in Cognac, directed by TJ Sawyer. Gyasi arrives at the château with a golden Ghanaian pushcart, and from there, the whole setting slowly starts to look like one of his images. French classical music slips into Afrobeats as the estate fills with the bold blocks of colour that have become a signature of his work.

“Colour is how I understand and communicate the world,” Prince Gyasi says. “At Château de Chanteloup, I found a meeting point between heritage and imagination, and between the worlds of Cognac and Accra. This dialogue gives me the freedom to bring those influences together through my own perspective and to shape how the collaboration develops.”

The film is the first piece of a wider partnership spanning design, film, cultural experiences and future Maison projects. If this opening chapter is anything to go by, Martell is giving Gyasi plenty of room to make the house look a little different.

Watch the film here.