See The World From A Handbag

See The World From A Handbag
See The World From A Handbag

Video: See The World From A Handbag

Video: See The World From A Handbag
Video: Stereophonics - Handbags And Gladrags 2024, March
Anonim
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Fashion, commerce, art and architecture are less and less often presented in their pure form. These disciplines have long been intertwined into a single mutually beneficial coexistence. An advertising project launched with great fanfare - a mobile exhibition pavilion - Chanel Mobil Art, should be considered a new round in the development of such cooperation. However, the ambitious project, designed for a two-year world tour, which had already visited Hong Kong, Tokyo and New York, unexpectedly curtailed halfway. Due to the global financial crisis, further tours of the pavilion in London, Moscow and Paris had to be canceled. My story is about how Mobile Art was presented at the end of last year in Central Park in New York, where the project ended.

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The project, conceived by Chanel's creative director Karl Lagerfield, simultaneously resembles in its enigmatic shape a flower, a shell, a powder box, a spaceship from the future, a sports car and, quite understandably, a stylish handbag. Some critics were quick to pass a guilty verdict on the unusual project, as a purely commercial one. However, having been inside, I came to a completely different conclusion - this, although not pure, nevertheless, is real art!

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The Chanel pavilion was created to popularize the world famous brand and advertise the Coco Chanel 2.55 handbag (the elegant accessory first went on sale in February 1955, hence the name). The futuristic shell and interiors smoothly merging into one another were created according to the sketches of the famous Zaha Hadid, winner of the most prestigious Pritzker Prize among architects. The pavilion introduces the works of two dozen artists and photographers from Europe, Asia and America, including satirical video installations by the renowned Russian art group Blue Noses.

In New York, the pavilion has landed in an ideal location - Central Park on the Fifth Avenue side, which is not far from the Guggenheim Art Museum. It was here that a large-scale exhibition "Zaha Hadid, 30 Years in Architecture" was held with great success two years ago. It is no coincidence that I remembered here about the Wright Museum. The Hadid Pavilion, like the great Wright Museum, demonstrates a rare quality - the fluidity of the architectural form. And if the Wright Museum contrasts its organic forms with the strict geometry of Manhattan architecture around, then the Hadid project, broken up inside the park, merges its dynamic form into the natural context as much as possible.

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When you get to know the pavilion, you get the feeling that you are on the takeoff and landing site of the cosmodrome. A concave fiberglass shell attached to a hidden steel skeleton gives the pavilion a high-tech streamline, while a delicate purple backlight at the base makes it look like Hadid's brainchild is about to hit the road. And very close to this fantastic creature it may seem that it is not at all high-tech, but … alive. It seems that it turns and moves as you approach it and, somehow imperceptibly, you suddenly find yourself completely at the mercy of this creature. The park area gives way to a terrace surrounded by undulating fin walls and smoothly into the interior, where you will be greeted by the polite Chanel staff in black uniforms.

"Make yourself comfortable. Relax. You don't have to do anything. Come inside and don't be surprised at anything." The deep and deep voice of the legendary French actress Jeanne Moreau sounds through the headphones. She will accompany you throughout the tour. Trust her and follow her every obedience. You will quickly forget how you got here, who you came with and what you expected to see here. None of this matters. Don't think about anything. Welcome to the magical other world. The next half hour you will spend in a semi-suspended state - surrounded by erotic music, fluid space and art that can transform reality, even if only for a short time.

"Life is determined by forms", the voice of a French woman sounds and invites you into a formless space paved with thousands of multicolored ceramic tiles with crystal formations hanging over your head. You feel like circling here like you have wings. Everything begins to ripple in the eyes and lose shape. It's so beautiful, free here … But it's time to move on for a voice that attracts somewhere. There are steps ahead - one, two, three, four … The voice gradually drowns out the music and you find yourself on a platform with a conical screen extending into the well, on which surreal images float. You look down, but it feels like everything that happens is somewhere above, among the clouds. Flickering images are repeated. It's time to move on - to the wall of light. "Do not be afraid, go into the light, enter through the wall of light, we are waiting for you …" How dark it is here. How damp here. Some dim shadows, some reflection on the floor. "Isn't it true that we often prefer a reflection of reality?" How calm it is here. What is reality? Perhaps it is … But we have to move on. Come on.

On a huge wall, provocative images of exotic flowers and parts of a beautiful female body so similar to them alternate. Unpretentious play scenes take place on screens hidden in cardboard boxes - naked men and women fight with leather bags, dutifully wait in line for the desired handbags, float down the river on huge raft bags … Nonsense, madness … We surrounded ourselves with some strange things … We are ready to give our time, money, dignity, freedom for them … Things have completely taken possession of us. We are no longer our own. However, our journey is not over and it is too early to draw conclusions.

On the screen - an Indian movie: "What were you looking for in my purse?", The Bollywood beauty wonders. Rivalry, envy, revenge … "You can hide anything in your purse. You can kill for a purse." The voice is gloomy. We go further and find ourselves in a room of thousands of mirrors and steps leading to thousands of reflections … How can such a tiny room contain such an endless space? Wonderful …

We slowly move to the center of the pavilion and suddenly, we come across a huge model of Coco Chanel's wide-open handbag. This is the same coveted "2.55", but a hundredfold larger with an overwhelming gold chain on the floor. The familiar scent of perfume emanates from her. Inside the purse, in a powder box, instead of a mirror, there is a screen on which half-naked women-commandos are aiming at Chanel bags, smashing the crossed letters "C" to smithereens. All this is theater, play. Nobody can change anything. We will soon wake up and things will take over us again. Our freedom is illusory. We are told all the time what to do, where to go, how to behave, what to buy …

The journey is coming to an end. We are in the last hall with the Yoko Ono exhibition. Here, under a transparent dome, a living tree with notes grows. “Come on. Go ahead,” says the voice of Jeanne Moreau. Write one secret wish, attach it to a branch and it will definitely come true. We are really free in our choice. Some, going up to the tree before writing their wish, check what others have written. So are we free? In my little note I wrote what I dream about - I want to be free!

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