CHANEL

Venice, La Biennale 2007

Bruno Pavlovsky (President of CHANEL’s Fashion Activities):

Mobile Art is a fascinating project, ambitious and unexpected like CHANEL. It is perfectly linked to the spirit of CHANEL. It is at the same time innovative, unexpected and sometimes provocative.

What is Mobile Art? It is an exhibition which assembles the works of twenty contemporary artists inspired by the elements that create the identity of the CHANEL quilted bag. All means of expression in contemporary art can be found in Mobile Art : from installation, through painting, sculpture, photography, and video.

Zaha Hadid created this Mobile exhibition venue we are now unveiling. This incredible architectural work is a major and integral part of the project.

Mobile art by associating art and technology, offers visitors a unique sensorial experience.

Mobile Art is also a traveling exhibition, which will travel from Hong Kong to Paris, via Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles, London, Moscow.

We designed this event to give the CHANEL quilted bag, one of our mythical products, its own means of expression by associating it with contemporary art.

In her time, Gabrielle Chanel took an interest in contemporary art, believing art and luxury products were mutually enriching.

We continue this dialogue in Mobile Art, with a new chapter in the history of CHANEL and the art world.

I will now give the floor to Zaha Hadid who will present her pavilion.

Zaha Hadid: First of all, I wanted to say what an exciting project this is for us. Karl and myself always bumped into each other in the lobby of

the Mercer Hotel in New York. I never thought the result of this accidental meeting would be this project, and then you came to see us. This is what we call a mobile art piece, which is a traveling pavilion for art exhibits for CHANEL. Basically, the diagram is very simple. It’s a kind of a loop. You enter and

exit from the same point. This will be transported to different places, so the complexity of

the geometry was resolved parametrically, and it can also then be taken away and put

together. I hope the interior can be shown somehow on the animation. Basically, you move in and you see the exhibits. There is also a center space, if you look from above, where you can have an exhibit, and at the same time it can be a place for hanging out and lounging. You move in a loop through all the exhibit like a kind of a spiral, and then you exit. It is a very nice diagram. It is made in components, with different components of disparate geometry made in fiberglass, which can be assembled on all the different sides. Patrick can answer questions later, or Thomas. They worked very hard on this project, and I want to thank them. Now I will give the microphone to Karl.

Karl Lagerfeld: I have very little to say because, as Voltaire said, everything that needs an explanation is not worth an explanation. This object – now it looks like an object – tells the whole story.

The only thing I can add is that I’m just the go-between, and that hotel lobbies can be very useful.

Zaha Hadid : Yes, they are.

Karl Lagerfeld: That’s what they’re good for. I also wanted to say that she accepted very quickly, and I never saw a project realized - the sketches I mean - that quickly. Because, in fact, she already once had the idea of something like this, and so she put it on paper very quickly. Nothing was changed, I think it’s perfect. There’s nothing to be changed. The problem now is what to put in it, but I love it how it is. I love it even empty.

Zaha Hadid: Anyway, it’s a very interesting work for us, because we have also tried, in every project, to deal uniquely with the client, and with the idea of the project, so it will be unique. We’d been thinking for a while about how to handle really mobile pieces. Things made of components and put together. This is the first time we have done it it in this particular way, and I think it’s a very interesting research and experiment. And because of the speed of this project, the source of experimentation is also heightened, so it’s very exciting.

Karl Lagerfeld: No one has done it before. I like that. Nobody else has made a museum that can travel.

Normally, people have to travel to see the museum.

Zaha Hadid: That’s right.

Karl Lagerfeld: This time, it’s the museum that’s traveling. I think that’s a very new concept. And what I also like in her design is that she has really detached herself from the totalitarianism of Bauhaus, which ended up in ugly airports, ugly public housing and ugly buildings. It was great when it started, but it was killed by the dryness and cheapness. This is another world, this is the 21st century, this is a completely different concept and vision. I think that’s why it’s very important, not only as a CHANEL museum but also of a work of art, though I hate that word. But for me it is art, because I think design and architecture are the real art of today. Otherwise, it is just a question of point of view, a gallery's decision as to what is and what is not art.

Zaha Hadid: I also believe that this research and experimentation is made possible through digital technology. We could make these things before, but not with the same degree of precision and complexity as now. The material research is also very advanced. In this case I hope it will be white, iridescent material, but it could also be in different materials, using the same degree of research and complexity.

Fabrice Bousteau : Yes. What I have to point out is that the first time we talked of this traveling exhibition, Karl immediately said: “It’s only possible with one architect in the world. Zaha Hadid.” And when we went to see Zaha Hadid, she immediately told us: “At the end of my architectural studies, I dreamt of making an itinerant, mobile structure. The world’s first mobile museum.” So, with Karl and Zaha, anything is possible!

 It’s therefore the first itinerant museum, but it’s not really a museum. The exhibition is more of a landscape. Twenty  artists are participating in this exhibition. Twenty artists from all over the world: Europe, Asia, Russia and Latin America.

This exhibition is that it’s really an encounter, like the encounter between Karl and Zaha. It’s an encounter between the artists and the world of CHANEL. When I use the word encounter, it’s very sincere. The artists spent a lot of time visiting the apartment of Coco Chanel, the CHANEL ateliers, and a wide range of people at CHANEL.

It was never a question of asking an artist to customize or glorify a CHANEL product. The idea was for them to encounter the world of CHANEL, Karl really wanted that. It became an experience, a meeting between two realms of thought. That of the artists and another artistic and aesthetic world. This is the reason why the artists also worked a lot on the architecture, with Zaha Hadid’s designers, Thomas and Jens. All the artists got deeply involved. What we’re seeing here is not really an exhibition, in the sense that the artists "occupy" the space Zaha Hadid has built. Each work is more of an installation, having been created specifically for this space. So we worked closely with the artists and Zaha Hadid’s team to create works which are a kind of landscape, which are like mountains and streams. I use these metaphors deliberately, because this is not a classic exhibition. It is an experience. It is more like a sort of 3D film, with every scene directed by each artist. It is another planet. We often thought at the start that Zaha Hadid’s project resembled a sort of UFO. It throws us into the 21st century.

 It is an encounter, of a type which is never simple, between art, the fashion world and architecture. It is the first project of its kind to achieve such a close rapport. And, for the first time, it allows for a global project. The objective has never been to put one piece with another, attach one component with another. It’s a global project, a real experience.

Karl Lagerfeld :

It is the ultimate luxury to be able to do this, to initiate an approach which would otherwise be impossible. It is a sort of private patronage which benefits everyone.

It is modern, healthy, fair, just and interesting.

Fabrice Bousteau: I would like to add that almost all the artists –two said this again to me yesterday – feel that there is no museum in the world which can allow itself to produce works in this manner. I mean financially, but also allowing for total freedom. There is a very experimental freedom in the works.

Karl Lagerfeld: In the first fashion magazine, published in the late 18th century, the opening article said: “Fashion and luxury are the taxes of vanity.” We are now

returning these taxes to the artists and architects. This is our tax. Our profession is to flatter and to encourage vanity. I think this is how it should

For CHANEL and the other brands, for what this costs, we could have inundated the world with posters and ads, if it was a commercial operation. But it is a more noble project which allows artists not yet known by the greater public to gain recognition. Because everyone knows CHANEL and the other brands I will not mention, but there are artists unknown to the public that people will now discover. Thanks indirectly to CHANEL. That is why I think this project is necessary.
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布鲁诺•帕罗斯基（Bruno Pavlovsky 香奈儿时尚总监）：
流动的艺术（Mobile Art）是一个令人着迷的计划，它完美结合了香奈儿的精神主旨，不断追求并且出人意料。同时，本次展览又是一个令人惊叹不已的创意，甚至可以说是激发一场革新。
何谓Mobile Art？这是一场集合了20多位当代艺术家从菱格纹手袋的各项经典元素中得到灵感创作的盛会。你可以从装置艺术，绘画，雕塑，摄影以及影像这些当代艺术表现形式中体会到Mobile Art的精髓。
让我们揭去展览馆的神秘面纱，这幢由扎哈•哈迪（Zaha Hadid）设计的非同一般的建筑物也是本次展出的艺术品之一。
结合了艺术与科技的Mobile Art，将给参观者一次独特的感官体验。并且将在香港，巴黎，东京，纽约，洛杉矶，伦敦以及莫斯科完成一次巡回演出。

我们用当代艺术手段给这款带有传奇性质的菱格纹手袋办了一场秀。
加布里埃•香奈尔（Gabrielle Chanel）女士一直对当代艺术充满兴趣，她一直坚信艺术品与奢侈品能被互相诠释。

让我们继续关于Mobile Art的话题，下面就说说香奈儿与艺术世界的故事吧。
我将把发言权交给Zaha Hadid与她的展览馆。

Zaha Hadid：首先我要说的是，这真的是一个激动人心的计划！我常会在纽约绸缎商酒店（the Mercer Hotel）的大厅里碰见Karl，我从没想到这意料之外的会面将把这个项目带给我，然后你就来找我们了。这就是为香奈儿设计的可移动展览馆，我们称之为流动的艺术碎片。这是张基础设计图，你能看到它像一个环，出口点在你的入口处。展览馆将被运输到各个地区，所以要在几何数据上花些功夫，使得它们能被拆开和组装。我的想法是希望场馆内部能展现出灵活的一面。基本上，你一进入便开始了你的参观之旅。这里还有一个可供休息与交流的中庭，而且从上往下看，你仍旧能看到展出的艺术品。你流连于艺术品中，并在不知不觉中走向出口。这是一个非常好的设计，它利用了成块各异的玻璃，能从不同面镶嵌组合。Patrick会为我们解释，或者Thomas。我很想感谢他们的辛勤付出。现在我把话筒交给Karl。

Karl Lagerfeld：我没有什么可多说的啦，正如Voltaire所说，需要解释的东西其实没有必要去解释，为这个东西做出解释是不值得的。这个物体——现在它看上去像一个物体——已经告诉我们一切了。
我想说的就是，我只是做了一个传信者，那家旅馆的大厅真的非常有用。

Zaha Hadid：正是。

Karl Lagerfeld：那就是他们的好处所在。我同样想说，她毫不犹豫接受了这个项目，并且我从未见过一幅草图能那么快完成的。因为，实际上，她一旦有了想法，便会立刻在纸上画下他们，没有必要修改，我觉得太完美了，根本没必要改动。问题就是我们怎么把东西放进去，但是我就是爱它这样子，即使它是空的。

Zaha Hadid：总之，这的确是个有趣的工作，因为我们曾经尝试不同的计划来迎合不同客户的需求，所以它将会是独一无二的。关于如何处理那些庞大的可移动碎片，我们想了一下，把它们做成各部分再装配起来。这是我们第一次尝试如此特别的方式，我把它当成一次有趣的探索与实验。由于工程进度的加快，实验的素材也越来越丰富，这实在很有趣。

Karl Lagerfeld：没有人这么做过，我喜欢这点。没有人让一个博物馆去旅行。
通常情况下，只有人为了参观而旅游。

Zaha Hadid：是的。

Karl Lagerfeld：这次，我们让一个博物馆自己旅行。这对于我们来说会是一个新观念。关于我另一个喜欢她的设计的理由是，她真正摆脱了那些丑陋的机场、低收入住房和建筑中所展现的包豪斯的极权主义。起初它很伟大，但不久之后就被干燥和廉价抹杀了。现在是21世纪，一个新世界需要完全不同的观点和看法。这不但对香奈儿的展览馆来说是重要的，而且对艺术工作也是如此，虽然我讨厌这个词。但是对我来说，这就是艺术，如今设计与建筑都该被称为艺术。另外，这还有个观念问题：艺术与否，那是由画廊决定的。

Zaha Hadid：我也相信有赖于电子技术的发展，这次探索实验才成为可能。我们以前也能做出这些成果，但并不如现在如此高精度与更复杂。既然材料的改进也是唾手可得，我便想要纯白的、光芒四射的，或者同等价值的其他原料了。

Fabrice Bousteau：是的，我想提下，当我们第一次讨论到旅行式博物馆时，Karl立即说到：“Zaha Hadid，这世上只有她能做。”紧接着我们便去见了Zaha Hadid，她回答得很快：“在我还是建筑学徒时，我梦想能造一幢世界巡回的、可移动的建筑物。这就是世界上第一个移动博物馆。”你看，只要有Karl和Zaha在，任何事都有可能！这就是第一幢世界巡回博物馆的诞生，但它并不是一座真正的展览馆，它看上去更像一幅风景绘画。来自世界各地的包括欧洲，亚洲，俄罗斯和拉丁美洲的二十位艺术家参与这次展览。

就像Karl和Zaha的不期而遇，这是一场香奈儿与艺术家之间的邂逅。我用“邂逅”这个词表达我的真诚。艺术家们花了大时间拜访Coco Chanel的住所，以及香奈儿的工作间和很多相关人员。
这并不是向艺术家索要对香奈儿产品的定位与赞誉，我们只想让艺术家与香奈儿世界产生交集，Karl真的是这么想的，这将引发两个不同领域的思想碰撞。像很多艺术家一样，Thomas和Jens在和建筑设计师Zaha Hadid一起工作，每个人都深入其中，这又是一种艺术与另一种艺术的邂逅。我们看到的已经不是一场展览会，感觉更像艺术家们占有了Zaha Hadid的建筑。每件艺术品更像一个装置，与这块地方融为一体。所以我们与艺术家与Zaha Hadid的团队更紧密地联系在一起，致力于创造出这番如诗如画的美景。我故意用到这个比喻，因为它并不时传统的展览会，这是一次更像3D电影一般的体验，艺术家们导演了每一场戏，而Zaha Hadid为这场21世纪星际旅行造了一架UFO。

在艺术界、时尚界与建筑界，这永不可能是场简单的邂逅，他们之间第一次发生了如此亲密的关系，成为世界焦点。这个被认为是个全球性的计划，它并不仅仅是简单的拼装积木，它将带来真切的体验。

Karl Lagerfeld：做这些真是彻底的奢侈，在其他方面也许无法达到。这是一个私人恩惠，每个人都将从中获益。它很现代，很健康，公平公正并且乐趣无穷。

Fabrice Bousteau：我想要补充的是几乎所有的艺术家——其中两位昨天还向我重申了一遍——认为这个世界不会允许一个博物馆自产自销，我指的是财政上的，但也考虑到了整体的自由发挥。在作品里将是特别具有实验性的自由创意。

Karl Lagerfeld：在18世纪晚期出现了第一本时装杂志，开篇语写道：“时尚和奢侈品都是为虚荣心所付的稅。”我们现在把这些税金还给艺术家与建筑师。我们的专长在于赞扬促进虚荣心的扩大，如果这是商业运作，为了香奈儿以及其他的品牌所应有的价值，我们会用海报与广告淹没这个世界。但是这个计划更高贵，它将使得那些默默无闻的艺术家被更多的公众赏识。其他品牌是否如此我倒不关心，因为每个人都知道香奈儿，人们会发现那些艺术家。感谢香奈儿。这就是我觉得本次计划的必要所在。