Zaha Hadid Chanel Pavillion 2, originally uploaded by markahlman7
We wrote before about the Chanel Mobile Art Pavillion by Zaha Hadid, and from the looks of Mark Ahlman’s photos, mobile can be scratched off the title. There is a new website up and a list of dates:
- Hong Kong – February-April 2008
- Tokyo – May-July 2008
- New York City – September 2008
- London – June 2009
- Moscow – September 2009
- Paris – January-February 2010
Zaha Hadid’s Chanel Mobile Art container photo by Wallpaper
What we learned from the (horrible flash) website is that the curator is Fabrice Bousteau of the French magazine, Beaux Arts Magazine and the pavilion will feature 15 artists including Sophie Calle, Loris Cecchini, Sylvie Fleury, Subodh Gupta and Yoko Ono with work focusing on Chanel’s “legendary” quilted bag. Nothing like combining “high” art with lowbrow commercialism.
At least the Florentines’ did not delude themselves of the fact that they were glorifying themselves, while it is a guess if their kept artists felt the same way. Terms like “sellout” are overused and silly, but could you see other global brands such as Coke or Toyota commencing on a similar worldwide marketing pitch disguised as art and not be ridiculed? This is merely the updated and expanded upon To New Horizons, where instead of GM’s moving walkways and highways we are presented with commercialism of a smaller and more intimate variety.
Off topic: How many cranes does a mobile art pavilion need, anyway? I guess if we agree that Shigeru Ban’s Nomadic Museum for the boring ashes and snow exhibition is mobile, then Zaha’s is mobile, too.
