Text: Ron Lam ( Chinese Translation ) | Edit: Carmen Lee | Photo: Chan Kin Wai, Chanel
Q1：How did the Mobile Art project start?
A1：I believe Chanel contacted me because they see me as an atypical curator in the sense that I have always created ‘surprising’ expositions. For example, I presented 100 artists from all over the world in ‘Art in the World en 2000’, selected by 45 international contemporary art critics. The idea behind this is to question the principle of an omniscient curator.
A real understanding of the art scenes relies mainly on the locals: 45 curators rather than just a single one – be global and local at the same time! Another example is ‘L’art Agricole’ at the Agriculture Salon in Paris, in which I presented the works of 20 contemporary artists in a space devoted to animals.
Q2：How much freedom did Chanel offer you?
A2：Chanel allowed me total freedom. Their request was simple but demanding, to create a ‘creative and audacious’ exhibition with the very best artists inspired by the values and characteristics of the Chanel 2.55 bag.
Q3：Apart from the mobility of the exhibition, is there any other meaning of the term ‘Mobile Art’?
A3：The term ‘Mobile Art’, invented by Karl Lagerfeld, resonates the evolution of contemporary creation to certain degree. Artists are more ‘mobile’ in their media and ideas nowadays. An artist used to be either a painter, a sculptor or a videographer. Now the same artist moves fluidly from painting to video, installation, graphics, creating a restaurant or a television programme. In other words, artists are emerging from working in a strict medium to dispersing artistic thoughts in the society. This is why I conceived Mobile Art not in the classic sense, but more like a three-dimensional film; the artists did not create objects of art, but rather, film sequences.
Q4：Could you please tell me your criteria to select the artists participated in the Mobile Art Project?
A4：Like all curators, first I chose the artists that I particularly like and follow for many years such as Tabaimo or Subodh Gupta. I have known them since the beginning of their careers. Also I appreciate artists with a singular language, who create a strong and new oeuvre in art history. From Araki to Leandro Erlich, they all occupy a particular place in art with a unique style. They are also very established artists who are extremely selective of the projects they choose to work on. In order to obtain the fixed objectives of Chanel, I chose very established and demanding artists who would give their maximum to Mobile Art.
It was also essential that they represent a globalised vision of today. I mean, it is only very recently that an Indian, Chinese or French artist would enjoy the same recognition as an American artist! Finally, I want the selected artists to be representative of all generations. It is fundamental to encourage exchanges between the generations, because I am obsessed by the fact that Coco Chanel revolutionised fashion at least twice – once young, then at the age of a grandmother.
Q5：Most of the installation art pieces in the exhibition looked site specific. I am curious about the working process between you, Zaha Hadid and the artists. How did you work with Zaha Hadid in terms of presenting the art pieces? As a curator, was it difficult to deal with a space which did not exist when you were planning the exhibition?
A5：What interested Chanel and particularly Karl Lagerfeld with Mobile Art principally was to try create a real experience linking fashion, art and architecture. I find this to be one of the only projects focusing on attaining a true collaboration between these three domains of creation. For Karl Lagerfeld, only Zaha Hadid could initiate such a project. When I presented the project to Zaha, she was immediately seduced, all the more so because as a student she imagined creating a nomadic museum. But Mobile Art is not a museum or a travelling art centre, it is a mobile landscape. Zaha Hadid came up with the structure based on the Chanel 2.55 bag (and Chanel quilting) and the concept of the exposition. Its shell shape evokes a form of sound, which is very present in the concept of the exhibition.
It was indeed very difficult to create the exhibition, because we were dealing with a completely fluid and curvy architecture where the volumes are perpetually changing with no straight wall. And then of course because all was virtual at the beginning and it was difficult to visualise such a complex structure from the plans.
The artists participating Mobile Art have strong personalities and idea on space for their work, so this poses great difficulty for Zaha and myself. As the exhibition was conceived as a film, we aim to mix different work in the same space. This became a rare and difficult challenge for the artists because of their strong individuality. It should also be noted that the artists worked a great deal with Chanel and the Chanel bag workshops. All the artists visited these workshops, as well as Coco Chanel’s apartment.
Some of the artists, such as Fabrice Hyber, launched themselves into very long creation processes.
In the end, I think that neither art, fashion, nor architecture dominated the project. The artists showed much constraint and the level of dedication in the work, enabling a project with all elements in harmony. The etymological term to define creativity in Greek is ‘heuristic’, which literally means to ‘deal with constraints’. No idea is good in itself but in relation to the physical, intellectual or social space in which it is expressed. Mobile Art is, in this sense, a strong creative experience between art, architecture and fashion.
Q6：Mobile Art appears to me like an experience more than an exhibition. Could you please describe the experience you want to share with visitor?
A6：Yes, Mobile Art is really more an experience than an exhibition in the traditional sense. First, the visitors do not control the time of their visit. Like watching a film, we choose to either stay for the duration of the film or leave. The Mobile Art experience lasts 35 minutes with the soundtrack by Soundwalk. Unlike a museum audio guide, it does not explain the work. The text, written by Jeanne Moreau and I and voiced by this outstanding actress with her unique voice, is a fiction in itself. The sound is a mix of electro, folk and classical music, blended with sounds created by the artists. In fact, Mobile Art is a sensorial stroll through a landscape imagined by an architect and artists. It is an artificial landscape with streets, wells, gardens and grottos.
In Hong Kong, a young Chinese girl told me that upon coming out of Mobile Art she was troubled by the question of whether she had been in a virtual world or dreamed in a real world.
Reflecting its film-like nature, the exhibition is in accordance with this principle. Each artist envisaged their work, and then together we worked on the ‘screenplay’ and edited each of them. We worked on the space and architecture in the same way so that everything would fit together seamlessly.
Q7：Do you think Mobile Art re-defined the concept of exhibition?
A7：I believe Mobile Art proposes a new type of exhibition. It does not question the existing models, it proposes a new form. Above all, I wanted to make an exhibition which didn’t present works. People don’t come to see the work created by Stephen Shore or by the Blue Noses, they come to live the experience. I believe it is degrading for artists to produce work solely to be collected and exchanged. The artists here participated in a collective experience and the creation of a landscape. In a certain measure, unlike a museum there is nothing to understand here – it is a moment of life imagined by artists. The objective is to offer each visitor an emotional and intellectual ‘flash’, which agitates our neurons. We enter Mobile Art, and we leave – I hope – not exactly the same. I believe contemporary art is not made just for museums. It is not sacred.
Q8：Inside the catalogue of Mobile Art, you stated that the concept was developed by Peter Sloterdijk. Could you please elaborate on this?
A8：More than the idea of a sphere or bubbles developed by my friend Peter Sloterdjick, I was inspired by the concept of ‘generalised installation’ he shares with Borys Groys. In the same way that we have passed from sculpture to installation, we are now experimenting with the idea of ‘generalised installation’. Mobile Art is like a ‘cultured ghost train’, developed by television and theme parks than most classical museums. This doesn’t necessarily point to their imminent disappearance, they simply need to continue to invent new exhibition forms.
Q9：Visitors of Mobile Art are guided by the soundtrack by Soundwalk. Sound is a media with great manipulating power so how do you strike a balance with individual art work and the visiting experience?
A9：The soundtrack is a collaboration between Soundwalk, the curator and artists. What seemed important to me was that we have in mind a sound when we see an image. The objective was to increase the reality and the perception.
Q10：Why did you choose to start the exhibition with Michael Lin and Loris Cecchini, and end with Yoko Ono?
A10：Michael Lin’s work symbolises the evolution of art, and the relationship between artists and art. Michael does not make works of art such as paintings, but mental environment that we call an ‘all drawing’. – an image that occupies a whole space. This is very symbolic of the global project. Yoko Ono expresses the same sense of symbolism too. It seemed very exciting to me that visitors all over the world leave this imagined landscape making a wish, casting a thought, an abstraction, into the universe. Mobile Art has been created in the image of each one of us – an energy in movement.
