Text: Ron Lam | Translation: dilettante | Edit: Carmen Lee | Photo: Chan Kin Wai, Chanel
Fashion has a long affair with art, with examples like Foundation Cartier in Paris and agnès b. cinema & gallery in Hong Kong to name but a few. But nothing draws as much hype as Chanel ‘Mobile Art’. Without the commercial pressure and financial constraint that usually come with organising an exhibition, Chanel Mobile Art is one of a ‘mobile’ kind.
The Mobile Art experience lasts around half an hour, but the whole process of witnessing the architecture materialise lasted a good two months. From being inside the show and then seeing the sight reverse to its previous form, it is a unique experience for a visitor like myself.
The reason Mobile Art drew so much hype is not only because of artists like Nobuyoshi Araki, Sophie Calle and Yoko Ono being involved, but also Karl Lagerfeld himself. If one does not care for fashion, one would not realise how passionate Coco Chanel was for art and the cinema. Fashion as art, with its strong association with commercial factors, is long seen as more inclined to consumerism. And the term ‘consumerism’ is seen as the ‘devil’ by most in art. Quoting from the event catalogue, Lagerfeld stated that this event aims to bring fashion, architecture and art together and let it shine. He brought Art Editor Fabrice Bousteau on board as the curator, Zaha Hadid as the architect for the ‘Art Container’, as well as over twenty international artists for this spectacle.
Entering the art container with infinite curiosity, Zaha Hadid as well as the names of the international artists are all on my mental check list. What I did not expect was that the art container is not just another fancy interior. When I sat on the bench at the entrance of the exhibition with the headphone on, I realised this is not the conventional show where each work is a separate part of the exhibition. The curator uses sound as a dominating media – the ‘Soundwalk’, lurking the visitor to fall for her set up as a whole. Mobile Art is not unlike a gigantic play ground, separating one from the reality.
Most traditional curators works as a ‘server’, aiming to show each work at its best. That is part of the reason why art pieces are often separated with plenty of white spaces in between. The physical space also provides a mental one for the audience. Since Harald Szeemann gained the title as the first independent curator with ‘When Attitude Becomes Form’, the role of curator started to draw attention. They are no longer seen as the ones who serve the art work or a mere spoke person for the museum, but someone who forms a dialogue with the society by presentation of art work. In ‘When Attitude Becomes Form’, the exhibition shown forms such as ‘Happenings’, ‘Conceptual Art’ and ‘Site Specific’ and their places in the contemporary society.
Fabrice Bousteau used a relatively conventional way to curate this group show. By that I mean he presented the artists with the Chanel brief and let them run with it. There were artists who simply called in with their previous work for the occasion. It is interesting how Bousteau presented the art work like a film director would with a film, only in ‘three-dimensional’. As an audience, one does not feel like being in an exhibition, but a film set. He is also an editor, placing the art work in a sequence and matches it with the ‘Soundwalk’. By doing this he converted all the art pieces into one single installation. Bousteau is very much involved in creating this gigantic installation, putting all the elements into their place.
I am divided in the view of whether Fabrice Bousteau created new path for curating, because he may just did the opposite. By that I mean may be he created a new way to create, with exhibition as his media. Either way, I want to point out that Bousteau shown much awareness of the power of being a curator and used it to challenge the existing system, therefore making this exhibition a truly memorable one.
