CHANEL… MOBIL’ART

It is CHANEL’s constant quest to offer a dream world of luxury, in a universe of fashion. To achieve this, Karl Lagerfeld innovates, surprises and even provokes us. Each of his collections and their presentations is a shock to the senses through which he interprets the CHANEL style in a new way. By choosing spectacular or unexpected locations such as the dome of the Grand Palais in Paris, the Opera House in Monte Carlo, Grand Central Station in New York or Santa Monica Airport, which highlight the modernity of a constantly moving brand, CHANEL reinvents itself each season, and constantly invigorates its own special vocabulary.

“I want to be part of what’s happening”, Mademoiselle Chanel used to say. Those words precisely define what characterises the timelessness of the brand. It is also what regularly inspires CHANEL to create momentous events that travel the world.

Now, CHANEL has decided to make one of its emblematic creations, the quilted bag, the focus of an event on an international scale: MOBILE ART. Just as fashion spreads throughout the world, this travelling event will be presented in Asia, the United States and Europe. In a futuristic pavilion created by the architect Zaha Hadid, some fifteen internationally renowned artists will exhibit work that was inspired by the elements that give the CHANEL bag its identity. Their unique visions, unexpected interpretations - poetic, cheeky and inspirational - cannot fail to reveal the multiple facets of this legendary bag.

Created by Mademoiselle Chanel in February 1955 and constantly reinterpreted by Karl Lagerfeld, the quilted bag has toured the world and delighted many generations of women. This iconic object has become part of the brand’s universe alongside some of our other emblematic creations, all exceptionally enduring, like the little black dress, the tweed suit, the camellia, the string of pearls, the chain belt, the two tone shoe and, of course, Chanel No 5, the perfume created in 1921 and still the world’s most popular scent.

By associating the CHANEL bag with contemporary creators, we hope to renew and establish its position both now and in the future. Mobile Art is the logical extension of CHANEL ’s involvement in the Arts - beginning with Mademoiselle Chanel who enthusiastically supported the greatest artists of her day including Lipchitz, Cocteau, Stravinsky and Diaghilev, and whose creations in turn inspired major artists such as Andy Warhol.

Mobile Art is thus an ongoing event and through it we hope to reaffirm once more CHANEL ’s devotion to creativity and the avant-gardeWHAT IS MOBILE ART ?

Mobile Art is a travelling exhibition devised as a three-dimensional film and presented in a futuristic pavilion specially created by the architect Zaha Hadid.

The creative concept of Mobile Art is the result of an aesthetic experiment conducted over the last two years in which the values and visual language of CHANEL– and most particularly its emblematic accessory, the quilted bag – confronted those of some fifteen contemporary American, European and Asian artists. These artists are universally recognized, but most started working in the early 1990s.

Mobile Art is not so much an exhibition to be visited as a landscape to wander through in a completely new way: to experience the artists’ installations, visitors, equipped with a digital handset, must let themselves be guided mentally and physically by a soundtrack composed in collaboration with the artists taking part. All the works, installations and environments presented in Mobile Art were produced by CHANEL and specifically designed for the exhibition by the artists, in close collaboration with the management committee, Zaha Hadid and her team. Thus Mobile Art is an original and global work.

An architectural event accessible to all free of charge, in January 2008, Mobile Art will embark on a world tour lasting several years and will be seen in the heart of some of the biggest cities in Asia, the United States and Europe.

Lastly, the inner courtyard of Mobile Art has been specifically designed for hosting events, meetings, dinners and parties to encourage dialogue and enhance the appreciation of the artists’ work but also, more simply, to create moments of happiness.

PAVILLON

The form of the CHANEL Pavilion is a celebration of the iconic work of CHANEL, unmistakeable for its smooth layering of exquisite details that together create an elegant, cohesive whole. The resulting structure is very much tied to that original inspiration—elegant, functional, and versatile both in its overall structure and detail.

The architectural structure of the Pavilion is a series of continuous arch-shaped elements, with a courtyard in its central space. The glazed ceiling adjusts to allow for control of the interior temperature in response to the particular climate conditions of each venue city.

Natural light descending from seven elements in the ceiling, meets artificial light pushing up from gaps between the walls and raised floor to emphasize the “arched” structure and assists in the creation of a new artificial landscape for art installations. Six of these elements are roof lights for artworks; another large opening dramatically floods the entrance in daylight to blur the relationship between interior and exterior. In addition to the lighting and colour effects, the spatial rhythm createdby the seams of each segment gives strong perspective views throughout the interior.

The size of the Pavilion will be 29m x 45m, a total of 700sqm. The overall height is 6m, with the floor raised 1.00m above the existing ground surface. Due to the extensive shipping between cities, each structural segment will be a maximum of 2,25m wide.

The 65sqm central courtyard has large transparent openings to the sky above and is designed to host events as well as provide an area for reflection after visiting the exhibition. The courtyard serves as an intermediate space between the exhibition and the public area of the Pavilion. A 25sqm cloakroom is also provided.

With a direct visual connection to the courtyard, the 128sqm terrace continues this dialogue between the Pavilion’s exterior and interior. During an event, the two spaces could be linked to become one large event zone.

Reflective materials allow the exterior skin to be illuminated with varying colours which can be tailored to the different programmes of special events in each city.

The dichotomy between the powerful sculptural mass of the CHANEL Pavilion’s structure and the lightness of its envelope creates a bold and enigmatic statement. The Pavilion’s exterior develops into a rich variety of interior spaces that maximize the potential to reuse and rethink space due to the innate flexibility of its plan.

The total fluidity of the CHANEL Pavilion’s curvilinear geometries is an obvious continuation of Hadid’s 30-years of exploration and research into systems of continuous transformation and smooth transition. With this repertoire of morphology, Zaha Hadid is able to translate the ephemeral typology of a pavilion into the sensual forms required for this celebration of CHANEL’s cultural importance.

ZAHA HADID

Zaha Hadid was awarded the Pritzker Prize, considered to be the Nobel Prize of architecture, in 2004. Each of her dynamic and innovative projects builds on more than thirty years of revolutionary experimentation and research. Hadid consistently pushes boundaries with her exploration of new spatial concepts in the pursuit of a visionary aesthetic in the interrelated fields of urbanism, architecture and design.

An aspect of Hadid's work is the rigorous interface between architecture, landscape, and geology as she integrates natural topography and human-made systems with cutting-edge technologies. This process results in the complex geometry, seamlessness and unmistakable dynamism of her projects.

The Phaeno Science Center in Wolfsburg, illustrates Hadid’s quest for total fluidity. Previous seminal buildings such as the Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati and the BMW Central Building in Leipzig, have also been hailed as architecture that transforms our vision of the future with new spatial concepts and bold, visionary forms

Proposed by Farouk CHEKOUFI .