Attributive Art
Remember the saying: Show me what you own, and I´ll tell you who you are. Well this year during Art Basel Miami, some special luxury brands offered a number of new options to enlarge the range of your possible identities. And for those who either don´t need purchases to ego-booster, or those who don´t believe in simply appropriating features through trade – just enjoy the fruits of the cooperation between creative minds and artisanal producers. Christian Dior and Anselm Reyle was not the only fusion between Art and Fashion. Here are three labels that also know that it takes two to tango and decided to make art tangible.
Martin Margiela
The coolest way of showing such collaboration was staged by Maison Martin Margiela. Their Pop-up Store opened up nearby the Margiela flagship-store in the Miami Design District, where they offer spacy sneakers next to understated daily-wear. The off-site presented home-collection was named „Love, etc.“ and consisted in several selected interior items from „Line 13“. These objects hung on light-boxes that provided an insight to the Parisian hotel „La Maison Champs-Elysées“ for which Margiela conceived parts of the interior design. The installation of the light boxes captivated by playing with symmetry and mirroring, creating an abstract effect that transforms the interior into a fascinating Trompe L´Oeil.
Bally
The traditional Swiss label Bally strived not only to excel as sponsor for the lucky few invited to the Art Basel Miami VIP-Lounge, but also for all clients who did not make it to Miami. Therefore they invited Olaf Breuning to create a collection and campaign. It was presented in the garden of the W South Hotel where handbags were dangling from palm trees. The artist will also be designing the shop-windows of those Bally stores offering the capsule collection 2012. In addition Breuning shot a photo-series that displays his singular “hand-on” approach.
Pringle of Scotland
The brand Pringle of Scotland asked British artist Liam Gillick to design a knitwear collection as well as a spatial installation for the pop-up store. His minimalistic lines transfer into distinct color-blocking and translate his architectural approach. Liam Gillick is known for engaging the question how art conveys status in society, which seemed more than prevailing during Art Basel. The pieces were acclaimed at the opening ceremony by the attending guests, including Stefano Tonchi, Leigh Lezark and Tilda Swinton – the latter lending her face to the new Pringle campaign also bestowed a fresh and understated coolness to the never-ending “über-aaawesome-amaaaazing!”excitements of Miami.
One more thought…
The Merger and Acquisition of Art
Artketing – that´s what it´s called when art, branding and marketing team up. It is a hybrid result of fashion inviting an artist to create a new facet of the brand. You could spend hours devoted to the question, how art can be appropriated and what appropriation means for the proprietor – psychologically and sociologically speaking. You may sum it up by saying, that it is a process of Merger and Acquisition. Though manifold, the reason for wanting to own art can be compared in some cases to purchasing luxury goods – or vice-versa. It is a kind of interaction that allows the goods idiosyncratic traits to rub off onto its owner. So basically every newly acquired item is a proposition to broaden the spectrum of whom you want to be. As do luxury brands standing for a certain vision and codifying certain values. Art opens the doors to a complete new visual spectrum, by which it offers an infinity new codes, enriching the forms and contents of what the brand stands for.
Images: Bally, Jacqueline Now
Last picture: by Vincent Levy, All rights reserved, Pringle of Scotland
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