Louis Vuitton is about art and creation

MANILA, Philippines - It’s not about fashion, but more about a passion for art when Louis Vuitton, The Fondation pour la Creation, and the Liesure and Cultural Services Department present “Louis Vuitton: A Passion for Creation” from May 22 to Aug. 9 in Hong Kong.

Organized by the Hong Kong Museum of Art, in collaboration with the Consulate General of France in Hong Kong and Macau, “Louis Vuitton: A Passion for Creation” will be one of the star attractions of the 17th French May Arts Festival. The exhibit reinforces Louis Vuitton’s long history and association with the world of art, as well as its passion in working with different artists.

Louis Vuitton and Art

For over 150 years, the LV House, synonymous with French elegance and style, has been working with the best engineers, decorators and artists. If the founder Louis Vuitton turned traditional trunk-making into a new art of travel, his grandson Gaston-Louis Vuitton took interest in the decorative arts and collaborated with the greatest Art Deco designers of his day. The aesthete designed his own window displays and started an art collection, which is now part of Louis Vuitton’s heritage.

With the arrival of Marc Jacobs as artistic director in 1997, the links between Louis Vuitton and the art world have become closer still. Such artists as Stephen Sprouse, Takasi Murakami, and Richard Prince were invited to collaborate and reinvent the luxury brand. The collections thus created were a landmark in the House’s history of artistic collaborations — they crossed art and fashion in a unique way.

In January 2006, Yves Carcelle, chairman and CEO of Louis Vuitton, decided to open a space for cultural expression at the top of the Champs Elysees store. Several exhibitions are held there every year, on the themes of travel, the brand’s heritage, art and fashion. In summer 2008, French artist Ange Leccia curated a video show and gave a carte blanche to four international figures of art and literary world: Jean-Philippe Toussaint, Achpichatpong Weerasethakul, Edouardo Winspeare and Carmen Castillo. Each of them directed a 10-minute fiction story. These films will also be presented at the exhibit.

A book Louis Vuitton: Art, Fashion and Architecture will be published by Rizzoli New York in September 2009. The book features critical essays that examine and position the House’s patronage during one of the most fertile periods of contemporary art and design. A preview of a special edition of this definite work on Louis Vuitton’s contemporary fashion, art, architecture, design, and photography will also be presented at the exhibit.

“Based on shared values of passion and creativity, art and luxury interact with each other, increasing the points of exchange and overturning the usual boundaries between these two worlds. Constantly renewed under the influence of Marc Jacobs, Louis Vuitton’s dedication to the arts has been ceaselessly expanding. As a prelude to the opening of the future Fondation Louis Vuitton pour la Creation, endorsed by Bernard Arnault, we are very happy to share our passion for creation with the Hong Kong public,” says Yves Carcelle.

The Fondation Louis Vuitton Pour La Creation

Frank Gehry has designed a powerful and innovative building to embody the ambitions of the Fondation Louis Vuitton pour La Creation. Located at the Jardin d’Acclimatation, the new architectural tour de force combines dream and reality with technological and artistic innovation. “During my first visit here, I thought of Marcel Proust, and was moved to tears,” Gehry explains. “Because this was the Bois de Boulogne and the Jardin d’Acclimatation, the idea of a glass pavilion was the only possible way forward for me. It seemed inappropriate to create a solid object; I wanted to express a notion of transparency.”

The Fondation building, covering 8,900 square meters, will be built on the outskirts of Paris, in the heart of the Bois de Boulogne, a green park to the west of the capital. It is a site reminiscent of the Belle Epoque promenades which the American architect so fondly longed for.

There will be a number of “chapels,” each dedicated to commissioned installations. As visitors move from gallery to gallery, large expanses of glass will provide breathtaking views. An auditorium will be used as an exhibition space as well as other cultural and performance events.

The use of glass as the primary exterior material plays a crucial role in the Fondation’s architectural spirit and inspiration. Its transparency and light ensure that the building integrates its natural environment, translating the lush beauty of the woods as well as the urbane charm of Parisian history.

The Energy of Hong Kong

Designed specifically for the Hong Kong Museum, this highly selective presentation echoes the context of Hong Kong — the complexity and energy of the city — then moves gradually towards worlds open to adventure, up to the depiction of Hong Kong itself in Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster’s film Central. A choice that corresponds to a conception of art as dialogue and an intersection of forms, spaces, visions, sensibilities, i.e. cultures.

This will be expressed through large-scale artworks made by European, American, and Chinese artists: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Cao Fei, Paul Chan, Gilbert & George, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Andreas Gursky, Pierre Huyghe, Jeff Koons, Bertrand Lavier, Christian Marclay, Richard Prince, and Yang Fudong.

Videos from across the world — whose themes vary between social metaphor and poetic fiction — extend the show’s vision to Arab countries and Eastern Europe. Artists in the video section include: Bans Jan Ader (Netherlands), Keren Cytter (Israel), Susan Hefuna (Egypt), Olga Chernysheva (Russia), David Claerbout (Belgium), Robert Boyd, Trisha Donnelly, Ryan Trecartin (USA), Ange Leccia, Philippe Parreno (France), Adrian Paci, Anri Sala (Albania), Zhou Tao (China), Wolfgang Tillmans, Rosemarie Trockel (Germany), and more.

Suzanne Page, artistic director of the Fondation, presents Hong Kong’s young artists in a section dedicated to the “special guests” of the Fondation, whom China-based curator and art critic Phil Tinari has selected among the local art scene: Nadim Abbas, Lee Kit, Leung Chi-wo, Pak Sheung-chuen, Tsang Kin-wah, Adrian Wong, Doris Wai-in Wong.

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Louis Vuitton: A Passion for Creation” will be exhibited at the Hong Kong Museum of Art, from May 22 to Aug. 9.