Paris is Burning
Fashion and contemporary art set the French capital on fire
Miu Miu Tales & Tellers. Credit: courtesy of Miu Miu
Art Basel is arguably the most prominent brand of international contemporary art fair in the world, with its editions in Switzerland, Miami and Hong Kong well established on the artworld calendar. In 2022 Art Basel added Paris to the list, causing great excitement in a city that has emerged from Covid (and from Brexit) with a spring in its step when it comes to the international art markets. Indeed, Paris is rapidly becoming one of the most dynamic cities in Europe for contemporary art today.
Add to the mix Paris’s status as a world capital of fashion and haute couture, and that’s when things really start hotting up. September 2024 brought a strong edition of Paris Fashion Week, celebrating its fiftieth year. When Art Basel Paris opened shortly after in October, it was the major fashion houses that were causing a splash through their sponsorships and collaborations. Louis Vuitton is creating the brand’s first hotel (currently wittily disguised in the unmistakeable shape of an LV trunk during the renovation), towering over the Champs Élysées next to their flagship store, while the Louis Vuitton Foundation nearby in the Bois de Boulogne, designed by Frank Gehry, has been staging world-class art exhibitions for a decade. For Art Basel Paris, as well as a spectacular giant lamp installation in the shape of a fish, designed by Gehry, hanging beneath the impressive glass roof of the refurbished Grand Palais, LV also presented the Louis Vuitton by Frank Gehry bag collection along with a display of Gehry’s collaborations with the brand spanning two decades.
Hauser & Wirth on Rue François 1er
A beautiful fragrance was emanating from nearby, where Parisian perfumier and art fair Host Partner, Guerlain was unveiling its annual artist collaboration, this year with South Korean painter Lee Ufan. This resulted in a new edition of the porcelain Flacon Quadrilobé crafted by Maison Bernardaud, containing an exclusive floral fragrance, Souvenir d’Orchidée, designed by the artist and Delphine Jelk, creative director of Guerlain fragrances. Just up the road from the fair, on the Avenue Montaigne in the heart of Paris’s fashion district, le Triangle d’Or (the golden triangle), Burberry was hosting an evening with London-based mixed-media artist Alvaro Barrington, exploring the intersections of art, fashion and culture. Art galleries have recently been opening branches around the triangle itself, including Hauser & Wirth, on Rue François 1er, and Stuart Shave Modern Art on the Place de l’Alma. While Fused was visiting the district, we stopped by for a glass of Champagne at Hauser & Wirth where US director Christopher Canizares was taking guests around American artist Rashid Johnson’s Anima – an exquisite exhibition of paintings, sculpture and film.
Hong Kong Tourism Board’s popular Hong-Kong-style canteen ‘Cha Chaan Teng’
Miu Miu, Public Program Official Partner for Art Basel Paris, organised an incredible, immersive, site-specific project at the Palais d’Iéna conceived by London-based Polish artist Goshka Macuga with curator Elvira Dyangani Ose, director of MACBA, Barcelona. The project, entitled Tales & Tellers, involved a cast of curious female characters representing films by women directors commissioned by Miu Miu since 2011, among other intriguing things. Visitors could walk among the actors – a performance and fashion show par excellence. Just across the road, the Shangri-La was hosting a party following the opening of the Hong Kong Tourism Board’s popular Hong-Kong-style canteen ‘Cha Chaan Teng’ at the heart of the fair and featuring a light installation by Hong-Kong rising art star Trevor Yeung. The canteen, the first project as part of HKTB’s three-year global partnership with the fair, put the flavours of Hong Kong cuisine in visitors’ mouths and minds ahead of the next Hong Kong edition of Art Basel scheduled for 28–30 March 2025. See you there?
Words: Matt Price