Words Damaris Colhoun

Zaha Hadid and Chanel make mobile art together.

www.chanel-mobileart.com

Above: The Chanel Art Container open for cultural consumption.

It’s easy to forget that Coco Chanel was a revolutionary, who created fashions for the new modern woman. The novel design of her quilted black bag with its gold shoulder chain caused such a sensation when introduced that it’s still known by its release date: the 2.55. To celebrate the enduring ka–ching of that signature purse, Chanel invited 20 contemporary artists to create works inspired by it for a show, called Mobile Art, that would travel the globe, exhibited in a portable pavilion, designed by Zaha Hadid. Mobile Art premiered in Hong Kong in March and will visit New York City in September.

Her elegantly detailed, torus-shaped container is, she says, “all about movement and fluidity.”

SB: Museums once defined cities, and we traveled even to remote small towns to see them. Now with this mobile museum, the city is no longer necessary. The museum travels to a town near you fully packaged and branded “Chanel.” That’s what I’d call the future of art.

Above: A view of the plans for the Art Container over the contractor’s desk.

Above: The Art Container being assembled.

Hadid was a fitting choice to conceive such a pioneering structure. A feminine visionary who rejects restrictions, she is much like Mademoiselle. Her elegantly detailed, torus-shaped container is, she says, “all about movement and fluidity.” It’s also about experimenting with the latest digital technologies and materials. Employing digital 3-D milling techniques, Hadid was able to export the digital model of each of the container’s panels to a CNC contractor, which manufactured them at full scale in a lightweight fiber–reinforced plastic. The panel shape and number were allocated by computer scripting, which was so precise that the seams between the panels and those on the 3-D model’s wireframe match up exactly. Computer scripting was also employed to transport the pavilion by efficiently organizing its 700 separate elements into sea containers. This meticulous planning enables the pavilion to be assembled in a mere three weeks and disassembled in two. Hadid describes the pavilion as a radically different museum, one that is not only transportable, but also caters to many different peoples. “The connection between culture and public life is critical,” says Hadid. The pavilion’s organic, sculptural form serves as “an entire landscape for the work.” Her aim always, she says, is to wrap visitors “in a spatial complexity that captures and liberates them at the same time.” The gestalt in this case is an “enigmatic strangeness . . . arousing the visitor’s curiosity even further.” No doubt, Mademoiselle would approve. As she once observed, “In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different.”

Above: More views of the completed Art Container.

Photos Virgile Simon Bertrand