Are fashion houses the new art patrons of our time?
On october 11th the MoMA and Fondation Louis Vuitton announced the first exhibition in France to present MoMa’s unparallel collection and of course I couldn’t miss it. I had never been to the Fondation before and didn’t really know what to expect.
As soon as we hear Louis Vuitton we all imagine fashion, bags, runways. But not this time!
“I dream of designing a magnificent vessel for Paris that symbolizes France’s profound cultural vocation”, the Canadian architect, Frank Gehry said. The dream became real thanks to the engagement of the LVMH group and its chairman Berard Arnault.
Said to resemble an iceberg, or even a set of glass sails, the Foundation Louis Vuitton takes visitors on a journey through contemporary art right in the heart of Paris.
The sail into Contemporary and Modern Art of the Foundation include:
- Eleven permanent and temporary exhibition galleries (association with MOMA NY)
- Four themes for the permanent collection Contemplative, Pop art, Expressionism, and Music/sound
- A modular auditorium, hidden beneath parquet floor panels, which can be rotated up in various configurations. The venue dedicated specifically to multidisciplinary performances can accommodate up to 1,000 seats
- Le Frank – the café-restaurant – is overseen by Michelin starred Chef Jean-Louis Nomicos.
Today fashion is embracing more and more art. Another successfull example of this trend is Prada Foundation in Milan, hosting a number of different contemporary collections.
After all, fashion is Art.
Veronica Wahba
