Luxury increases in irony even when trying out for morality. At least that’s my point of view about “Orient Sans Frontières” (Orient Without Borders), the Louis Vuitton exhibit.
We’re talking about the Champs Elysées LV store, the very one attended by hundreds of tourists daily (I wonder if they won’t make a fortune by selling tickets at the entering of the store, just for visiting purposes) in which a special exhibition inspired from a French expedition that took place in 1931. The discovery-silk-raid featuring special Vuitton outfitted Citroën cars made an astonishing route from Beirut to Beijing
The irony comes when exhibiting in such a palace of luxury themes so hard to look in the eye for the average human being, not talking about the average LV consumer. It’s too much of a contrast, even if they wanted it so to create a deeper effect.
Just imagine some of the scenes exposed there:
Iraqi artist Adel Abidin, who made the Baghdad sign, also created a video showing a seven-year-old girl scooping up fragments of broken pavement — perhaps after an explosion — with plastic spoons as a peace song plays in the background.Chinese artist Yin Xiuzhen’s sculptures employ second-hand clothes purchased on trips that she transforms and displays in open suitcases.A video of a young girl learning to speak Arabic from flashcards with words like “car bomb” and “mass grave,” and photos of destroyed buildings in Afghanistan painted white, the color of mourning in Islam.
If you’re planning to induce yourself a ridiculously unhealthy dose of snob-emotional-reality, please go visit the LV store from Champs Elysées until April 27 (at the 7th level of the store, in the exhibition space) and share your impression with me. I’m curious enough (and I’m sure all of you reading these lines are) to see if the writings are any match to the actual reality. If you have any details about the exhibit, please feel free to comment.
(via wwd)
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