Journey into creativity

Perpetuating the unwavering links uniting it to China, Dior unveiled an exhibition in Shanghai on Nov 9 as part of the West Bund Art & Design.

Much like an homage to Christian Dior, who, prior to becoming a couturier, was a gallery owner, Art'N Dior 2022 proposed a fascinating journey into the discovery of creative projects that have marked the history of Dior.

Three sections had been set in the exhibition — Lady Dior As Seen By, Dior Lady Art#7 and The Dior Medallion Chair.

Visitors were able to see works that have traveled planet-wide in the itinerant Lady Dior As Seen By event.

A vital rendezvous honoring several Chinese artists, such as Yang Mian, Zhang Ruyi, and the duo Yang Bao and Wa Liu, as well as international designers like Oh Youkyeong, Youssef Nabil and Camilla Akrans, all of whom have played the transformation game to reinvent this emblematic bag through their respective singular visions.

Zhang uses resin, aluminum foil, UV print and engineering graph paper to design A Materialized Container. Through the reinterpretation of the materials, Zhang considers the artwork as a container, implying views of "communication" between humankind, even if people do not exist in the scene.

Continuing this dreamlike odyssey, the seventh edition of Dior Lady Art was unveiled exclusively and presented the iconic Lady Dior in its most daring metamorphoses.

Wang Yuyang's reinterpretations were thus displayed alongside his most iconic pieces, such as The Moon 20190810 and Artificial Moon. A fusion of fashion and contemporary art united imagination and excellence.

Wang says he has been doing the moon series for the past four years.

"The moon is a theme in my creation. … I see the moon as a carrier, which will bring some new possibilities," Wang explains.

According to Wang, Chinese people have a close tie with the moon, especially in Mid-Autumn Festival and numerous fairy tales.

"But when you know the truth of the moon, such as its dark surface, you feel that all your beautiful imagination has been broken," the artist says.

"This kind of conflict is actually a major inspiration for my creation. To choose the moon is because it has always given me a thought about what is on it and what our understanding of the universe and the world is," Wang says.

"When I worked with Dior this time, I thought about what kind of image is attractive to audiences, because I don't want people to think that the bag is just a decorative or fashionable feeling. I hope that holding it represents an attitude or cognition toward the world — something we seem to be used to but may have other possibilities," he adds.

Handle Me, the artwork designed by the duo Yang Bao and Wa Liu features a handcrafted 24k gold-plated boombox.

Insulated within a pyramid-shaped glass chamber, Handle Me plays music from the black subwoofer at the center of the golden boombox. Played from the boombox, Lady Dior Mixtape by the artists is a timeless mix of original music compositions that mutate and refract in infinity according to the progression of time and chance.

At the Shanghai exhibition, a room was also specially allocated to the Medallion chair, a symbol of Dior, in 2021, by 17 artists from all over the world, including Ma Yansong, who transports the design of this object of desire into the future.

Ma graduated from the Beijing Institute of Civil Engineering and Architecture, and did his master's degree at Yale University in the United States.

"With Dior, I wanted to be able to capture the essence of the house while incorporating a sense of imagination," says Ma.

The Art'N Dior 2022 held in Shanghai's West Bund Art Center is the second edition of the exhibition and coincides with the West Bund Art & Design contemporary art fair. The first edition in 2021 was staged in Shenzhen and Shanghai. The exhibition pays tribute to more than 70 years of artistic passion in the name of beauty and creation in all its forms.