Tuesday, 15 July 2008 |
What’s an hourglass? Oh yes, it’s an ancient time piece, flowing fine sand quietly marking time in a perfectly balanced glass. Or, as everyone should know by now, it is the main prop at Never Stand Still. It was the kick-off party to start the countdown for BMW’s European launch of the latest model of BMW 7 series, slated to take place this fall. The car, displayed in the world’s largest hourglass in the Red Square, has not received much coverage but as soon as the construction of the hourglass marvel began four months ago, online buzz about it has been consistent. The 12-meter-high glass contraption was the centerpiece of the party thrown to 400 invited guests and celebrities. At the start of the build-up, more than 180,000 silvery balls concealed the car that was gradually revealed as the balls fell to the lower level. Moscow is a strong and growing market for BMW, and what better place to strut its latest but the historic location against the backdrop of the Kremlin, St. Basil’s Cathedral and G.U.M. – all veterans of many a communist-era motorized military parade. By Tuija Seipell
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Monday, 07 July 2008 |
Karl Largerfeld never puts a pedicured foot wrong and hispresentation for Chanel at this week’s Couture shows proves that he isstill one of the most innovative and creative minds on the planet.Largerfeld unveiled his collection amid an extraordinary 50-foot setmade up of steel-grey tubes inspired by organ pipes. Lagerfeld workedthe tubes theme into the collection, showing tubular shapes in severaldifferent manifestations. Lagerfeldis one of the masters of catwalk theatrics, dreaming up incrediblelarger-than life sets that seem to get more elaborate each season. Forsome of the best of recent shows check out Runaway Runway Success. By Lisa Evans via Fashionation
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Thursday, 08 May 2008 |
It is tough to make an impression in New York,
but Google is not afraid to try. To celebrate the official launch
(finally!) of its new artist themes for iGoogle,
it held a candle-lit media bash at One Little West 12 (a club located
at 1 Little W 12th St. in the Meatpacking District) and then let San
Francisco’s Obscura Digital loose outside with a three-night
illumination gallery.
At the hub of the district, the
intersection of Little West 12th, Ninth Avenue and Gansevoort, Obscura
projected moving images of the iGoogle artwork onto the facades of
buildings for three nights from 10 pm to 2 am. The facades of St. Hotel
Gansevoort, Pastis, Theory and Inn LW12 were the canvases for work by
Jeff Koons, Michael Graves, Yves Behar and others. At a white tent
sporting a Google logo at Gansevoort Square, passers-by could play with
the images a battery of computer stations.
At the media bash, a
panel of the iGoogle contributors consisting of architect Michael
Graves, photographer Anne Geddes, artist Jeff Koons, Marc Ecko, and New
Yorker cartoon editor Robert Mankoff discussed their views of how the
Internet is changing their industry. Other luminaries whose designs are
available at iGoogle include Dolce & Cabbana, Diane von
Furstenberg, Philippe Starck,Oscar de la Renta, Tory Burch and Ivana
Helsinki. By Tuija Seipell
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Wednesday, 07 May 2008 |
Berlin’s Magma Architecture
won several awards for its entry in the JETZT | NOW series of temporary
installations at the Berlinische Galerie, Museum for Contemporary Art,
Photography and Architecture. Magma’s installation, 11th in the series,
was called fittingly “head-in | im kopf” and its concept is based on
exploring the properties of materials, form, color and light.
The
main feature of the installation is an alarmingly orange flexible
fabric (polyamide-elastan mix) stretched between the walls, ceiling and
floor. The fabric is the most visible part of the exhibit, yet it is
also the tool with which the viewers can focus on smaller details.
Visitors bend down under the fabric into which openings were cut.
Through these holes, visitors pop their heads up into the orange space
to view drawings, models and photographs suspended from wires. These
items are from Magma’s work and include representations of the
revitalization of the former GDR Radio Centre (Berlin, Nalepastrasse,
2007), a bridge over the Landwehrkanal river in Berlin (competition
entry in 2006), the new Nexus Productions headquarters in London, and
the exhibition Trial & Error in London (2003). Luckily, we have
images to show how it all worked as the full effect of the experience
is quite impossible to describe in mere words.
The project team
for head-in | im kopf included Anke Noske, Hendrik Bohle, Dominik Jörg,
Lena Kleinheine, Ksenia Kagler, Yohko Mizushima, Lena Kleinheinz,
Martin Ostermann and Ben Reynolds.
Magma was established in 2003 by Martin Ostermann and Lena Kleinheinz.
The Ohio native Ostermann is a former senior architect at Studio Daniel
Libeskind. The Denmark-born Kleinheinz is an exhibition designer. Magma
is known for its inventive, experimental and experiential approaches to
architectural work. By Tuija Seipell
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Wednesday, 12 March 2008 |
Creativity has always been at the heart of CHANEL since its very
beginnings; it is the thread that unites Mademoiselle Chanel to Karl
Lagerfeld, a visionary spirit known for his skill in anticipating the
future of his times.
A modern brand, constantly moving forward, cultivating the
extraordinary and its innate sense of the moment, CHANEL is resolutely
open to the world and turning towards the future. It is this propulsion
that incites CHANEL to perpetually create surprise, from one continent
to the next, and to so deeply impact on our collective imaginary
consciousness.
A travelling project, with entry free to all, Mobile Art will circulate
for two years throughout Asia, the United States and Europe.In a
futuristic pavilion created by the architect Zaha Hadid at the request
of Karl Lagerfeld, some twenty international artists will exhibit work
that was inspired by the elements that give the CHANEL bag its
identity. Through this collaboration, resulting from their singular
points of view - poetic, audacious and as yet unseen - the multiple
facets of this mythical bag and its universe are revealed.
Mobile Art is a revolutionary event, uniting one of the greatest
architects of our time, some of our most innovative artists, and an
icon of the fashion world: the quilted bag. Mobile Art is founded in the
continuity of Gabrielle Chanel's strong relationship with the arts, and
reaffirms once more our devotion to creativity and to the avant-garde.
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Wednesday, 27 February 2008 |
The opening of a museum is just about as much fun as ... what? The
closing of a museum? We can quit this sort of kidding now that we’ve
seen the star-studded opening gala of Lacma — the Los Angeles County
Museum of Art. Tom Cruise, Christina Aguilera, Katie Homes and Tony
Bennett were just a few of the luminaries enjoying the lavish Wolfgang
Puck-catered, Lionel Ritchie-entertained dinner as a prelude to the
opening of the new Broad Contemporary Art Museum building of Lacma.
Urban Light, a fantastic forest of vintage lampposts by Chris Burden,
lit up the entry to the cocktail reception where life-size
ice-sculpture waiters served champagne. Event virtuoso Ben Bourgeois of
J. Ben Bourgeois Productions called the party itself a contemporary art
installation and he knows what that means. Just to create the “wrapper”
for the dinner party, he brought in a 22,000-square-foot steel frame
and covered the interior walls, tables, chairs and 12 massive light
cubes with white Ultrasuede. All of the surfaces served as screens for
the evening’s entertainment.
The 72,000-square-foot Broad Contemporary Art Museum building was
designed by Renzo Piano whose work includes Paris’s Pompidou Centre and
the New York Times headquarters. The initial 160-piece exhibition
includes works by Andy Warhol and Jeff Koons. By Tuija Seipell
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Wednesday, 13 February 2008 |
Even if the movie bombs at the box office, the premiere party can still
rock. This was proven recently at the fantastic do for Overture Films'
first film, Mad Money, starring Diane Keaton, Katie Holmes and Queen
Latifah.
The screening took place at the venerable Mann's Village Theatre in
Westwood. Built in 1930 in the Spanish Mission Revival style and
remodeled numerous times since, the Village is part of the 18-house
Mann Theatres chain that includes Grauman’s Chinese Theater in
Hollywood.
And the not-so-surprising theme of the party? Money! At the Theatre,
guests were handed Mad Money-themed California Lottery tickets at
entrance. After the film, guests shuttled to the party at the storied
Royce Hall (completed in 1929 in Italian Romanesque Revival style) on
the UCLA campus.
Fake metal detectors, flat-screen monitors, money carts as food
trolleys, images of money on just about everything (walls, trays,
napkins) and genuine legally shredded bills and stacks of cash as decor
ensured that nobody forgot which film they were celebrating. By Tuija Seipell
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Thursday, 07 February 2008 |
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If
you’re one of the estimated 30,000 passengers who travel to and from
Grand Central Station in NYC, or one of the overwhelming half a million
people who pass through the terminal each day, chances are the only
thing you’re focused on is catching the right train to take you to your
destination. Recently, the Bear Sterns Tournament of Champions, the
largest professional squash event in North America, was set up in one
of the halls of Grand Central. The week-long event attracted 64 players
and 4,500 spectators.
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The glass-enclosed court was surrounded on three sides
with bleachers for paying fans, and a VIP lounge was set up on the
other side of the hall. And although the train schedule most certainly
stayed on track, we wonder how many of the passengers got distracted
walking past the pop-up court, and missed their trains. By Andrew J Wiener
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Monday, 04 February 2008 |
The beds have been made, the concierge desk polished and the piano
in the lobby has been tuned. On its tour around America, the Stoli
Hotel has set up shop in Miami where it will host a variety of invite
only music, fashion and sport events over the next two and a half weeks.
Designed by creative architecture agency Pompei A.D, the 10,000 square foot hotel-themed space is inspired by the iconic Hotel Moskva which features on Stolichnaya's labels.
"Each facet of the hotel has been carefully selected to incorporate
Stolichnaya's authentic heritage, while drawing upon the modern day
qualities that top metropolitan hotels possess" says Adam Rosen, Senior
Brand Manager of Stolichnaya vodka.
Guests can browse (but not sleep in) rooms designed
around Stoli blends, enjoy Stoli cocktails and indulge in manicures,
facials,
scalp treatments and chair massages.
You are, however, going to need to be wearing some serious bling if you
want to enter the elit suite. Paying homage to Stoli's high-end range,
it is only open to celebrities and VIP's.
Heading over to New York next, the Stoli Hotel adds yet another
milestone to Stolichnaya's unique history of innovation and championing
all things Russian. By Brendan McKnight.
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Tuesday, 22 January 2008 |
Publicity stunts don't come on much of a larger scale than this. To celebrate the launch of the new Fiat 500 in London last night, one of the vehicles was placed into a pod on the London Eye where it will live for the next 2 weeks.
The launch of this 'time capsule' was at 8pm, exactly 500 hours into the year and as one would expect for such an event, was a star-studded affair and included a light show that lit up the river Thames, and performances by Mika and The Feeling.
The car itself is a remodel of the original version which was first presented 50 years ago, and is Fiat's go at re-releasing a retro classic, as VW (Beetle) and BMW (Mini) have arguably both done quite successfully in recent years.
The 500 was recently named the 2008 Car of the Year and has been praised in numerous auto publications. By
Brendan McKnight
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Tuesday, 08 January 2008 |
Towering 7m high the inflatable Solivoid swept last years Australia's Interior
Design Awards. The Monash University creation was designed as a
temporary coffee lounge for use at trade exhibitions. It provides a
space for visitors to wait, while they also inadvertently generate
multimedia patterns projected on its surface.
Interior Architecture lecturer Mr Darragh O'Brien said the project was
an experiment that attempted to reconcile the ideal with the real. "It
is a deliberate exercise in vagueness, reflecting the ambiguous nature
of an evolving design process… In response to the contextual
environment, occupants of the lounge will be suspended between inside
and outside; between here and there; between matter and information." By Brett Lackey
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Wednesday, 14 November 2007 |
Villa Eugénie
is an "events" company in the most impressive sense of the word. These
are not people who organize bridal showers and baby parties for minor
movie stars. For the Brussels-based team of Villa Eugénie, led by
Etienne Russo, routine means orchestrating a major runway event for a
major fashion house. And stunning everyone.
Best known for its catwalk extravaganzas, Villa Eugénie is now involved
in not just creating spectacular fashion shows, but staging major
events for luxury business in all of its forms - magazine launches,
major celebrations, and jewellery, perfume, art and opera
installations, corporate events and fairs around the world. The team
also advises major fashion brands on store concepts, stores space
searches, lighting and branding. Although based in Brussels, Villa
Eugénie operates in all major fashion and luxury centers and has a
permanent office also in Miami.
We do not envy their task of having to impress the time-hardened
fashion buyer or editor, or the celebrities that line up the runways of
the famous fashion emporiums. These events are critiqued like major
concerts or art exhibitions, and the shows themselves are as much about
drama and ever-bigger surprises as they are about the designers, or the
fashions - most of which are unwearable by mere mortals anyway.
Villa Eugénie must be doing it right. Year after year, its client list
reads like a Who is Who in the fashion world: Chanel, Dries Van Noten,
Miu Miu, Maison Martin Margiela, Lanvin, Hermès, Hugo Bosss, Sonia
Rykiel, Olivier Strelli, and the
Adidas-backed Y-3.
These are all major brands with huge production budgets. But even when
you know that sky is not the budget's limit, it is still astonishing
that the same production company can be creating several shows in one
season - all attended by the same posse of cynical seen-it-all viewers
- and not start to appear stale or formulaic. Boundless creativity and
ruthless attention to detail, both most likely still sparked for each
project by Etienne Russo himself, are the cornerstones of such a feat.
Russo started humbly in the 1980s as an artistic and creative barman at
Mirano, a fashionable nightclub in Brussels. He was soon creating major
events there and drawing serious attention. His first real fashion
client was Dries Van Noten for whom he worked as a model, salesman,
lighting engineer, cook and extraordinary producer of Van Noten's first
fashion show in Paris in 1991.
In 1995, Russo started his own production firm, naming it after the
charming villa where it was located. Since 2004, the Villa Eugénie team
has worked out of a former factory close to Brussels South station
(Bruxelles-Midi, Brussel-Zuid). The space, covered by a vast glass
canopy, was redesigned by the Ghent-based architect Glenn Sestig
This is the same man who this year opened his first luxury hotel Sestig
Hotel. In the cubic Huis Van Waes building in Ghent
that he reconstructed. By Tuija Seipell
Seen any other interesting events we should know about? e-mail
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