Only Chanel could do classic and contemporary like this. Today I went to the Chanel Mobile Art Exhibit in New York. The exhibit is a wild, UFO-like structure that is meant to look like the identity of Chanel, the quilted handbag that has become a symbol of style and status in fashion. This purse is travelling around the world – Hong Kong, Tokyo, New York, London, Moscow, and Paris. It features an experience of different artists visions intertwined with this iconic and timeless identity of Chanel. The different artistic visions unite somewhere in the realm of chic/trendy and provocative. One of the artists showcases video images of naked people beating each other with Chanel handbags and scurrying naked after a giant Chanel bag like little mice.
One of the key messages of the exhibit was the importance of a bag, not just an expensive purse, but the power of a bag, the things inside it that describe and define us; the secrets we keep inside. Thus the idiom of the exhibit was: Empty Your Bag. It is a French expression, ‘vider son sac: dire ce qu’on a sur le coeur’. Which the exhibit explained that in French this idea of empting one’s bag is used when someone reveals something that was kept secret for a long time. Our bags hold a lot more than our wallets and lip-gloss. Maybe that’s why I like ones so large I can hide inside, I must have a lot of secrets…
If you find yourself in any of the places this spaceship purse is landing it's surely worth a visit.
