EXCLUSIVE: Erwin Wurm and Lanvin Lab Debut Monumental Bag Sculpture
Lanvin has tapped Erwin Wurm, the renowned Austrian conceptual artist, to collaborate on the second installment of Lanvin Lab, an experimental program that allows the brand to cross-pollinate with creatives from various industries.
For the collaboration, Wurm created a large-scale sculpture of a leggy creature in Lanvin blue that incorporated the brand’s Cash Sneaker and the Pencil Cat Bag. The bag, which features a sculptural handle, referenced an early-20th-century collaboration between Jeanne Lanvin and Armand-Albert Rateau, the interior and furniture designer, whereas the Cash Sneaker is a retro style introduced during the first iteration of Lanvin Lab.
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Titled “Desire,” the 90-foot-tall sculpture is a new piece in Wurm’s “Bags” series, which usually featured an iconic luxury handbag with cartoonish legs. The sculpture will be unveiled on Monday afternoon in Beijing, outside the Beijing SKP shopping mall. It will then travel to five key retail hubs in mainland China, including Shanghai, Nanjing, Chengdu, Shenzhen and Shenyang, over the next five months. According to Lanvin, the sculpture will live close to Lanvin boutiques.
The piece will be a part of Wurm’s major solo exhibition at Shanghai’s Fosun Foundation in June.
“We found the majority of brand initiatives from Western companies originate in the West and then sometimes travel eastward; with this second edition of Lanvin Lab we sought to present a primary and exclusive focus on an eastern geography and in so doing highlight one of the critical markets for Lanvin today,” remarked Siddhartha Shukla, deputy general manager of Lanvin.
Shukla said Wurm’s work, which uses sculpture to process everyday life, is also an inviting gesture to the general public that he found “particularly compelling.”
For Lanvin, the collaboration offered a chance to celebrate founder Jeanne Lanvin‘s affinity to the art world. As for Wurm, it was about how to interpret “the specific attitude of people when they think about Lanvin. It’s a famous brand, it’s an expensive brand,” added Wurm.
Wurm’s “Bags” series started two years ago to further his probe into consumer culture.
“I made these walking, jumping, dancing and stepping bags to address certain ideas on how we design ourselves, how we show ourselves, how we pretend, what we want to be, or how we want to be seen both in the men’s world and in the females’ world,” said Wurm, who started the series with a walking Birkin bag. Wurm’s association with Hermès goes way back. In 2008 the artist was commissioned by Hermès men’s creative director Véronique Nichanian to create a series of clothed sculptures and photographs that simultaneously seemed absurd and naive.
“On the one hand, we all have ideas about fashion; to dress up every day is to go into the fashion role. To dress up means we get protected and we can hide from outdoor issues, and so on. On the other hand, it’s about self-esteem. It’s about how we want to present ourselves and reinvent everyday anew, so that’s exciting,” said Wurm of his practice. Often seen wearing a basic jumper and jeans, Wurm’s go-to outfit is one of a working artist, or his version of “streetwear.”
Wurm revealed that the Lanvin Lab collaboration came about during the planning phase of his Fosun Foundation solo exhibition. “I have to say, I also like the idea of being able to come back to China,” said Wurm, who plans to spend some time checking out a local foundry that he works with.
Fosun Foundation was founded by Guo Guangchang, the owner of the Chinese conglomerate Fosun International, which is the parent company of Lanvin Group. The venue, a landmark by the Bund, is known for its mechanical veil facade inspired by Chinese theater.
Offering a rather critical view on fashion and art as bedfellows, Wurm doesn’t think art should be involved in commercial endorsement. “I’m an artist, I’m not an advertiser,” he said.
The 69-year-old Wurm is perhaps best known for his “One Minute Sculptures,” which gives the viewer instructions on how to perform an often unnatural pose, such as putting one’s head on a chair, and hold the move for one minute, or more.
“‘One Minute Sculptures’ are short living episodes of people with daily life objects in a certain situation, which mostly has to do with the absurd or the paradox,” explained Wurm. “Sometimes humor is the result, sometimes embarrassment, sometimes other things. But it’s an image of our world. It’s an image about our present.”
Wurm’s recent work explores the anthropomorphization of everyday objects, works include giant dancing sausages, the “Bag” series, and clothes sculptures.
For his Fosun Foundation exhibition, Wurm will introduce works related to “59 Positions,” a video piece that turns garments into sculptural movements. Other Instagram-worthy sculptural work, including a giant sweater and a blown-up Hot Dog Bus, will be a part of the exhibition. Wurm will also debut a new series of sculptures that comes with claws called “New Roses.”
“They, in a way, work on the same ideas about psychological phenomenon and psychological issues,” explained Wurm.
With an ambition to create more large-scale sculpture, Wurm will soon unveil another monumental work of “a huge school” that will be featured in his retrospective at Albertina Modern in Vienna, opening Sept. 13 to coincide with the artist’s 70th birthday.
Launched in 2023, Lanvin Lab earlier worked with Grammy-winning rapper Future on a collaboration spanning ready-to-wear and accessories for women and men.
“It [Lanvin Lab] is not driven by what we often see in the market as easy collaboration ‘merchandise,'” Shukla stressed at the time.
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