If Art Basel, the world’s premier culmination of modern and contemporary works, is just one of the many anticipated events on your art fair schedule this year, you’ll be very pleased to know that for 2014, the inventive minds behind the accredited window to the art world don’t intend to disappoint.
For Art Basel, it’s most important for each show to be unique, and in Hong Kong next month Global Associate Partner of Art Basel, Swiss luxury watchmaker Audemars Piguet, will be ready and waiting to unveil a new lounge masterminded by leading French designer Mathieu Lehanneur, a clear-cut modernist, if ever there was one.
Lehanneur, who through his design work facilitates a number of artistic sciences, will be presenting the slick new immersive space for the first time, effectively isolating nature and questioning its relationship with technology. Furthermore, an additional video installation by Austrian time-based media marvel Kurt Hentschläger, scales creative heights ever more so, surrounding more vividly the co-existence between nature and technology, casting light on a concept which has been squatted by overpowering technologies in the present day. The stark lounge, reflective and somewhat self-revealing, inspired by Audemars Piguet’s home in Le Brassus in the Vallée de Joux, will not only provide the setting for Hentsläger’s video piece, which also studies the important history of the fine watch brand, housing a second time-based touch – an exhibition tracing through the sands of the analogue, taking an earnest glimpse at an assortment of exceptional historical Piguet timepieces, set equally against contemporary pieces.
To whomever it may concern, be sure to underline Art Basel this year in your bustling calendars, to miss out on the thought-provoking projects put forth by all involved would be a great shame. Piguet’s cautious fine tuning of their influence on Art Basel and decision to opt for the cognitive design powers behind this year’s most remarkable showings was marked by Olivier Audemars, Board Member and great-grandson of one of the company founders, big reveal, detailing the way “Mathieu’s innovative new lounge design and Kurt’s beautiful film work both capture the true spirit of Audemars Piguet, and will enable us to bring the essence of our home in the Vallée de Joux to Hong Kong”. Following Art Basel in Hong Kong, the Audemars Piguet booth and exhibition will travel to the Collectors’ Lounge at Art Basel in Basel from 19 – 22 June 2014, and Art Basel in Miami Beach 4 – 7 December 2014, so keep your eyes on the clocks this upcoming season.
By Liam Feltham
Images courtesy copyright Studio Mathieu Lehanneur
Art Basel takes place from May 14 – 18