Chanel “Mobile Art” in Central Park, New York

The Mobile Art exhibition of Chanel continues its début worldwide tour. The iconic quilted leather Chanel handbag with its golden chain gets honored with the exhibition pavilion in New York’s Central Park, housed in a snow-white spaceship-like mobile art gallery designed by Iraqi-born British architect Zaha Hadid. The Chanel Contemporary Art Container – a collapsible, futuristic pavilion -, which will open Friday, doesn’t exactly show a collection of handbags, though. Instead, it includes works from fifteen internationally renowned contemporary artists who where commissioned by Chanel to create works inspired by the iconic quilted Chanel 2.55 shoulder bag which was originally introduced by Coco Chanel in February 1955. A celebration of Chanel’s cultural importance, the contempoary strcutures are created to display the luxury French brand’s heritage in a new way.

The inspiration is obvious only in one of the pieces — a giant version of the open bag lying on its side. Others include Frenchman Daniel Buren’s bathing cabin and an installation by Argentine Leandro Erlich showing the reflection of buildings. Shaped like a large white snail, Hadid’s structure ends with a giant Chanel bag and a “wishtree” by Yoko Ono, John Lennon’s Japanese widow, where a wish can be written and hung on a branch.

Coco Chanel, who died in 1971, worked with artists like Jean Cocteau and Picasso, “and this gallery continues that tradition,” a spokesman for Chanel and its artistic director Karl Lagerfeld said.

The exhibition has already been on display in Hong Kong and Japan. After it closes in New York the exhibition heads to London, then Moscow and Paris.

For more information, please visit Chanel Mobile Art.