This is a light installation dedicated to Louis Vuitton’s long history of collaborations. The 20’ x 20’ x 20’ space is divided into six rooms and a hallway that connects them all.
The brand’s founder, Louis Vuitton, was born in 1821 in Anchay, a small village in the mountains of Eastern France. Vuitton revolutionized the trade by displaying his first series of flat trunks, which to this day are considered the birth of modern luggage. In 1986, in an attempt to prevent plagiarism, Georges Vuitton creates the monogram canvas, which features a botanical pattern and the LV initials. In 1998, it began producing ready-to-wear and shoes. More than 150 years ago, Louis Vuitton founded a company that would revolutionize the art of travel and fashion. Today, it is one of the world’s most embraced luxury brands.
The lighting installation is dedicated to Louis Vuitton and its long history of collaborations. It consists of six rooms, each to be assigned to the collaboratedartist or the creative director who made an impact on the brand’s progression.
The visitor first encounters a dark hallway lit from below, through the monogram cutouts on the floor. The floor is a polished brass, creating lots of light bounces from the ground. The narrow yet tall hallway makes the visitor unintentionally look towards the ceiling. Even though each room is enclosed, they all have a six-inch gap between the interior partition and the ceiling. Therefore, a little bit of lighting from the individual rooms reaches the hallway. The colors coming through the rooms encourage visitors’ to experience each exhibition.
The walls are covered in white faux leather, yet all look different because of different lighting effects. Each room is lit with a color that is reminiscent of the iconic collaboration. Spouse room is pink, the Murakami room is beige, the Kusama room is green, the Koons room is blue, the Jones room is red, and the Abloh room is orange.
Every room has a polished vinyl flooring that matches the color of the lighting effect there so that the color saturation is even more enhanced. Projectors are used with glass gobos and colored filters to be able to create monogram shadows on the walls.
STEPHEN SPROUSE | And just when you thought you couldn’t stand another logo, Jacobs found the perfect compromise between art and commerce.
TAKASHI MURAKAMI | A revolutionary quid-pro-quo partnership, lifting Murakami from art world star to bonafide, Paris Hilton-adjacent celebrity and galvanizing the staid French luxury house with a shot of cutting-edge culture.
YAYOI KUSAMA | The fashion house’s sponsorship of Kusama’s retrospective art show at the Whitney came out of that meeting of the obsessive minds.
JEFF KOONS | Koons sees them as “a continuation of my effort to erase the hierarchy attached to fine art and old masters.”
KIM JONES | The last step in a journey that James Jebbia’s brand has made from underground cult to household name.
VIRGIL ABLOH | Abloh (architect, graphic designer and artisan) said he senses that some in the art world might know him only from his recent work with LV.