Chanel Mobile Art, Hong Kong

Mobile Art has landed. Chanel's 'pack-away' gallery space orchestrated by Karl Lagerfeld and architect Zaha Hadid that we first told you about last October has officially launched in Hong Kong.

Click here to see more of Zaha Hadid's creation.

The art-architecture-fashion collaboration will travel the globe from now until 2010 showcasing the work of twenty leading international artists inspired by a single common theme: Chanel's iconic quilted 2.55 bag. Here at Wallpaper* we have a particular fondness for the venture, an inspired result of the encounter between Lagerfeld and Hadid that we orchestrated in New York for our 'power couples' photoshoot in W* 092 last year.

The line between art and architecture, if it exists, has always been nebulous, and the most striking piece of art on display here is surely the structure itself, like a shiny white alien pod, static and grounded amidst the towering skyscrapers of the city. As matchmakers we were granted a global exclusive sneak preview of the container's construction in last month's issue (W* 108) and the spectacular finished product certainly lives up to the anticipation.

The look is trademark Hadid – whimsical, fluid and graceful – an aesthetic that would have strongly resonated with Chanel's bold creative director who in the past has likened the value of her designs to 'great poetry'. The curved, undulating walls of the interior serve as a dramatic backdrop to work by the likes of Yoko Ono, Sylvie Fleury, photographers Nobuyoshi Araki and Stephen Shore and the Russian collective Blue Noses.

Mobile Art will hit the shores of Tokyo in May, followed by New York (September '08), London (June '09), Moscow (September '09), and finally Paris (February '10).

14 March 2008 | Art