Credits: Article and images by Felix Scholz @ Revolution Watch Magazine. See the original article here - https://revolutionwatch.com/cartiers-crystallization-of-time-exhibition-exemplifies-the-maisons-cultural-impact/
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For the love of beautiful objects
The Crystallization of Time is now the latest chapter in that 40-year history of exhibitions, and for Rainero, it’s a telling exploration of the maison’s approach to design. He says, “This exhibition says something very interesting about the vision of Louis Cartier. For a period of time, being modern meant to turn your back to the past. You couldn’t be modern without being totally different. That was not the vision of Louis Cartier, or of Cartier. Louis Cartier never established a hierarchy of past, present and future. There’s no idea of progress in terms of creation. There are beautiful things, but there’s no idea of progression as there is in maybe math or technology. In our creations, you always feel something that was already existing, as well as an exploration of new territories. So in terms of notions of time, it says a lot. Time is continuous, and we share with people who lived before and people who will live in the future. It is something that moves everybody. The field we work in, we are about creating things that move you, and this is, I think, eternal.”
Rainero goes on to explain how Hiroshi Sugimoto’s guiding vision has provided valuable insight into Cartier’s familiar objects by placing them against a broader setting. “Initially, this exhibition was intended to study the evolution of forms, how they evolve, what remains the same, and what this reveals. Sugimoto integrated these ideas and transformed them in depth and with a broader scope. For me, when I look at the evolution or changes of pieces over time, say from the ’30s or ’50s, along with more contemporary pieces. You can see the thread — maybe colorful stones — there are nuances that you can read. But when Sugimoto looks from a bird’s eye view, it really highlights the scope. We include contemporary pieces in this exhibition, but when we say contemporary, we mean from the ’80s and ’90s. We’re as far away from that period now, as the ’80s were from the 1950s. Thanks to Sugimoto, we see that everything is relative. The history of what Cartier does compared to others looks very long, but in the broader scope of things, it’s the blink of an eye. I like that Sugimoto has brought this philosophical element to the exhibition.”
Credits: Article and images by Felix Scholz @ Revolution Watch Magazine. See the original article here - https://revolutionwatch.com/cartiers-crystallization-of-time-exhibition-exemplifies-the-maisons-cultural-impact/