Central Park To Host a Chanel Commission

By Staff Reporter of the Sun | July 24, 2008

Fashion and art will converge this fall, when a temporary building by the architect Zaha Hadid houses contemporary art inspired by a luxury handbag — all on a field in Central Park, as part of a promotion for Chanel, the New York Times reported on its Web site last night.

Chanel commissioned both the building, which has made stops in Hong Kong and Tokyo, and the art, which is meant to be inspired by a Chanel quilted handbag from 1955. The artists include Sophie Calle, from France; Sylvie Fleury, from Switzerland; Subodh Gupta, from India, and the Russian collective Blue Noses.

According to the Times, Chanel is paying the city a use fee of $400,000, and making a donation "in the low seven figures" to the Central Park Conservancy, for the privilege of installing the spaceship-like building in the Rumsey Playfield, around 70th Street. Called Mobile Art, it will be Ms. Hadid's first structure in New York.

Mobile Art will be open between October 20 and November 9. Entrance will be free, but visitors are encouraged to make reservations at chanel-mobileart.com.