A New Take on Window Shopping

Louis Vuitton stores are loaded with desirable merchandise, but you won’t see any in the windows this holiday season. Instead there’s art. From now until January 7, Danish artist Olafur Eliasson’s sculptures “Eye See You” will occupy the windows of the flagship store at Fifth Avenue and 57th Street, as well as more than 350 Louis Vuitton stores around the world.Is it a case of art trumping commerce — or art in the service of commerce? Either way, it’s a bold move that puts a celebrated international artist at one of Manhattan’s prime retail corners during the busiest time of the year. What the brand sacrifices by not showing off its wares will most likely be more than made up for by the unusual attraction.“It’s a present to New Yorkers,” the chairman and the chief executive officer of Louis Vuitton, Yves Carcelle, said, adding that the effort balanced the needs of “respecting the brand and respecting the art.”Commissioned by the luxury goods house, “Eye See You,” which was unveiled yesterday, consists of freestanding forms that resemble lamps or eyes. “They’re made with sun cookers that are used to cook food in the Third World,” Mr. Eliasson said, referring to the large silver panels that form the bulk of the shapes.In an artist’s statement, he explained further: “Essentially, what I have created is a lamp shaded like the pupil of an eye looking out of the window, but which at the same time is a mirror.”Against the highly reflective, concave surfaces, the artist placed lightbulbs that project various colors and appear to cast different shades depending on the viewer’s vantage point. One sculpture — “You See Me” — is permanently hung, as a chandelier would be, from the ceiling of the shop. Another four are placed at street level in the windows against black backdrops. During the day, the colors are varied, but at night the round eye glows with a yellow-gold that is offset by the darkness in the rest of the window.According to Mr. Eliasson, the glass in the windows allowed him to play with an idea he had been toying with. “It’s about the relationship between inside and outside,” he said. “On store windows there is always a reflection of yourself. You’re looking through the reflection of yourself.”Not only that, you’re usually looking at some item for sale, thinking about yourself with those things and how they might fit with your life. “It’s a piece of theater that you play out. What does it mean to participate in that dialogue?” he said.These holiday windows are the second collaboration between Mr. Eliasson and Louis Vuitton. For last year’s renovation of the Louis Vuitton flagship on the Champs Elysées in Paris, the artist created “Your Loss of Senses,” an elevator that elminated all sight and sound stimuli.His current project, however, has a broader dimension in that many more people can witness it — and ultimately more people will benefit directly from it. Mr. Eliasson has donated his fee to 121Ethiopia, a foundation that he and his wife, Marianne Krogh Jensen, founded in 2005. The foundation works on a “purposefully modest scale,” its literature states, to ensure that funds go directly to the projects intended. Already the group has renovated the Ketchene orphanage in Addis Ababa. Thirty of the more than 300 artworks will be sold for $33,333 each; the proceeds will go to 121Ethiopia as well.For Louis Vuitton, the connection to Mr. Eliasson’s charity creates a layer of corporate responsibility. And the overall project deepens the brand’s ongoing connections to and patronage of visual artists. In recent years, Louis Vuitton has collaborated with Takashi Murakami on a series of handbags and both Robert Wilson and Ugo Rondinon to design holiday windows (though those designs also included merchandise).The “Eye See You” project plays on the idea of illumination, sight, and the unusual placement of art where luxury goods usually stand. But there’s no prescribed way of seeing it. As Mr. Eliasson said: “You could also look at it as a flower.”

A New Take on Window Shopping

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