THE KEYS TO LOEWE’S LATEST, DYNAMIC RUNWAY? AN ART INSTALLATION AND INTEGRATED LIGHTING
Photo Benoit Florencon
27 jan 2022, for frame
Location
84 Av. Georges Lafont, 75016 Paris, France
Design, Art
Jonathan Anderson, Joe McShea and Edgar Mosa
Brand
Music
Site
Tennis Club de Paris
Floor Area
1,400 sq-m
For its AW22 menswear presentation, the label displayed an ephemeral work by Joe McShea and Edgar Mosa to pursue an altered real world in a French modernist building.
Key features
Staged at Tennis Club de Paris, the fashion space was defined by two spatial elements: a sand landscape punctuated by almost invisible transparent plexiglass stools and colourful flags. The latter formed a site-specific installation by artists Joe McShea and Edgar Mosa: 87 faceless flags made of nearly 4,000 individually cut ribbons were mounted on 6.5-m-long aluminium flagpoles. Rendered in 13 colours chosen to represent the entire visible spectrum, each flag was unique and arranged randomly.
The interior of the building was another essential part of the set: slightly dusty concrete walls and arches and old metal frames outlining matte glass skylights lent a sleek ambience. Tennis Club de Paris is part of the first truly multi-sport indoor stadium – the Stade Pierre de Coubertin, which was inaugurated in 1937. Built under the direction of the then chief architect of Paris Edouard Crevel, the building holds the spirit of innovation in 20th-century sports architecture.
Frame's take
The set builds on the dynamic quality of the textile art installation. As the artists put it: ‘Flags only come alive when they interact with the natural world around them.’ That world embodied by the modernist multifunctional sports hall, the flags emphasize the Loewe AW22 collection by Jonathan Anderson. The creative director integrated LED lights to illuminate the silhouettes of the clothing and accessories. The combination of the modernist architecture, flapping flags and glowing designs calls to mind the colours and excitement of extravagant sporting parades on Red Square in Moscow in 1937, orchestrated to express the joy of overcoming difficulties in the struggle to build a new life – the same joy which is so needed today.