Chanel Pulls the Plug on Mobile Art Exhibition

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed)
Dec 21st 2008 at 7:02PM

Chanel has decided to pull the plug on its avant-garde and attention-getting but extremely costly Mobile Art Pavilion exhibition due to the economic crisis. In October my colleague Tracy Chait reported on the Pavilion's installation in New York's Central Park. Designed by starchitect Zaha Hadid in collaboration with Chanel kingpin Karl Lagerfeld, the high-tech Pavilion (above) is full of self-serving if stylish art inspired by Chanel's iconic quilted handbag. For the Central Park installation alone Chanel paid $400,000 for the space plus a charitable donation. Originating in Hong Kong, it traveled to Tokyo before landing in NYC and was scheduled to continue on to London, Moscow and Paris. Chanel reps cited a "refocusing of investments" in deciding to bring the tour to a premature end.

Tags: Central Park, CentralPark, Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld, KarlLagerfeld, then and now, ThenAndNow, Zaha Hadid, ZahaHadid