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Tuesday, 20 November 2007 | Levent OZLER
Susanne Kessler and Petra Eichler Create a Fairytale World for the Van Cleef & Arpels Christmas Windows
Sounds of Silence for Van Cleef&Arpels
If fairies do their Christmas shopping on place Vendôme, they won't be surprised by what they see in the Van Cleef & Arpels windows. Rather, they will wonder how their familiar surroundings - a deep forest, of course- were transported there. A poetic and fairy tale world has been created by two contemporary artists who combine image with sound to immerse the visitor in a luminous and silent world.
Sounds and Lights
A fairy tale décor. Such is the description one could use to define the unexpected and poetic forest that has appeared in the windows of the Van Cleef & Arpels boutique on place Vendôme from the 15th of November to the end of January. Where there are fairies... there is magic. You only need to stop for a moment in front of this three-dimensional scene to discover that it is alive! The light changes imperceptibly, from dawn till dusk, to the crystal sounds of a techno music that was composed especially by Sounds of Silence. And so, from the pink hues of dawn to the colours of twilight... the gradations of browns, greens and oranges transport this landscape of light and shadow through time. The décor is made up entirely of white paper: large vertical panes are the backdrop for the shadows of a multitude of projected cut-out silhouette shapes. Illuminated by a subtle combination of coloured lights, birds, dragonflies and fairies flit about blithely in this enchanted world while eerie figures such as a wolf, an owl and some crows hide and wait in the lush vegetation so dear to the House. A show that can be watched for hours - and why not all day - lulled by the dreamlike music
A Multisensory Concept
This moment of pure poetry is the fruit of a partnership between the actress and director Susanne Kessler and the architect Petra Eichler, both from Germany. They have named their concept Sounds of Silence: just as the eye adjusts to the shadows and discovers unexpected shapes, the ear is presented with a multitude of sounds, of which... is silence. Sounds of Silence reveals its variety of facets and creates an environment in which the experience of silence is made possible thanks to a series of audio-visual installations. For example, in Frankfurt, the two artists have created spaces inviting the visitor to meditate and dream, leaving behind him the noise of the urban world and immersing him in an unusual and very poetic atmosphere. One discovers that that silence can be a truly personal experience, both mentally and physically, and is led to ponder on the nature of the music of silence.
Dialogue with Art
From its very beginnings, Van Cleef & Arpels has sought out to collaborate with artists, in a number of areas; dance with George Balanchine with whom was created the ballet Jewels in 1967, represented in London in 2007; design with Patrick Jouin who received the commission to renovate its Salons on the place Vendôme for its centennial anniversary; the collaboration with the very avant-garde publisher Visionaire in 2005, with a limited edition featuring work by Pedro Almodovar, Sofia Coppola, Dan Forbes, Mariko Mori , to name a few... Today, with Sounds of Silence, Susanne Kessler and Petra Eichler continue this dialogue through image and music, opening the doorway to a surprisingly fantastical world.
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