The relationship between fashion and art has been explored by various brands over the years. But the recently opened Christian Dior & Chinese Artists exhibition at Beijing's Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art (UCCA) is a fresh take on the connection between the two forms of expression.
The exhibition features commissioned works from more than 20 Chinese contemporary artists, whose brief was simple: after visiting the brand's headquarters and exploring its archives in Paris they were asked to interpret what they thought the brand stood for.
'What is very important about this show is that it establishes a dialogue between the founding vocabularies of Dior, with artists who are inventing the Chinese contemporary art landscape of today,' says Jerome Sans, director of UCCA and curator of the exhibition.
'There has been no other exhibition like this - neither in China nor elsewhere. It is a one-of-a-kind show, a 'couture' exhibition with tailor-made artworks, made by Chinese artists for China. It will only be [shown here] and after this it will be hosted [by the Bernard Arnault Foundation] in Paris.'
The 20 works are designed by artists who span two decades and different generations, and use various mediums from painting, photography and video to installation and sculpture. Each piece is showcased alongside the creations that inspired them, be it emblematic objects from Dior such as its perfumes or designs by the fashion house's founder Christian Dior, artistic director John Galliano, Dior Homme designer Kris Van Assche, and fine jewellery designer Victoire de Castellane.
To further reinforce the show's message, there are more than 100 couture pieces from the company's Paris archives, including a style from the revolutionary New Look collection designed by Dior in 1947, making it as much a testament to the brand's origins as it is to Chinese art.
'This is the first time that contemporary art and first-class fashion are connected so intimately,' says Zhang Dali, one of the artists. 'Before this most people would consider art and fashion two separate worlds but now they can see how both provide the milieu for capturing new concepts, enlarge our knowledge of the world and give strength for the creation of a new lifestyle.'