Chanel Mobile Art, the project Karl Lagerfeld created to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Coco Chanel’s iconic 2.55 quilted leather handbag, is now in the midst of a whistle-stop tour. It has already landed in Hong Kong and Tokyo, and after it touches down in New York, from October 20 to November 9, it will round out the tour in Moscow, London and Paris. A few weeks before the installation of the Zaha Hadid–designed portable pavilion was to begin on Central Park’s Rumsey Playfield, Sarah Douglas sat down in Chanel’s New York offices with Fabrice Bousteau, the editor in chief of Beaux Arts magazine and the curator charged with choosing artists for the project; the company’s head of fashion, Bruno Pavlovsky, who worked with Lagerfeld to organize it; and Chanel president John Galantic.  

Sarah Douglas: Fabrice, how did you go about selecting the artists? 

Bousteau: I looked for artists who would take advantage of the full freedom they are given to play with the characteristics of Chanel. I wanted them to ask themselves, “What is Chanel? Is it Coco Chanel? What are the brand’s main values?” After all, a fashion company has a particular idea of life. I asked each artist to visit the studio of Chanel, to visit the place where the handbags are made, to meet the people who make the handbags and to visit the apartment of Coco Chanel.

Pavlovsky: And it was interesting to see the artists come to the apartment, the boutiques, the factories, and to see how enthusiastic they were about crossing their own universes with that of Chanel, and then to see them come up with these artworks, some of which are quite funny. And they are all built around the idea of the bag!  

Douglas: What do you think are the values of the brand, and what did you learn from the artists’ interpretations?

Bousteau: For me, there is Chanel, and there is Karl Lagerfeld, who is an incarnation of fashion. Together these two entities create a kind of permanent chic. From working with the artists, I discovered certain values about life. I’m very interested in what life is. I was trained not in art but in philosophy. I think Coco Chanel’s fashion was not about fashion but about life. I don’t think fashion is superficial. It is a representation of our reality. Mobile Art is not an exhibition; it is a kind of miniature world. It’s not about individual works by Tabaimo or Subodh Gupta or Yoko Ono.

Douglas: But what if people think this is just one big advertisement for Chanel? 

Pavlovsky: Mobile Art is not about advertising. It is about Karl, Zaha Hadid and the artists—and their vision of what Chanel is today. It’s about communication and image. And it’s about design and creation. Chanel is one of the last houses that believe very strongly in creation.

Galantic: We believe in giving liberty to our creators. The project reflects a certain consistency in our history, from the days of Coco Chanel to today, and an appreciation of collaboration with artists. Several of our boutiques in the U.S. contain works of fine art. Our New York customers tend to be interested in the arts and will appreciate the collaboration between art, architecture and fashion in a way that enhances their image of the brand. Is it advertising? No. But it certainly is enhancing the experience of our customer.

Douglas: New Yorkers are fairly protective of Central Park, a.k.a. their backyard. Are you concerned about their reactions? 

Galantic: We are privileged to be cooperating with Central Park, because it’s a work of art in itself. We are bringing a work of art to a work of art, but in a collaborative way that is consistent with what the park is about. A New Yorker who appreciates living in the city and appreciates Central Park is used to Shakespeare in the Park and the New York Philharmonic and Christo’s Gates and now will have, for just three weeks, one of the finest works of architecture in the world. We feel we are making a contribution to the cultural life of the city and to the park itself.  

Douglas: You also made a contribution to the Central Park Conservancy that the New York Times reported as being in the low seven figures. 

Galantic: We don’t discuss the budget. 

Douglas: Will the pavilion look different in New York than it did in Hong Kong and Tokyo? 

Pavlovsky: The pavilion is like a bag – depending on how you wear it, it changes, and its content is very personal. You never look inside a woman’s bag. Relocations are part of this project. In Hong Kong the pavilion was on the top of a car park and amid all this incredible architecture.  

Galantic: When we discussed with our team where to be in New York, we didn’t have a second choice. We just said, “This belongs in Central Park.”  

Douglas: Today you can’t throw a stone without hitting a fashion-meets-art venture. For instance, the handbags Takashi Murakami has done with Louis Vuitton. 

Bousteau: In that case, an artist customized a product by Vuitton. In this project, there is no cobranding. There are no Chanel products in the exhibition. And it’s a gift, being a free exhibition. The idea is to offer to people this meeting between art, fashion and architecture. Also, there is a sound track on an MP3 player. You can’t visit Mobile Art without this sound track. So, really, it’s the fusion of architecture, art, fashion, music and text that creates Mobile Art.

Douglas: Has Chanel ever considered cobranding? 

Bousteau: Chanel has never done cobranding, and when Bruno asked me to participate in this project, that’s why I accepted—because Chanel has always been respectful of artists.  

Pavlovsky: We have a very strong artistic director in Karl Lagerfeld, whom we really believe in. 

Galantic: And Karl has been very clear about the difference between fine art and decorative art. 

Bousteau: Consider the artwork by Subodh Gupta. People thought Chanel would only be interested in big star artists, but when we started this project, he was not the star he is today. Chanel was taking a risk. Subodh made a two-screen video. On the left are scenes from Bollywood movies where women take handbags and do things like use them as weapons in fights with their boyfriends. It’s about how bags function in our society, particularly in Indian society. On the other screen is a video that Chanel funded, about people working in places like Dubai, who put their belongings into bags made from giant pieces of fabric. That has nothing to do with luxury bags. Bags are about the mobility of people. If women and men in developing societies have bags, it’s because it’s a way to be free.

Douglas: What happens to Hadid’s pavilion after the tour?  

Pavlovsky: We haven’t decided the future of the pavilion. It could go into storage, but we already have requests from museums to use it. Because it’s the first mobile pavilion from Zaha Hadid, we will find a good use for it, perhaps even by Chanel, in the future.

Douglas: Will Chanel buy the artworks? 

Pavlovsky: We already discussed with the artists that Chanel may buy the pieces at the end of the project. Chanel has priority on every piece. But a lot of collectors and museums have also asked to buy them.