As Art Basel launches in Hong Kong, opening the city to a celebration of all talents visual, conceptual and graphic, MCM revealed its collaboration with art front-runner Tobias Rehberger. Working in the sphere of design, the German artist’s work resides at the crossover between the utilitarianism of innovation and the conceptual brilliance of art. Awarded the Golden Lion for his contribution to Venice’s Biennale in 2009, Rehberger is one of the most prominent artists to hail from Germany. With installations the world over, from Madison Square Park in NYC to Seoul’s Leeum, Rehberger’s signature exploration of deconstructive practices in art and design has been widely celebrated.
The work revealed last night, titled If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain, invaded the space of the MCM Hong Kong flagship store. For this collaboration, Rehberger reinvented a host of MCM’s iconic luggage pieces, pairing geometric designs with the sleek shapes of the house. “MCM invited me to reinterpret their iconic luggage collection and I responded by replacing the synonymous all-over MCM logo with my one recognizable ‘dazzle camouflage’ interpretation of the logo,” explained Rehberger. How do you transfer such genius design to a store? Visually, the result is a neon-infused, startlingly linear and brilliantly angular pattern covering the entirety of the store. Perfectly in line with the futuristic designs of MCM, Rehberger appealed to a generation of digital natives, blurring the aesthetic of organic in a suavely designed futuristic space.
The forward-thinking particularity of the space meant that guests were able to create their own monogram motif and have it displayed on a digital wall and shared worldwide over social media instantly. Breaking the limits of physical spaces, Rehberger and MCM were joined by a host of influencers and celebrities, from Nicky Hilton and Hailey Baldwin to Jing
Discover the brand new collection here.
The exhibition will remain open to the public until May 2nd. Discover more here.
Discover the latest issue of Schön!.
Now available in print, as an ebook, online and on any mobile device.
