Last Thursday was the launch of “Astralis”, the new Louis Vuitton Cultural Space exhibit. Assuming that creation is a work based on both matter and immaterial, the cultural place behind the well-known Champs Elysées Vuitton store in Paris is now offering its visitors a journey into immaterial and astral depths.
Entering the Astralis show at Louis Vuitton's Espace Culturel is in itself a sensorial experience. The departure is made right from the very beginning, with the elevator leading to the higher floor where the exhibition takes place. Once the elevator's doors close, the visitors are locked in a deepest dark. Locked in an artwork indeed, as this permanent piece was made by Olafur Eliasson, who wanted the spectators to disconnect from reality and exterior world before visiting the exhibition floor.
Then, the show can start. It is all about passage, as shown by Charley Case's Cosmic Lodge.
Then, the show can start. It is all about passage, as shown by Charley Case's Cosmic Lodge.
Astral and invisible come together in all the works gathered here. Every room of the exhibition floor is a new entry to some kind of parallel world, where sculpture, installations, drawing and painting are put side by side. Trough the works of international artists such as Jean-Luc Favero, David Altmejd, Chloé Piene, Basserode, Art Orienté Objet, or Rina Banerjee the exhibition helps the visitors to get in contact with a hidden part of human nature. Each piece seems a clue to discover an individual who confuses dreams with reality and who lives at the border between the visible and the invisible, just like most artists.
For us, to understand mankind's artistic nature means a continuous confrontation of the borders of both the imperceptible and the incredible. The Astralis exhibition is, without any doubt, a way of opening the doors of perception and experience towards other dimensions and new territories.
