In a rare instance of creative matchmaking, Chanel has brought more than 30 Chinese and French creatives together in Shanghai, with a group show titled “A Sense of Touch,” which made its debut at Shanghai’s Monumental Art Museum of Pudong on Friday.
The exhibition brings two distinctive worlds into the Chanel universe — artists were given carte blanche to create work; the caveat is that most of them had to engage with one or more of the 11 maisons d’art within Le19M, which has traveled from Paris to Shanghai for the occasion.
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“Traditionally, art and craft tend to appear at different stages of a production line, one after another,” explained Gong Yan, a member of the editorial committee and artistic director of Power Station of Art in Shanghai.
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“I think the divide between art and craft is perhaps artificial. In reality, it never really existed. What actually matters is that you have to take action, to actually use and engage with it,” said Gong, who said the exhibition allows designers, artists and craftspeople to collaborate in a shared reality.
Alongside Beijing-based contemporary artist Lin Tianmiao, Zhang Lei, founder and director of Pinwu Design Studio and Rong Design Library in Hangzhou, and Christelle Kocher, artistic director of feather specialist Lemarié and Atelier Lognon, which specializes in pleating, the collective managed to put together a monumental show that was produced in less than a year — rapid speed for the art world.
Connecting the exhibition to broader social concerns, Gong also believed that the Le19M method can inspire the preservation of local craft, often put on a pedestal devoid of meaning.
“Often classifying craftsmanship as ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage,’ they exist either in museums or are turned, often rather crudely, into tourist souvenirs. It is almost as if those are the only two paths available to Chinese craft,” added Gong.
“Craft produces objects that emerge from the pursuit of a more beautiful, more fulfilling way of living; art, on the other hand, does not necessarily need to be useful. In fact, it can sometimes be precisely about pursuing the useless. So I think there is a very interesting relationship between usefulness and uselessness,” explained Gong.
For the Beijing-based artist Lin Tianmiao — playing devil’s advocate — artists should avoid the trap of refined craftsmanship.
“If their craftsmanship has already been pushed to such an extreme level, why bring artists into the picture? Presumably, they want artists to take the craft in a different direction. That could mean bringing in a critical perspective, a philosophical one, or introducing the particular dimension of touch that exists in art,” said Lin.
“I chose leather because it’s something closest to the skin,” said Lin of her work, an illuminated wall of painted medication boxes atop skin-toned leather from the bespoke shoemaker Massaro.
For Kocher, working closely with one of the 30-plus creators, the Beijing-based Wu Jian’an was the most invigorating — the artist created a monumental work that turned craft into an energy field featuring a pleated totem.
“He wanted to bring the meaning that we have to work collectively, we have to work with different cultures, we have to work with different techniques,” explained Kocher. “Perhaps this exhibition can create a new expression — sometimes I think of the 1970s Arts and Crafts Movement,” added Kocher of the revival of handcraft after the Industrial Revolution in the late 1800s.
In a quiet rage against the machine, followed by mankind’s earnest return to nature, Shen Yuan, the Paris-based Chinese artist known for her association with the Xiamen Dada group, created a tranquil scenography of a lotus pond with Lesage embroidered trompe-l’oeil animals atop Massaro footprints. Shen wanted to give the artisans full freedom to reinterpret her watercolor painting.
“They were very efficient, their work elevated mine, added dimension to it — this is true freedom in the sense that the insects, birds, looked like they could really fly,” said Shen.
French artist Diane Chéry combined the craft of bamboo kite-making in Weifang, Shandong province, with the pleated craft, taking a more hands-on approach that allowed her painting to leave the limits of the canvas and become airborne. “Paintings tend to be more rigid, but now it can fly as a kite,” said Chéry.
A piece just as intimate as Lin’s, Chéry’s work expresses her bond with her mother after her death 10 years ago. Textile flowers and featherwork from Lemarié and origami-like pleats from Atelier Lognon, among other ennobled fabrics, adorn several kites that may not be able to actually fly, but echo the themes that Chéry explores in her work, such as color play, blurring the line between the visible and the invisible.
For Zhang Lei, who was the matchmaker behind Chéry’s collaboration with kite masters in Weifang, the tie-up allowed traditional craft to “become the new luxury, become the future, engage the youth,” said Zhang, a Chinese designer known for creating the Rong Design Library, a nonprofit dedicated to researching and reinterpreting traditional Chinese materials such as bamboo, silk and paper.
“If Le19M existed 17 years ago — when I was still an automotive design student in Italy — I would have jumped ship immediately,” said Zhang, who sees craft as essential for rebranding the Chinese aesthetic for the culture.
“Visual culture is at the core of successful American exports such as Hollywood and Disney, but for Chinese culture, only relying on visuals doesn’t work; one must draw directly from local materials and traditions,” added Zhang.
“A Sense of Touch” will run until November 15. In March 2027, the exhibition will travel to La Galerie du 19M in Paris.
