Swarovski and modern art have always made a fruitful tandem. Guided by the motto” Created by science. Filled with magic», the company again relies on creative people. Let us recall which of the top artists participated in these art projects and whose works are in the unique museum in Wattens.
Yayoi Kusama
The Japanese artist has long had the status of a classic and national treasure. Mental disorder (Yayoi lives and works in the clinic) does not prevent her from creating deeply thought-out, full of energy and mystical objects and installations. From the mid-1960s she began making installations in the form of mirror rooms, where the viewer literally loses the earthly dimension and finds himself in weightlessness among dancing lights. This is the «Chandelier of Grief» in the Swarovski Museum: the chandelier and accompanying crystals turn into an avalanche covering you in a dark hall. Today it is one of the main places for selfies.
Blue Noses
The Russian art group «Blue Noses» has already broken up, Vyacheslav Misin and Alexander Shaburov went their own way. However, in the early 2000s they were the stars of the Moscow stage, without which no festival was possible. They parodied Soviet symbols, did ironic performances on the verge of a clown, mocking politicians. At the Swarovski Museum, they combined expensive crystals and luxury glitter with proletarian architecture. Thus arose the world of Soviet utopia, when people dreamed of seeing the «sky in diamonds».
Andre Heller
Media-artist André Heller has implemented the most ambitious art project Swarovski. For the 100th anniversary of the company, which was celebrated in 1995, he built the complex «Crystal Worlds» – a landscape park and museum, where 17 rooms with installations of modern artists are placed. As the main element of the complex, the author invented to pour a hill in the form of a giant’s head. In addition, Heller has distinguished himself as a writer, circus performer, musician and composer, film director and computer animation director. In other words, the Leonardo da Vinci of our time.
Lee Bul
Korean contemporary artist Li Bul is one of the top places in the international art rating. She works with the latest materials, with high-tech elements, with the subject of the cosmos and the outer worlds. It is no coincidence that she considers Russian avant-garde as one of the sources of inspiration. This was proved by her grandiose exhibition «Utopia Saved» in St.-Petersburg Manege two years ago.
For me, humanity’s fascination with technology means our concern for the human body and our desire to transcend the flesh in the search for immortality, – explains the artist. – This interest often materialises in my works in the form of a cyborg, the closest to the human being». Thus, organic shapes (jellyfish, snow or streams of water) in the works of Li Bul turn into frozen crystals. The person turns out to be one-on-one with a myriad of reflections. Whether it is possible to save himself without turning into a machine is a big question. Swarovski crystals were very useful for the vision of Korean.
