Dior‘s latest exhibition in Beijing is awash with a radiant golden aura.
Taking place at the Guardian Art Center near the Forbidden City, the retrospective brings together archival fashion pieces and artworks that celebrate the color, the material and the concept of gold through the prism of fashion, art and culture.
A multisensory experience with 15 thematic rooms, the exhibition is open to the public free of charge through Sept. 29. Visitors can make a reservation on Dior’s WeChat Mini Program.
“There is only one thing I want every visitor to experience, to make them dream. Dior is a house of dreams. It’s true on the fashion side, it’s true on the fragrance side,” said Véronique Courtois, chief executive officer of Parfums Christian Dior. “My ambition would be to enlarge the group of dreamers in the world and bring this desirability to every corner of the world.”
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The exhibition, which is also a celebration of 60 years of China-France diplomatic relations, is officially a part of the “Croisements 60” festival, an arts and cultural celebration that includes more than 400 events in 31 Chinese cities from April to December.
“We have a lot in common with China and one of them is a unique color, which is gold. When you think of China, when you’re outside of this country and think of China, you see a bit of red, but you see a lot of gold,” Courtois explained. “For Dior, gold is much more than a color, it is an important attribute of the brand.”
The exhibition, which showcases works by 14 contemporary Chinese artists, some of which were commissioned by Dior throughout the years, also helps shed light on the avant-garde side of Chinese culture, noted Courtois. The carefully curated lineup includes a good mix of emerging and established artists, including Bao Yang, Liu Wa, Chen Ke, Han Duyi, Lin Tianmiao, Liu Fujie, Liu Jianhua, Wang Yuyang, Zhang Ding, Zheng Guogu, Ai Jing, Hong Hao, Ma Qiusha and Shen Wei.
A graphic-style painting by the Chinese female artist Chen Ke, titled “Mr. Dior and Models,” welcomes guests to the exhibition, which begins with a cabinet of curiosities that celebrate the French maison’s indelible tie with gold in all forms.
Miniature New Look dresses, gilded jewelry — including a piece worn by Charlize Theron for the very first Rogue Dior campaign in 2006 — and many iterations of the J’adore bottle paint a comprehensive picture of the quintessential Dior style.
The exhibition’s olfactory journey officially begins with “World of Flowers,” where guests can exalt the beauty of flowers by sniffing five floral-scented diffusers set within a floral garden adorned with thousands of paper flowers.
The next room, showcasing Rihanna‘s latest campaign for J’adore lensed by Steven Klein, shows the singer, businesswoman and fashion icon gliding through the gilded halls of Château de Versailles like a queen in a castle, before uttering the tag line, “Your dreams…make them real.”
As the newest face of J’adore, the first in more than 20 years, Courtois said Rihanna’s iconic presence will breathe new energy into the fragrance that was first created in 1999.
“You need to please every generation, every person, every country, and it is undeniably true that Rihanna is known in every part of the world. She is strong, she is free, she is super supportive of female empowerment, and she brings genuine energy,” Courtois said.
As for the golden embroidered bustier gown worn by Rihanna in the latest J’adore campaign, it is displayed in the next hall titled “The Golden Dream,” which revisits golden couture silhouettes designed by Christian Dior and his successors, including Marc Bohan, Gianfranco Ferré, John Galliano and, most recently, Maria Grazia Chiuri.
More regal dresses are presented in a subsequent “Golden Garden” room. Punctuated by works of artists Yuriko Takagi and Lionel Estève, couture dresses play host to an imaginary couture party, perhaps in a palace nearby.
A golden reconstruction of the Dior flagship at 30 Avenue Montaigne also stands out. Carved out through the house are a series of artist-designed Lady Dior Bags, some of which are seen for the first time, including works by Anna Weyant, Duy Anh Nhan Duc and Diego Cibelli.
Other highlights from the exhibition include “Christian Dior’s Gallery,” which features a roomful of unique art pieces that all exalt the beauty of gold, and four rooms that feature original artworks commissioned by Dior, which aim to expand the lexicon of the brand’s obsession with the beauty of gold.
They include “The Illuminated Object,” created by Liu Jianhua in 2012, which reconfigures the J’adore bottle into more than 2,000 ceramic droplets that hang from the sky; a 2012 work called “Procedure” by Lin Tianmiao that interprets the captivating choreography of savoir-faire gestures; a digital fresco called “A Dream of Gold and Flowers” by Refik Anadol, and an immersive installation designed by Élise Morin.
To fete the opening of the exhibition, Dior hosted a livestreaming session across online platforms, including Weibo, Douyin, Xiaohongshu, WeChat, Tencent, Xinhua Net, Miui and Sohu. The livestreaming session garnered a total of more than 71.2 million views.
During the two-hour long livestream, Dior global ambassadors Lang Lang and Dilraba Dilmurat; Dior China ambassadors Wang Junkai, Xin Liu, Yu Shi, Yang Caiyu, Liu Xianhua, Deng Wei, Zhou Ye, and Lin Yun; Dior China jewelry ambassadors Wang Ziwen, and Jiang Shuying; friends of the house Gina Alice Redlinger, Wang Yuwen, Yu Jingtian, Sun Yihan, and Wang Jiayi; legendary Hong Kong actress Carina Lau; Chinese director Mai Zi, and Chinese talk show host Chen Luyu all chimed in to offer their perspectives on Dior and gold.
