Titled “Time, Nature, Love”, a Van Cleef & Arpels Exhibition will be landing in Riyadh on the 19th of January. The exhibition will be curated by Alba Cappellieri, who is the president of the Milano Fashion Instituted and a professor of jewelry design at the Milan Polytechnic University. The designer will be Johanna Grawunder, who is an architect and designer known for her work in lighting and spatial design and art.
The exhibition will be held in the Saudi National Museum in the capital and will exhibition the world of the luxury maison for the first time in Saudi Arabia.
Featuring more than 280 pieces, the exhibition will include jewelry, watches and previous objects that have been created by the teams at Van Cleef & Arpels over the years since its establishments in 1906. The presentation will also include gouache designs, sketches, and other important archival documents that display the heritage of the brand.
The intriguing thing about this Van Cleef & Arpels exhibition is that it is an amalgamation of many fascinating discourses that span across literature, architecture, dance, couture, and design. The objective of the event is not solely to display, but also to teach and inspire – which is what design intimately aims to do, no?
For example, Italo Calvino, an Italian writer and journalist, will have his work mentioned throughout the exhibition. Calvino references values in his “Six Memos for the Next Millennium” which are: Lightness, Quickness, Exactitude, Visibility, and Multiplicity. These latter values will be depicted in some of the rooms throughout the exhibition.
With the title “Time, Nature, Love”, the exhibition spaces will follow a certain thematic design. The first section will spread over 10 rooms and will explore the concept of time.
The second section, which is situated at the center of the exhibition, will be about Love. It will symbolize the “power of emotions” with motifs of love, and some gestures that give a nod to 20th century romances based in mythology.
The final section is devoted to nature and will be conveyed through the stunning elements of Botany, Flora, and Fauna.