For this year’s 60th Venice Biennale, curated by Brazilian-born Adriano Pedrosa, Chanel provided exceptional support to French-Caribbean artist Julien Creuzet, who represents his country in the French Pavilion. Together with the winners of the Chanel Next Prize 2024, he was celebrated with an exceptionally spectacular dinner, hosted by Yana Peel, global head of Chanel arts and culture.
The fabulous soirée gathered the crème de la crème of the art world in the stuccoed rococo salons of Palazzo Malipiero on the Grand Canal, a Byzantine-Venetian gem recently acquired by French art patron Nicolas Berggruen.
Peel welcomed the guests with an elegant and passionate speech, emphasizing the importance of art ‘as the greatest form of hope’ and defining the freedom of creation as ‘the ultimate luxury’. She praised Creuzet’s talent (“he is a titan!”) and framed his intriguing, powerful work within the theme of this year’s Biennale, Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere: “Art, culture and the urge to create can turn strangers into friends change. My greatest hope is that our honorees leave tonight as friends and collaborators, as art also offers the greatest potential for shared meanings.
Creuzet, who wore a towering hat that hid his intricate dreadlocks, was clearly the star of the evening. Born in Paris and raised in Martinique, his oeuvre is as complex as it is spectacular, encompassing the biographical, the political and the personal; it also has a performative edge, with montages of music, poetry and sculpture serving as a canvas for his commentary on French colonial history and the reconstruction of African origins.
The title of his wonderful installation for the French pavilion reads like a poem: “Attila cataract your source at the foot of the green peaks will end up in the Great Sea/Blue Abyss we drowned in the flood tears of the moon.”
Peel praised the group of young makers who received the 2024 ChanelL Next Prize, saying that “they would have made Mademoiselle Chanel collaborator Sergei Diaghilev proud” as they worked across multiple artistic disciplines, from dance to visual arts to classical music. Awarded by a jury consisting of artist Cao Fei, art critic Hans Ulrich Obrist, curator and writer Legacy Russell and actress Tilda Swinton. The winners are Georgian artist Tolia Astakhishvili, Russian film director Kantemir Balagov, Irish dance choreographer Oona Doherty and New York game developer Sam Eng, Singaporean animator and visual artist Ho Tzu Nyen, Native American artist and director Fox Maxy, American free jazz musician Moor Mother, Brazilian artist Dalton Paula, Icelandic symphonic composer Anna Thorvaldsdóttir and American opera singer Davóne Tines. In her deliberation, Swinton stated: “This is a time in our history when new thinking has never been more urgent. Each of these artists points us forward and into the afterlife.”
Like a Chanel perfume, the evening was a perfect blend of breezy French chic and opulent Venetian luxury. The candlelit setup had a local touch: Rococo-shaped tables were upholstered in black linen covered in white Italian lace; gilded papier-mâché candlesticks are handmade by local artisans; glassware was custom made in Murano in collaboration with Laguna B; side plates are hand-painted with gold leaf by the Venetian artist Daniela Poletti. The list of attendees included gallerists Sadie Coles OBE and Jay Jopling, museum directors Nicholas Cullinan OBE and Maria Balshaw OBE, actress Vicky Krieps, arts patron Maja Hoffman, to name a few; While taking in the magical decor, they enjoyed a delicious menu catered by Arrigo Cipriani’s Harry’s Bar, whose fluffy, decadent vanilla meringue would tempt even the most ascetic of guests. The icing on the cake? Soulful musical performance by British singer-songwriter Ayanna Witter-Johnson.
