Culture / Fashion house - 11/30/22
On the occasion of Miami Art Week 2022, Balmain introduces "Hexagon Garden”, a site-specific virtual and physical installation by Cuban artist Alexandre Arrechea, shown at Superblue Miami, that reproduces the spaces of the Villa Balmain.
Constructed on the Italian island of Elba in the late ‘50s, by the famed Italian architect Leonardo Ricci, Villa Balmain’s unique blending together of its exterior and the interior spaces inspired Alexandre Arrechea for his Miami Art Week installation.
For “Hexagon Garden,” a site-specific virtual and physical commission shown at Superblue Miami, Arrechea has transported Villa Balmain to the Web3 universe, relying on LITO’s proprietary technology to create a large-scale, immersive environment enveloping Ricci’s construction.
After slipping on their headsets, metaverse visitors will first spy an enormous golden ring floating around Arrechea’s reimagination of Ricci’s one-of-a-kind structure—and, as they approach, the ring reveals the precise geometric pattern of a honeycomb.
Arrechea allows his digital honeycomb to make very clear the connection between the luxuriant gardens and sleek interior spaces of Balmain’s island retreat. Pierre Balmain grew a multitude of exotic plants and flowers on his grounds—flora that he had gathered during his many travels to all corners of the world. The honeycomb that Arrechea has crafted is pollenated by the bees working in Villa Balmain’s fruitful garden. Constantly buzzing between the vegetation, the golden ring and the Villa’s interior, Arrechea’s bees work to transport an entirely new type of pollen—an array of precious stones—depositing the gems inside the Villa’s new honeycombs, creating impressive patterns that echo the distinctive lines and curves of Villa Balmain’s silhouette and which eventually coalesce into a series of jeweled masks.
Masks have been a recurring theme in Arrechea's recent work. He often turns to them to construct urban visages that reflect both the Caribbean’s original aboriginal culture and its strong African heritage. For this project, Arrechea's metaverse masks are completed by the surprising “pollen” carried by the bees—pollen transformed into emeralds, pearls and onyx— for these are powerful gems that possess their own distinct spirituality, while also holding a strong significance for Balmain’s luxury heritage. Bees and gems are important ingredients in the legacy of Pierre Balmain.
To help create Arrechea’s immersive virtual experience, Balmain first turned to LITO, which used its high-resolution topographic scanning techniques to digitize the entirety of Villa Balmain and its lush surroundings. After Alexandre Arrechea had been introduced to every part of Pierre Balmain’s vacation home through that multi-dimensional art experience, he began working closely with LITO to situate his boldly re-imagined vision of the island retreat inside the metaverse.
Each precious mask has also been paired with its own unique NFT. Those NFTs, echoing the special garden journeys that form the starting point for Arrechea’s creations, are available for purchase on MintNFT.com. The special Alexandre Arrechea-Villa Balmain NFTs will be minted on the fast and energy-efficient XRP Ledger—which in 2020, became the first carbonneutral blockchain.
Alexandre Arrechea’s “Hexagon Garden”
At Superblue Miami
December 1st and 2nd
110 NW23rd Street
Miami Florida
Curated by Direlia Lazo
Music and Sound Design by Alí Alvarez
Produced by Liaisons
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