Taking a hard turn from its traditional role as the custodian of mainly 19th-century French art, the Musée d’Orsay in Paris is staging the first contemporary exhibition in its central sculpture nave. ‘L’Addition’ is an exploration of depictions of masculinity by Elmgreen & Dragset that draws on the museum’s collection of figurative sculptures, reinterpreted in new work by the Berlin-based artists. As our newsstand cover suggests (and that’s a silicone model of a small boy, by the way), it’s an audacious and, at times, disorientating undertaking, one that profitably pits the present against the past – a process discernible in work created by other artists that feature in this month’s Art Issue.
Take Rachel Feinstein, for instance. For the Miami-raised, New York-based artist, capturing the wild extremes of her hometown involves creating vast panoramas that are rife with historical rococo and gothic influences. Or this month’s Dakar Biennale, where a new generation of designers in Africa and its diaspora are showing work that links old and new – like the Marrakech-based Younes Duret’s reinterpretation of a teapot that, he says, reflects a fusion between tradition and modernity.
A new rug collection by Massimo Giorgetti for CC-Tapis takes inspiration from Milan’s 1960s metro system and its colourful navigational handrails
Our limited-edition cover features the first foray into fashion by Jony Ive’s design studio LoveFrom, which has collaborated with Moncler on a collection of jackets that can be mixed and matched with a single down-filled base layer. Here, too, the designer wrestles with the past. Ive tells our Milan editor Laura May Todd that, during the five-year development process, he ‘became obsessed with buttons. It’s an idea that is hundreds and hundreds of years old, and maybe it’s perfect, but as a designer, you want to challenge that assumption.’
Jumper dress (featuring Plants on a Plastic Tray (2006) by Christiane Kubrick), price on request, by Christiane Kubrick x JW Anderson. Brooch, £100, by JW Anderson
Buttons; a thread: finding connections is at the beating heart of this issue, an idea brought vividly to life by the collaboration between composer Max Richter and choreographer Wayne McGregor, whom you can find in conversation in our article, and the union forged between fashion designer Jonathan Anderson and artist Christiane Kubrick (wife of the late master of modern cinema), whose work we are honoured to document in a series of unforgettable images shot at the Kubricks’ Hertfordshire manor house. Eyes wide open? Good. Enjoy the issue.
Bill Prince
Editor-in-Chief
The November 2024 issue of Wallpaper* is available in print on newsstands from 10 October, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today
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Audi launches AUDI, a China-only sub-brand, with a handsome new EV conceptThe AUDI E previews a new range of China-specific electric vehicles from the German carmaker’s new local sub-brand
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Inside Izza Marrakech: A new riad where art and bohemian luxury meetHonouring the late Bill Willis’ hedonistic style, Izza Marrakech fuses traditional Moroccan craftsmanship with the best of contemporary art
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Clocking on: the bedside analogue timepieces that won’t alarm your aestheticWe track down the only tick-tocks that matter, nine traditional alarm clocks that tell the time with minimum fuss and maximum visual impact
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Out of office: what the Wallpaper* editors have been doing this weekA trip to Geneva, a festive light ceremony, new season fashion and pre party season health and wellness: it's been another busy week in the world of Wallpaper*
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Out of office: what the Wallpaper* editors have been doing this weekInvesting in quality knitwear, scouting a very special pair of earrings and dining with strangers are just some of the things keeping the Wallpaper* team occupied this week
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Elmgreen & Dragset explore contemporary masculinity in ParisWe visit Elmgreen & Dragset at their Berlin studio ahead of new exhibition ‘L’Addition’ at Paris’ Musée d’Orsay, a subversive take on the classical form
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The Loewe Foundation Craft Prize 2024 winner is Mexican ceramic artist Andrés AnzaAs the winner of the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize 2024 is announced at Paris’ Palais de Tokyo this evening (14 May 2024), Loewe creative director Jonathan Anderson talks to Wallpaper* about the continuing importance of the prize as an ’incubator of individuals’
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Wayne McGregor’s new work merges genetic code, AI and choreographyCompany Wayne McGregor has collaborated with Google Arts & Culture Lab on a series of works, ‘Autobiography (v95 and v96)’, at Sadler’s Wells (12 – 13 March 2024)
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Elmgreen & Dragset in Milan: bodies, minimalism and home discomfortsElmgreen & Dragset’s new show at Milan’s Fondazione Prada is an uncanny exploration of our dematerialising bodies and increasingly discomforting homes
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Last chance to see: ‘Elmgreen & Dragset: The Nervous System’ at Pace New YorkScandinavian artist duo Elmgreen & Dragset caution against short-term memory in their first major show with Pace Gallery, calling our attention to crises beyond the pandemic
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Snow time: Not Vital’s ice-cool collaboration with Evian and MonclerSwiss artist Not Vital enters uncharted waters in a new snow-inspired water bottle design with Evian and Moncler
