I am pleased about the ArtStyle Magazine featuring my work for Christian Dior, Paris:

Christian Dior fell in love with the elegant hotel building with its neoclassical facade at 30 Avenue Montaigne and made it his creative laboratory and home of the Dior collections from 1946 onwards. The emblematic building was recently reopened after about two years of renovations and the space of over 10,000 square meters has now reached a new level of luxury with additional services: a real fashion museum with boutique, works of art, gardens, an exhibition space and custom-made furnishings.
David Begbie participated in this incredible project by designing 36 works inspired by the Dior collection: Christian Dior iconic Medallion chairs, miniature Medallion chairs, a 2.5-metre long Christian Dior table, Grand Tour Torsos and roses.

Dior wanted to integrate the innovative technology developed by the Levita company, created in 2018 by two wizards from Liège - Philippe Bougard and Clément Kerstenne, for the reopening of 30 Montaigne in March 2022. Bags, perfumes and jewels seem to float in the air in the windows of the historic boutique, and the toiles blanches - white canvases - three-dimensional sketches which will then give life to the haute couture models, dance in a space without gravity. The work of David Begbie fits wonderfully into this dreamlike choreography: the iconic Medallion chairs and the Christian Dior table have been sculpted in
a stainless-steel mesh painted with gold leaf, in a combination of transparencies and light that recalls the impalpable lightness and the ethereal elegance of the entire scenography.

Begbie's works interact with the symbols of the history of the French fashion house – such as the unmistakable Medallion chair, the Lady Dior, the Rouge Dior lipstick, the Grand Escalier and the books of the Christian Dior library, in a monumental homage to his patrimony and its Ateliers. Subsequent to the project, the artist has also created a series of sculptures of roses in multiple colour finishes, all influenced and inspired by the style of the Dior collection.

"Working with the Dior designers proved to be a very interesting experience which let me to consider the differences versus the similarities between a design object and an art object - my conclusion was that a design object has to be utilitarian with a useful purpose and function whereas an art object does not – it only exists to be a work of art." David Begbie, 2022.

Photo credit: @KristenPelou, @Adrien Dirand.

ArtStyle Magazine is a free art magazine

Read the ArtStyle Magazine Winter 2023 - open/download pdf extract here

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