The Swiss beauty house continues its support of art and culture with an exclusive and spellbinding art commission.
As part of its ongoing commitment to supporting the field of art and culture, La Prairie has commissioned Swiss artist Douglas Mandry to create a series of images that capture the fragile beauty of his country’s natural landscapes.
The artist, who uses photography as a mechanism to question the reality of memory, technology and nature, takes photographs as his base material, reworking and manipulating them as well as combining them with new and non-traditional elements to create objects that exist as a new typology, and toe the line between flat and three-dimensional.
For this project, Mandry first travelled through the country to capture still images of the wild, untamed lands. “After hours of walking, sometimes I just happen to be at a place which strikes me. Capturing this nature is for me a testimony of its sublime essence. Afterwards, I try to re-appropriate this untouched and unspoiled environment and make it my own. So, the whole process is about merging my experience of nature with my cultural background,” he explains.
From these images, he distilled certain shapes and abstractions that he wishes to retain in the original, and then began to subvert and transform the surrounding elements – painting, airbrushing and otherwise interfering in a way that connotes the passage of time. When the series of images is displayed, it is in a non-linear narrative, taking viewers on a fantastical, surreal journey that is a blend of dreams and reality.
This tribute to Swiss lands resonates well with La Prairie’s own quest to subvert time, and its tireless ideal of capturing a beauty that is timeless. This pursuit has been elevated to an art form, and in recognising this, La Prairie has sought to support artistic goals of many different forms, whether it is patronage of a global fair that can bring art to the masses, or supporting research into conservation of precious canvasses, so that historical works can be better preserved for the future generations. Three works created as a part of collaboration were also auctioned online at Artnet Auctions, with proceeds donated to ETH Foundation which contributes to research on glaciology and environmental conservation.
“Contemporary art is the prism through which we express our heritage and values and allows us to enrich our own story. As part of our ongoing relationship with art, we engage in creative dialogues with artists who bring their own perspective and artistic vocabulary to our brand. Indeed, artists are our storytellers,” says Greg Prodromides, Chief Marketing Officer of La Prairie Group.
“With this new initiative, we are extremely proud to be able – for the first time – to fuse our artistic engagement with our purpose as a Swiss luxury brand, committed to preserving the nature of our House’s origins.”
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