Reporter | Chen Qirui
Edit | Lou Shuqin
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The Venice Biennale, postponed for a year due to the pandemic, has brought the Italian water city back to life.
The 59th Venice International Art Biennale kicked off on 20 April. As the first biennale to be held after the outbreak of the epidemic, several art institutions and tourism platforms have been frequently promoting and marketing through social media and other channels since March, launching galleries and excursions around the city.
The easing of the epidemic situation and the deregulation of border controls have led to a large influx of tourists to Venice. The Venice Biennale will run until November 27, and the Venice Film Festival, which will be held in autumn, also falls under the category of the Biennale. There are two clear trends in this year's biennale, namely the increase in the proportion of female artists and the increase in the number of luxury brands exhibiting.
Projects sponsored by Dior during the Venice Biennale
Dior and Valentino are both sponsors of the Biennale, funding artists and art projects. Valentino has worked with the biennale organizers on several occasions, including direct sponsorship of the exhibition and the organization of catwalks. Onofrio Cutaia, president of the Biennale, said private corporate sponsorship was particularly important for this year's exhibition, raising a total of 1.45 million euros in donations.
Louis Vuitton organised a series of marketing activities by participating in the Biennale. After announcing that its Fondation Louis Vuitton would support artist Katharina Grosse in hosting solo exhibitions and funding restorations at the Ca' d'Oro Museum, Louis Vuitton hosted a brand dinner on the evening of April 21, inviting celebrities such as Isabelle Huppert and Deepika Padukone to attend.
Louis Vuitton's projects during the Venice Biennale
In addition, Louis Vuitton announced the renovation of eight traditional book kiosks in Venice during the Biennale, selling books such as City Guide and Travelogue published by Louis Vuitton. The move is similar to the brand's practice of opening a pop-up store when it launches limited-time clothing items, but it is more in line with the atmosphere of the biennale.
The Butterfly Family and Prada also participate in the Biennale. The Prada Foundation announced the exhibition "The Human Brain: It All Starts with Thought" and the phased launch of lectures and scientific forum projects that last until October. The Butterfly family sponsors the "Dancing Studies" dance performance project, the dancer costumes are designed by creative director Matthieu Blazy, and hosts celebrity dinners and capsule collections during the exhibition.
Projects of the Butterfly family during the Venice Biennale
Prada's projects during the Venice Biennale
The luxury and art industries are increasingly overlapping, but it has only been the norm in the past decade or so.
Creative directors of luxury brands draw inspiration from works of art, but the art industry does not naturally give positive feedback to luxury brands. Most of the time luxury brands exist in the art world as objects of consumerism and materialism, and the appropriation and ridicule of images has caused tension in the relationship between the two sides.
Takashi Murakami's collaboration with Louis Vuitton since 2003 has made a difference. The collaborative series has been a great success in terms of sales and communication, allowing other brands to see the significance of brand marketing. At that time, it also coincided with the accelerated globalization of the luxury industry, and Western luxury brands urgently needed to inject freshness into the high-end image in addition to craftsmanship.
And this is also a process that both sides need to take. Working with luxury brands to define the collection can provide artists with more funding and exposure. Since luxury brands don't usually expect to drive sales through artist collaborations, artists often have more freedom in the process of collaborating.
But not all artist collaborations achieve the desired goals. Art is a superstructure for the masses, a field that requires time and effort to gain a deeper understanding. The success of artist collaborations relies on both marketing and luck. Considering that luxury brands do not dilute their image through frequent collaboration, the role of the limited artist series in shaping the image has always been limited.
A collection of handbags in collaboration between Takashi Murakami and Louis Vuitton
It was also at this time that luxury brands began to set up art foundations and frequently sponsor art projects, exporting more long-term values by diluting commercial colors. For example, the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art has established an influence in the global art industry and has held many major exhibitions. Despite its claim to operate independently of Cartier, the images of the two sides are actually bound and influence each other.
If in the past, the exhibitions and art projects sponsored by luxury brands were mostly for high-end image considerations, in recent years, these activities have been given a more direct marketing purpose. How to present art has become an important part of the current operation of luxury brands.
The trend of the fashion industry's creative paradigm shifts from apparel silhouette innovation to apparel concept interpretation. After the release of new talents in each season of gucci and dior, the designers will specifically explain how the artist's spirit is presented in the clothing, and the PR team will then focus on marketing it.
Gucci fashion show
The changing paradigm of thinking in the art industry, coupled with the increased enthusiasm of the public to visit art galleries in the past few years, and the development of social media, have provided the ground for luxury brands to market through art festivals and art exhibitions. The popularity of many fashion exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has shown people the artistic value that luxury brands can provide outside of consumerism, and has led to the popularity of fashion exhibitions.
Against this backdrop, luxury brands are increasingly keen to emphasize their relationship with art.
In the case of Louis Vuitton, in addition to participating in the Venice Biennale as a third party, it also frequently holds traveling exhibitions on the theme of bags or clothing. And one can also see that most of today's art projects involving luxury brands are often accompanied by celebrity dinners, new product launches and even catwalks.
If the exhibition is creative, the brand can thus establish a reputation in serious areas; even if the exhibition effect is average, a series of marketing methods can bring traffic to the brand, while playing a basic role in educating consumers. After all, for consumers to be satisfied at the spiritual level, the high-end experience emphasized by luxury brands can be regarded as a complete closed loop.