{"product_id":"vanessa-beecroft-vblv-alphabet-concept-espace-louis-vuitton-paris-2006","title":"VANESSA BEECROFT — VBLV \/ Alphabet Concept, Espace Louis Vuitton, Paris, 2006","description":"\u003cp\u003eIssued for the inaugural exhibition at Espace Louis Vuitton, 60 rue de Bassano, Paris 8e, avant-première Wednesday 11 January 2006, 12:00–21:00; exhibition 12 January–31 March 2006. Original exhibition invitation, 22 × 24 cm; colour photographic reproduction to recto, black offset typography to verso.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBefore the Fondation, there was the Espace. This invitation catches Vanessa Beecroft at a particularly loaded point in her trajectory. Since the early 1990s she had built her practice around rigorously staged groups of predominantly female bodies; by 2005 she had presented VB55 at Berlin's Neue Nationalgalerie and VB56\/VB57 in collaboration with Louis Vuitton in Paris. The January 2006 exhibition effectively turned that increasingly close relationship between performance, fashion and luxury patronage into its own subject.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe invitation performs the collision beautifully. On one side, naked bodies are arranged into a letterform. On the other, VBLV becomes an enormous corporate-looking typographic block. Body becomes alphabet, alphabet becomes logo, artist and brand become almost impossible to separate. The exhibition included photographs and video developed around this Alphabet Concept.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIts afterlife makes the paper object considerably sharper. In 2007 Louis Vuitton apologised to Dutch designer Anthon Beeke after the anatomical alphabet was challenged for its resemblance to his earlier \u003cem\u003eNaked Ladies Alphabet\u003c\/em\u003e of 1969\/70, and further use of Beecroft's alphabet was halted. This invitation therefore survives from the brief period before that authorship dispute rewrote the work's history.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA temporary object, circulated and retained, carrying both the launch of Louis Vuitton's cultural programme and the evidence of its own passage. The image was designed to make a brand. The paper records what happened afterward.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCondition: fair. Pronounced tear from upper edge, handling creases, edge and corner wear, light surface marking. Complete and fully legible. Securely packed; tracked UK and international shipping available.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Espace Louis Vuitton","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54263823401298,"sku":"BEECROFT-LOUISVUITTON-INV-2006","price":150.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0991\/5636\/1554\/files\/Beecroft_Vanessa.Showinvite_LouisVuittonfoundation.2006.jpg?v=1786725996","url":"https:\/\/thenewrare.com\/products\/vanessa-beecroft-vblv-alphabet-concept-espace-louis-vuitton-paris-2006","provider":"The New Rare","version":"1.0","type":"link"}