Emotional intelligence
Will Hersey explores how creative collaborations are reshaping the luxury landscape by fostering authentic connections through art, wine, and a shared sense of community
With each year, the number of luxury brands which collaborate with artists and designers on new product lines or experiences seems to grow and grow. On paper, these partnerships make a lot of sense. Brands benefit from a fresh perspective, working with creatives unsullied by industry conventions, while tapping into new audiences and, from a PR angle, it helps distract from the less showy elements of luxury, like the price tags, and the cycle of pushing more “stuff” every season. Such tie-ins have become so ubiquitous in every industry, from fashion to cars, that when done without due care and intention, they can feel like a corporate box tick – just another column in a marketing strategy.
Thankfully there are still cases where these combinations produce something special, and where creative freedom, shared values and the quality of the end experience are prioritized.
New York-based, Egyptian-born food artist Laila Gohar produces installations that are the polar opposite of bland. From teetering langoustine towers for fashion shows, to life-size chairs made out of cake for an art show at Sotheby’s in Paris, her fantastical bespoke creations are designed to wow and, naturally, her Instagram feed is a great place to get lost.
For Gohar, though, it’s about more than just food that looks pretty. Her aim is for these temporary art installations to trigger emotional reactions. Growing up in Cairo, it was less the food itself that inspired her than the atmosphere around it – the way people gathered and connected around mealtimes.
food and art meet in Laila Gohar’s fantastical bespoke creations. This page, Loaf (2020) by Sam Stewart, exhibited at Friedman Benda Gallery in a show co-curated by Gohar. Portrait ©David Brandon, artwork ©Brian W. Ferry
ONLY CONNECT
It’s this sense of hospitality and community that has grown into a central tenet for Terra, a large-scale, multisensory art project and exhibition in the heart of Burgundy’s wine country that connects artists, collectors, galleries, winemakers and local people. Now entering its third year, the project stems from a meeting of minds at Art Basel, between Jenn Ellis, a Swiss-Colombian art curator and Milena Berman, a Californian producer and wine consultant (later joined by London-based curator and art historian Emie Diamond).
“We shared not just a mutual aesthetic in the way we look at art, but also in terms of how we experience it,” says Berman. “We found that the meals were equally important to the art programming, because people really engaged and shared and connected.” She bridges the art and wine world, often thoughtfully pairing wines to the specific themes and styles of the artist she is working with.
“It was the care with which Milena picked out the wine that stood out to me,” remembers Ellis. “We have these meals in the art world, but invariably the wine that gets selected is quite bad, or it’s the last thing people think about. But if you’ve put so much care into how you display something, why would you not extend that same care to this binding element that is part of the celebration?”
Back home in Burgundy, where she’s lived since 2013, Berman looked into the possibility of accessing heritage buildings among the UNESCO World Heritage protected vineyards as exhibition space. The local response was immediately enthusiastic. “The winemaking community was sort of tossing me the keys to their chateaux,” she explains.
When Ellis came to see the spaces, each in the surrounds of the medieval town of Beaune – including a 15th-century chapel, historical theatre and château – they landed on the theme of terroir, with each venue given a sub-theme of its own. “In wine, you sense place through taste, and in art, perhaps through a multisensory experience,” explains Berman. “So that’s really what we’re after with Terra, this idea of feeling a place through all these different senses, through arts, through culture, through music even, and through wine and taste.”
Next to come on board with gusto were the galleries and artists, attracted by the opportunity to do something truly original in a special part of the world, against a spectacular autumnal backdrop. “A project like this makes people dream a little, and I think that’s really important,” says Ellis.
Over the two years of Terra, a mix of established work, new commissions and site-specific pieces have been shown, like the stunning Frame Series, Work No. 2 by Meta Drčar in the venue 67 Pall Mall, the members wine club housed in Résidence de Moyne-Blandin. Meanwhile for 2024, an open call for submissions garnered over 300 applications, resulting in a selection of just 10 artists from a nine-person jury. Terra has now featured artists from Senegal to Turkey, Singapore to the UK.
“And people from every single corner of the world have attended,” says Berman. “It’s remarkable.” Such has been the response that the team are now planning doing quarterly events in New York, London, Geneva and Paris.
These international flavors remain rooted though by the Burgundian setting and its local backing. And it’s this blend and exchange of disciplines, industries and perspectives that makes an event like Terra so unusual.
Ellis’s favorite memory from last year came at the gala dinner, in the majestic surrounds of the Hospices de Beaune. The table clocks had been designed by the artists, with a mix of gallery owners, collectors and winemakers in attendance. “I was amazed that some of the winemakers had brought some bottles with them,” she recalls. “All of a sudden, we had this moment of participation, this contribution. It was magical."
Amaterasu (2024) by artist Matthias Blitzer at Résidence de Moyne-Blandin (67 Pall Mall). Installation photography ©James Retief, Terra
Left. What will you leave behind? (2021) by artist Nino Sarabutra at Château de Chevigny-en- Valière, France, in 2024. Centre. Lost in Responsibilities (2023) by artist Anna Blom and It Curdles (2024) by Mia Chaplin at Château de Chevigny-en- Valière, France, in 2024. Above. Abrasée XLIV (2024) by Antoine Langenieux-Villard at La Maison de Pommard. Installation photography ©James Retief, Terra
“In wine, you sense place through taste, and in art, perhaps through a multisensory experience. So that’s really what we’re after with Terra, this idea of feeling a place through all these different senses, through arts, through culture, through music even, and through wine and taste”
Milena Berman, producer and wine consultant
Among Laila Gohar’s artistic collaborations is her partnership with the French luxury brand Hermès, where she showcases her distinctive fusion of food, design, and fashion Photography ©Yago Castromil
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