Raining Stars
An exhibition of provocative art forms of fireworks to illuminate Louis Vuitton Maison Gallery at One Central Macau.

(Macau, September 8 2010) Fireworks explode in their fullest artistic form as Louis Vuitton presents Raining Stars, an exhibition of the vision of some of the world’s most challenging contemporary artists if the magic and joy and ephemeral beauty of fireworks.

For over a 155 years, Louis Vuitton has a long standing association with the arts and has been working with the best artists, engineers and decorators. Current artistic director Marc Jacobs has revitalized the Malletier’s link with the world of art by initiating collaborations with some of the most influential contemporary artists of our times, thereby reinforcing the Maison’s commitment in art patronage and promotion, as well as pushing the dialogue between luxury, fashion and artistic creation even further.

Opening from September 10 till December 5 at the Louis Vuitton Gallery, One Central Macau, the “Raining Stars” exhibition features a group of prominent artists from different cultures interpreting the festive and celebratory implications of gunpowder:

• Cai Guoqiang, one of China’s most celebrated contemporary artists who took the art world by storm with his explosive arts;
• Damien Hirst, UK’s renowned artist with the existential dilemma of the human condition and the the theme of mortality, depicts dramatic expansion and death of exploding rocket through his spin paintings;
• Yan Lei’s contemporary paintings of fireworks are resolutely representational, not simply reproductions of the original reference images but instead aim to distil them to their essential qualities;
• Zheng Guogu, Chen Zaiyan and Sun Qinglin of Yangjiang Group’s fireworks performance for “The Real Thing”, a Chinese contemporary arts exhibition at Tate Liverpool in 2007 presents the artists’ iconic comment on the way Chinese traditions are becoming commodified and repackaged as mere entertainment;
• Canadian artist David Spriggs’ airbrushed images on acrylic films capture transient effects from the creation of a star to the power of hurricanes;
• Jiang Zhi’s video, “The Beginning of the Universe”, takes us back through time and space towards the Big Bang; thereby, suggesting wherever there is a beginning, there is also an end;
• Shanghai art collective Liu Dao’s “Fallen XOs” describes a love story between the city and the sky; using fireworks as a metaphor to depict the power and intensity of passionate personal relationships;
• Japanese artist Ken Kitano’s “Flow and Fusion” combines a photograph of fireworks at night with a midday street scene, leaving viewers wondering if the intense illumination of the night sky has cast a bright glow on the earth;
• British designer Thomas Heatherwick has employed the form of dandelion, nature’s flowering fireworks, in a number of his works. His “Seed Cathedral”, selected as United Kingdom pavilion at Expo 2010 Shanghai, is a 20-metre structure that is comprised of 60,000 optical-fibre wands transporting light into the interior.

Louis Vuitton believes that themed exhibition with works by artists from different countries can help break down cultural barriers while maintaining and preserving the things that make them distinctly different. The “Raining Stars” exhibition is rooted in a shared experience of fireworks. Like travel, it is a form of cultural exchange that aims to help facilitate deeper and better understanding between people of different cultures.