Not all images were able to load for printing. Please close the print window and try again. The New Louis Erard x Monica Bonvicini NOT FOR YOU
Italian artist Monica Bonvicini’s confrontational NOT FOR YOU light installation is translated into wristwatch format.
It’s fair to say that under Manuel Emch’s leadership, Louis Erard has evolved from being a somewhat obscure brand into a dynamic platform for creative collaborations. Offering highly original content at affordable prices, Emch has partnered with high-profile watchmakers such as Alain Silberstein, Vianney Halter, and Konstantin Chaykin, while his passion for contemporary art has also led to collaborations with artists Olivier Mosset and Sylvie Fleury. The latest initiative involves artist Monica Bonvicini, an Italian conceptual artist whose provocative and monumental light installation, NOT FOR YOU, has been adapted to wristwatch format. Coinciding with the 14th edition of Art Genève, the Louis Erard x Monica Bonvicini watch is released in a limited edition of 178 pieces.
Monica Bonvicini (Venice 1965) is a multimedia Italian artist based in Berlin. Her thought-provoking works critique political and social institutions and explore the relationship between gender, power dynamics and architecture. Often brutal, darkly humorous and uncompromising, her black and white world relies on mundane materials like scaffolding, chains, nails, leather, concrete and metal, and, in the case of the NOT FOR YOU light installation, 40W light bulbs were used to convert the disturbing message into a three-dimensional sculptural object.
Bovincini’s NOT FOR YOU light installation, first exhibited in 2006, featured blinding light bulbs reminiscent of the marquee lights found in yesteryear amusement parks. Directly addressing but rejecting the viewer, her NOT FOR YOU installation is confrontational and provocative and raises questions about the nature of art as a consumable, collectable product, the art world’s elitism, the reach of institutional power, and ultimately, who art is for. If it’s not for me, then who is it for?
Conveying this paradoxical work of art into a wristwatch, the 39mm unisex watch uses the artist’s signature materials, fusing leather and steel with a sober black palette. Featured on the dial, the NOT FOR YOU message is featured as a mirror-polished appliqué set against a black Clous de Paris guilloché background. The mirror-polished letters echo the glare of the light bulbs that lit up the original installation. The caseback also features NOT FOR YOU in mirror-polished metallic letters printed beneath the sapphire glass.
The polished 39mm stainless steel case has a height of 12.82mm and features a domed sapphire crystal on both sides. A time-only model – hours and minutes – the watch is powered by a Sellita SW 261-1 automatic with a 38-hour power reserve (small seconds repressed) with a black lacquered Louis Erard symbol on the rotor.
Without addressing the paradox of transforming Bonvicini’s NOT FOR YOU into a consumable, collectable product, it will certainly send an unequivocal sign to onlookers who ask to get a closer look of the watch!
Available with two strap sizes, the watch is paired with a black Baranil calfskin strap with a steel pin buckle and quick-release spring bars. The Louis Erard x Monica Bonvicini is limited to 178 pieces and retails for CHF 3,900 (excl. tax). More information at louiserard.com.
