Article by Nora Kovacs in Berlin // Wednesday, Apr. 15, 2015
This coming May, French furniture designer and artist Hubert le Gall will be debuting his collaboration with Ruinart at the champagne brand’s pop-up gallery in Berlin. The brand, which places a heavy emphasis on the elegant and precise process of creating champagne, has done collaborations with contemporary artists in the past, like Georgia Russell, who Berlin Art Link had the pleasure of interviewing last May. This year Hubert le Gall has designed ‘Le Calendrier de Verre’ (‘The Calendar of Glass’) in relation to the monthly ebb and flow of Chardonnay harvesting for Ruinart’s limited edition Blanc de Blancs.
Hubert le Gall: ‘Calendrier de Verre’, Collaboration with Ruinart Blanc de Blancs, 2015 // Courtesy of Ruinart
Le Gall’s focus is on the time, calculation, and patience that is involved in the making of Blanc de Blancs. Not only do his glass sculptures evoke the colors and textures of Chardonnay grapes, champagne, and Ruinart glass bottles, but they are a manifestation of the various stages of growth and harvest. Each sculpture represents a different month of the year and a different phase in a Chardonnay vine’s life, from cold and snowy January to flowering June to the long-awaited harvest in September. As the seasons change, so do the forms of le Gall’s sculptures, each beautiful in their own way.
Hubert le Gall: ‘September, Calendrier de Verre’, Collaboration with Ruinart Blanc de Blancs, 2015 // Courtesy of Ruinart
Le Gall employs natural imperfection as one of the most essential aspects of his artwork; the bubbles in the glass exemplify the bubbles in champagne, as the asymmetrical and bulbous shapes show the spontaneity and fluctuation of Chardonnay in bloom. The winter sculptures are as delicate and fragile as the months they represent, while the sculptures of bloom and harvest seem to burst with fruitfulness and fertility, replete with color and shape. From October to December, the sculptures lose their transparency and slowly retreat into a dark, almost phallic, state of hibernation.
Hubert le Gall: ‘December, Calendrier de Verre’, Collaboration with Ruinart Blanc de Blancs, 2015 // Courtesy of Ruinart
Whether viewed separately or as a series, le Gall’s ‘Calendrier’ sculptures exude energy. His pieces are not only inspired by Ruinart champagne, but by the mood, ephemerality, and sexuality of nature itself. Le Gall seems to have a sincere appreciation for the refined art of champagne preparation. The light, the reflections, the elegance, the subtleties, the blooming and withering, all make for what is more of a performance than anything else, and le Gall’s interpretation of this performance is certainly something to look out for at the Ruinart Pop-Up Galerie this May.
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Additional Information
RUINART POP-UP GALERIE
“Le Calendrier de Verre” – HUBERT LE GALLBERT
Exhibition: May 1 – 3, 2015
Opening Hours:
Friday, May 1; 12 – 9pm
Saturday and Sunday, May 2 and 3; 11am – 7pm
Potsdamer Straße 68, second backyard (click here for map)
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