AUDEMARS PIGUET
ROYAL OAK 40-YEAR EXHIBITION
New York, Paris, Milan, Geneva, Singapore, Beijing
Creative Direction, Curating, Design, Fabrication
Invited by Audemars Piguet to curate and design the 40-year anniversary exhibition of the Royal Oak watch, Formavision conceived a traveling exhibition using design, photography, music and video to showcase one hundred exceptional timepieces and underscore the Manufacture's heritage and craft. The exhibition was composed of five display units called “fragments”, which could easily be shipped and assembled on site. Each fragment worked as a unique station focusing on one element of the Royal Oak story within the brand.
In addition to our exhibition design, we invited video artist Davide Quayola, photographer Dan Holdsworth, and our founder - Sébastien Léon - to contribute to the exhibition's vision by each producing work about the origins of Audemars Piguet in their own medium. The artists selected by Formavision were all assigned important additional commissions after the project was completed: Quayola with a new watch design, and Dan Holdsworth with a signature photo campaign to seal the whole brand identity.
The Royal Oak 40-year anniversary tour toured to New York (Park Avenue Armory), Paris (Palais de Tokyo), Milan (Palazzo della Triennale), Beijing (UCCA), Geneva (Arena) and Singapore (the abandoned Tanjong Pagar train station). After one year of touring, it naturally morphed into the Audemars Piguet VIP booth at Art Basel in Hong Kong, Basel, and Miami.
ART BASEL VIP LOUNGE
Basel, Hong Kong, Miami
Design, Fabrication
As Audemars Piguet became one of the recurring official worldwide sponsors of Art Basel, Formavision was retained to design its original presence in the VIP lounge of the fair. Using the language developed for the 40-years anniversary exhibition, we adapted our scenography for each specific location.
STRANDBEEST: THE DREAM MACHINES OF THEO JANSEN
Art Basel Miami
Exhibition Design
As part of the official Art Basel Miami Beach global partnership program, Formavision was commissioned by MA3 Agency to design the exhibition Strandbeest, the Dream Machines of Theo Jansen, presented by Audemars Piguet and the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM).
From a week, a clutch of Strandbeests, each with unique characteristics and histories, inhabited a prominent stretch of the beach in Miami Beach. Daily, visitors were able to meet Jansen as he led his larger-than-life, wind-powered creatures in demonstrations along the beach. An accompanying installation featured Jansen’s newest Strandbeests, including the 42-foot-long Animaris Suspendisse, as well as a reproduction of Theo Jansen’s workshop on the beach and an exhibition of Lena Herzog’s photographs of the Strandbeests.
Behind the scene…
• A traveling exhibition featuring over one hundred of the most iconic Royal Oak watches of the past 40 and, with a working watch workshop station
• A curated series of photographs by fine artist Dan Holdsworth taken in the Vallée de Joux, used for the exhibition and the brand’s main advertising campaign
• A sound installation by Sebastien Leon using the sounds of watch mechanisms and of the Vallée de Joux in Switzerland
• A large-scale video installation by fine artist Quayola used for exhibitions and promotional Audemars Piguet events
• A catalog published in four languages (English, French, Mandarin and Italian), distributed during at the shows and in stores internationally
• Exhibition teaser video and interactive video content for exhibition
• Micro-site featuring artist interviews, watch news, tour information and calendar of events
• Presence of VIP guests at each exhibition stop
• Press conferences with the artists and Audemars Piguet executives at each location
• Exhibition traveled to museums in Paris, Milan, New York, Beijing, Singapore and Geneva. Official partnership with Art Basel brought the show to Miami, Hong Kong and Basel