It’s the kind of anniversary that comes round as soon as in a century: Cartier is marking the one centesimal anniversary of one in all its home icons, the Trinity, and, after pop-ups in Paris, London, New York, and most lately Shanghai, the French luxurious maison is bringing its Trinity 100 pop-up to our shores. Operating from 15 to 23 July 2024 at The Arts Home, the seven-room exhibition particulars the historical past of the enduring design, from its origins (impressed by legendary artist Jean Cocteau), to its myriad kinds and incarnations over time, its shut affiliation with stars and celebrities, and ending off with a number of rooms devoted to commissioned artworks by creatives throughout numerous disciplines, together with movie, music, images, and extra.
Why has the Trinity continued to fascinate and encourage by means of the years? Yanina Novitskaya, CEO of Cartier SEA & Oceania, believes it may very well be due to the robust emotional connections that folks type with their Trinity items. “Fascinating reality: Should you take a look at the second-hand market, you’ll not discover so many Trinity items on the market,” she tells us. “Nobody resells it, as a result of—it’s easy—it stays with you; there’s a private that means (behind each bit).”
It’s exactly this robust emotional connection that the Trinity 100 pop-up is trying to encourage with its Singaporean, and regional, audiences, and, having previewed the exhibition, I can vouch that it succeeds at each educating and firing up the 100-year-old icon within the creativeness as soon as once more. Forward of the centenary celebrations set to kick off in Singapore, Novitskaya sat down with me to speak concerning the significance of getting the Trinity 100 celebrations in Singapore, the Singapore-inspired touches on this staging of the exhibition, and her personal private connection to the Trinity.
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Why did Cartier select to host the Trinity 100 pop-up in Singapore proper after Shanghai?
Yanina Novitskaya (YN): I feel it’s the primary time ever we’re [doing] this celebration at a real regional stage, and we’re very heartened and privileged that we get to host this occasion and invite visitors from greater than 20 completely different cities—it’s not solely Southeast Asia and Oceania. We wish to have fun our anniversary, and we now have visitors from Taiwan, from Tokyo, from Seoul, from India… So for us it’s an excellent second. I feel Trinity unites folks, brings forth connections, and offers us the chance to share tales. Actually, I’m very pleased that we lastly managed to do that.
I feel it’s not a shock, as a result of in reality, in the event you take a look at the inhabitants of the area, the international locations which we cowl right here, and in addition the central position of Singapore—as a result of nonetheless for a lot of international locations in Southeast Asia, Singapore is a frontrunner. On this metropolis, you will have such a mixture of cultures and mindsets. I feel it’s actually a spot the place everybody needs to be, particularly once we see this connection and unity, so it’s a really logical selection.
I imply, we’re generally known as a melting pot of various cultures, and it actually makes a number of sense with the entire that means behind Trinity as properly. So what have you ever discovered concerning the Singapore luxurious buyer? What do you assume that they search for relating to Cartier?
YN: Yesterday, we kicked off the celebrations with our key purchasers and creatives who participated within the pop-up and within the celebrations, and what I can see within the purchasers right here, particularly in Singapore, is that they’re so dedicated to assist completely different initiatives. All of them acquire artwork by native artists, they actually assist younger artists, they assist those that are most likely not recognised sufficient. I like very a lot how the artwork scene is creating in Singapore, or the biennale in Bangkok. And I can see that our purchasers listed below are deeply concerned and engaged with this agenda. So for me, it’s an amazing pleasure and I actually get pleasure from my skilled life right here, as a result of we are able to talk—not solely on the creations—but additionally our tradition and company initiatives. The purchasers are very numerous, very subtle, very properly educated by way of luxurious consumption, and so they perceive why traditions and craftsmanship are so valuable; why it’s a heritage for his or her youngsters, and wish to transmit this to the following technology.
What do you assume is particular or completely different concerning the pop up in Singapore, and the way it tells the story of the Trinity?
YN: I feel it’s fascinating how we mix completely different parts, which we wished to focus on by way of their historic retrospective, and in addition completely different parts behind the design. So you’ll uncover that the pop-up consists of a number of rooms and every of them has a selected objective, to let you know the story and to elucidate why, basically, right now, we have fun 100 years of the Trinity. As a result of it’s not solely [about] the design—after all, it was very daring and daring at the moment, but additionally [it was about] craftsmanship. I imply, the fluidity of those rings, and really deep that means behind it, the universality. It was the primary ring, I feel, to be standard amongst women and men.
What are some Singapore-inspired touches that we are able to count on within the pop-up? Are there any Singapore-inspired touches?
YN: We began speaking about Singapore as a melting pot of various cultures, so what I like is that we now have not solely Singaporean artists—we now have Malaysian artists, Indian artists… The moderator of our discuss yesterday was Audrey Yeo, who’s the Director of the Artwork Galleries Affiliation in Singapore. I actually love that Audrey moderated the discuss for us, as a result of she’s an artist herself. Earlier than [the talk], we have been making an attempt to align on [the agenda]; what could be the primary objective? I mentioned, “Audrey, inform me, why do you assume that it’s vital?” She mentioned, “As a result of I wish to convey extra consideration to the Singaporean artwork stage. Should you go to the US, they nonetheless love to purchase US artwork. Indonesians, very a lot concentrate on Indonesian artists and their collections. However in Singapore, they’re so open-minded. Should you take a look at the collections, and I actually have entry to some collections, what I can see is that they’re shopping for very completely different artists.” So it’s nice once we do that [pop-up] in Singapore, we focus not solely on Singaporean artists however others, and we all know that purchasers or guests who will come to this exhibition as a result of it’s a brand new technique to promote artists as properly.
Do you will have a favorite art work within the exhibition?
YN: It’s by an Australian photographer. Within the footage, you may see the pregnant lady; the pregnant mannequin. I didn’t know the story behind it, so I used to be like, [what is its connection to] Trinity? And I used to be enthusiastic about this as a result of it’s additionally sort of near my coronary heart—she’s pregnant, I’m a mum—so, [I could see] her, her child, however who else? And I used to be considering that it’s most likely the following technology, which we don’t see but. And once I met the photographer final evening, she defined to me that she [found out] she was pregnant with a daughter and that when the embryo was already at six months of age, the reproductive system is already created. So in reality, all of the eggs for the longer term youngsters are within the lady already, you realize, so it’s three generations. Are you able to think about that?
On a private observe, what’s your favorite Cartier Trinity design?
YN: This ring may be very symbolic for me. Yesterday, we have been speaking with Rafael [Bonachela], who’s one in all our creatives, the inventive director of Sydney Dance Firm. He’s performing right here. I’m tremendous pleased that we introduced him from Australia. He has the identical ring, however we have fun very various things with the identical ring. It’s lovely, as a result of he celebrates his love and partnership along with his associate, whereas I have fun the start of my youngsters, as a result of I received this ring one week after I discovered with my husband that we have been having twins.
My husband, he’s completely not concerned in luxurious—even if I’ve been working with Cartier for 17 years [laughs]—he doesn’t know all these parts, historical past… nothing. However the story of why he selected the Trinity for me in 2014—it’s one black ceramic band and two white gold bands—was that he simply appreciated that two rings are the identical color, and the black one dominates. And he mentioned, we nonetheless don’t know the gender of our children—we simply knew that it might be twins—however he already wished to have a good method to them. Why he selected this ring is as a result of there isn’t any distinction, it’s related: The 2 white rings signify our children, and we’re one, and all, linked. So that you see they’re very various things however we have fun with the identical ring. Once I noticed Rafael yesterday, it’s not one thing that we had ready. So it’s superb.
The Trinity 100 pop-up is open to the general public from 15 to 23 July 2024 at The Arts Home (1 Outdated Parliament Lane) and admission is free. Ebook your appointment right here.
This interview has been edited and condensed for readability.
Reporting help by Nicole Ng
This story initially appeared on Grazia.Sg
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