ON ART & TIME BY MANUEL EMCH CRASH 66

By Crash redaction

ART ENTHUSIAST AND DIRECTOR OF ROMAIN JEROME, MANUEL EMCH RECENTLY CRAFTED A WATCH WITH JOHN ARMLEDER, THE UNOFFICIAL HEAD OF A NEW GENERATION OF SWISS ARTISTS: A PROJECT THAT MAY MARK THE BEGINNING OF A BEAUTIFUL FRIENDSHIP WITH THE ART WORLD FOR A BRAND THAT MARKETS NOTHING BUT COLLECTOR MODELS.

INTERVIEW BY
ARMELLE LETURCQ

Can you tell us about your recent project with John Armleder?
I chose John for our brand’s first collaborative project because he’s from Geneva and he had not yet worked with a retail brand before. Not to mention he’s the leader of an entire generation of young Swiss artists. When I first got in touch with him he was just recovering from an illness and he told me he wanted to take a different approach to his work. I wanted the series to be a work of art and for each watch to be unique. There are only ten versions of the model and each one has a different background. The pattern we used for the watch is a Mexican mask that resembles a human skull, which carried a lot of meaning for John after his illness. For him, this series of watches in different colors means: “death is the same for everyone, it’s just the execution that changes!” All ten watches sold very rapidly and John still wants to do more… The project was even more interesting for him because he likes to explore how artworks are appropriated. For example, he would love it if one day while walking through a museum he discovered a fake John Armleder, a work with his name on it that he never made… He’s committed. We worked on the watch for three years.

Are you planning any other projects?
I’m talking with two or three other artists, but I don’t want this to become an overly commercial thing. I don’t want to work with anyone who needs a contract. The whole process is supposed to be more akin to a friendship than a business relationship. That’s why it demands so much time; it’s actually like any other work of art. That’s a good attitude, since there are so many artists designing bottles of water or champagne… Artists are almost like businesses in today’s world. They have to promote their own brands. So they have to set up partnerships and associations and stay connected through different networks. And I can certainly understand them, too. We just started a collaborative project with a tattoo artist and it’s an entirely different universe. We also designed watches in connection with a few video games. They’re very different activities, but they all come together under our brand. But I don’t want our projects with artists to become too commercial. The experience with John Armleder was very friendly and it produced something unique.

What five artists would you most like to work with?
It may surprise you but one of the first projects I really liked was Keith Haring’s Swatch. I was kind of born into the watch business, but I was never very excited about it until I saw that watch. So I would have jumped at the chance to make a watch with him if he were still alive. Other than that I really like Ugo Rondinone and Urs Fischer. Whether or not an artist works in three dimensions is an important thing to consider when designing a watch. Gianni Motti would be great, too! He did the clock in the Palais de Tokyo…

Any women?
Sylvie Fleury, but that’s a little obvious… Collaborating with a woman would be interesting because it might take us in a totally different direction, so it would have to be someone with a very feminine approach. It could even help us in markets where we have little to no presence. There’s also Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist. She’s one of the ten biggest Swiss artists, so definitely… But video would be hard to work with on my end! And there’s Anish Kapoor, too…

Any French artists?
Loris Gréaud? I like the piece with the clock he exhibited at Centre Pompidou. Or Adel Abdessemed. Right now I’m working on a project with an Italian artist, Gianni Piacentino, who is kind of incorrectly lumped in with Arte Povera. Though he’s gone forgotten a bit, he’s slowly mounting a comeback. He has a great personality and his work is extremely interesting. In my opinion his artistic approach is very similar to John McCracken’s, or even Allan McCollum’s. His work is much more in this kind of minimalist vein than Arte Povera. Although the border between the two can be quite messy sometimes…

What do you think about fashion houses getting more involved in contemporary art today?
The boundaries between different fields are disappearing today. Things are more generational and we also have instant access to everything. Things may not be as profound, but there’s a lot more horizontal mobility, meaning that people are free to combine their interest in music, art, fashion, architecture. There are no more specialists. Creative fields are much more open and, as a result, boundaries are disappearing. Brand strategies are driven by a need to create emotional connections. For me, it makes sense that fashion houses and luxury brands are partnering with renowned architects and famous artists, because it’s another way to promote creative talent. Sometimes it’s more commercial, since in the end it’s just about generating credibility. But other collaborations are more successful. Vuitton’s collaboration with Murakami really helped boost the brand and the artist, too.

It’s true that collaborative projects have become more common, while the art world was once much more insular and
elitist. It didn’t want anything to do with fashion.
The new branding mentality, in watches, architecture, fashion or anything, has made everything less compartmentalized. It builds new bridges, which I think is interesting as long as it makes sense. It can be less successful when too much is asked of the artist… When an artist’s work is devalued in order to associate it with a product without subtlety or care. That’s why I’m going slowly. I want to build emotional connections.

www.romainjerome.ch