Exhibition Special: Historic moments as 'Cartier Time Art' opens in Shanghai

An ongoing exhibition at the Power Station of Art in Shanghai demonstrates luxury watchmaker Cartier's artistry and craftsmanship in timekeeping over its more than a hundred years of history.

Cartier Time Art, in its first showing in China, opened on July 19 and will last to Oct 12.

The exhibition was first held at the Museum Bellerive in Zurich, Switzerland in early 2011 and traveled to Singapore's Art Science Museum at the end of 2011. China is the third country to have Cartier Time Art.

"When we look into the universe, we are looking at its past. This is the world we perceive as allowed by time. What do we see then when we are looking at a timepiece? The Cartier Time Art exhibition will help reveal the mystery," said Gong Yan, director of Power Station of Art (PSA).

More than 180 timepieces will be presented in the PSA including 151 historic pieces from the Cartier Collection and the concept timepieces ID One and ID Two. The oldest timepiece on display is a chatelaine watch that dates back to 1874. A bridge connecting French art and culture with the other parts of the world, the Cartier Collection has been presented at 27 famed institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the British Museum in London and the Grand Palais in Paris.

In the past decade, the Cartier Collection was shown in the Shanghai Museum, the Palace Museum in Beijing, the National Palace Museum in Taipei and Liaoning Provincial Museum.

It will be the first time for Cartier to present Metiers d' art - a group of complex crafts that often date back to ancient times - in the Cartier Time Art exhibition. Visitors will have the chance to appreciate master craftwork such as marquetry, mosaics, engraving and enameling.

For lovers of timepieces who are keen to explore how Cartier watches are made, the Cartier Time Art is an opportunity that should not be missed this summer.

There will be live demonstrations by watchmakers and artisans every month for visitors to discover the beauty and mystery of timekeeping.

Designed as a journey into the heart of watch-making, the exhibition presents the public with the creativity involved in capturing what happens in the blink of an eye, and celebrates the universal and eternal values reflected by artistic timepieces."This exhibition is like a trip through time and presents more than a century of Cartier's rich heritage, design philosophy and aesthetic accomplishments in watch-making," said Pierre Rainero, image, style and heritage director of Cartier.

"I hope that everybody who is interested can visit the exhibition in person to experience the unique glamour of the art of time," he added.

The exhibition was designed by renowned Japanese designer Tokujin Yoshioka, who has twice won the Award of Excellence from the ID Annual Design Review. He also designed the Cartier Time Art in Zurich and Singapore.

To distinguish the exhibition from the previous two, Yoshioka installed 150,000 plastic fiber wires with a diameter of 2 millimeters in the room with the two concept timepieces, a presentation he terms "The Gate".

"When going through The Gate, the design gives people the feeling that they are walking from the present into the future," said Yoshioka.

As a designer who combines modernity with creative materials, Yoshioka's most important works are exhibited in permanent collections in the world's best-known museums such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Centre National d' Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou in Paris.

The exhibition is also a part of the celebration program to mark the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and France.

tangzhihao@chinadaily.com.cn