Chanel and artist Gad Weil gave us the occasion to feel like Russel Crowe in the middle of an infinite wheat field in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator (2000). To feel the grains in your arms is an incomparable daydreaming state of mind.
The wheat fields in the Place Vendôme in Paris is a poetic installation by street artist/ créateur d’art de rue Gad Weil celebrating Chanel’new High Jewelry Collection inspired by wheat. This symbol of luck and prosperity dear to Gabrielle Chanel was transformed into a set of necklaces, earrings and bracelets presented at the newly renovated Ritz Paris hotel in the Place Vendôme. Chanel’s iterations of the “blé” could be found in gold, diamond and precious stones.
To be reinstalled in Saumur, the birthplace of Coco Chanel, the artistic wheat field mise en scène sponsored by Chanel was conceived as a formal French garden.
“Wheat is very symbolic . It’s about elevation, it must die to be reborn, and that’s what I’m trying to say to my contemporaries: You can do everything with nature — you can feed, protect — but you must also act carefully not to destroy it,” explained Gad Weil.
“It offers the viewers a moment to reflect, a moment to just pause for a second in their busy life, even if you still hear the cars,” added the artist.
Over the years Gad Weil worked on similar large-scale outdoor symbolic installations, including artworks at the Great Wall of China and the Champs Élysées. In 1990, two hectares (5 acres) of wheat harvested by 1,500 farmers were used to cover his “The Big Harvest” installation.
