Group Exhibitions

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Le Cas Du Sac
Musèe des Arts Dècoatifs
Paris, France
October 7, 2004 – February 20, 2005

Curated by Olivier Saillard

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Photos Courtesy of Andrew Zuckerman

We were broke. We saw a photo of curator Olivier Saillard in a magazine and something sparked—what if he’d be interested in our work? We scraped together $300, flew to Paris, and stayed in a budget hotel in the Marais. In the pouring rain, we stepped into a phone booth and cold-called the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, where Saillard was based. “My brother and I make intricate couture handbags and accessories,” we said, “contained inside handmade boxes. Can we show you?”

Amazingly, he said yes.

We met him the next morning in a café across from the museum. As we opened our boxes one by one, revealing each carefully made bag, Saillard’s enthusiasm grew. By the last piece, he declared, “You have to keep making this work. I’ve studied the history of the handbag and I’ve never seen anything like this before.” He was curating an exhibition on the bag throughout time and across cultures—Le Cas du Sac—and wanted to include our work.

Soon after, we returned to Paris with our Fire series. Saillard introduced us to fashion journalist Laurent Bon and to the atelier of Christian Lacroix, who invited us—exceptionally, as American artists—to collaborate on a couture project. Back at the museum, Saillard worked with Béatrice Salmon, head of the jewelry gallery, to include our piece as a featured artwork in Le Cas du Sac. The exhibition was a landmark exploration of the handbag’s cultural, religious, and ceremonial roles around the world.

Our contribution was ultimately acquired for the permanent collection of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs.