The Artist, In Motion

Inspired by an artist, rick owens staged an American tour with an accompanying wardrobe that turned out to be the very core of his conceptual collaboration with moncler.

- Andrea Sim

In the 1970s, artist Joseph Beuys travelled from Germany to New York for a performance piece titled I like America And America Likes Me. Upon landing in the U.S., Beuys was wrapped in felt and sent in an ambulance to his gallery where he stayed with a coyote for three days, before being transported back in the same manner. Beuys, whose politically charged work was often about highlighting different facets of humanity, used this piece of performance art — where he physically isolated himself from the country — to make his opinion known about America’s involvement in the Vietnam war. The name of the piece was of course, laced with irony.

It is this journey that Owens uses as a springboard for his very own art pilgrimage, which in the end functioned as the very core of his Moncler collaboration. The destination of that pilgrimage? Land artist Michael Heizer’s Nevada ranch, which is home to an installation that’s been in the making for 48 years. Referencing both Beuys’ felt protection during his Germany-New York stint as well as Moncler’s bedrock of cold-weather insulating down garments, Owen travelled (together with his partner Michèle Lamy) from Los Angeles International Airport to Heizer’s ranch in a custom tour bus by Moncler kitted out in wool felt and nylon duvet. The travel wardrobe — the garment aspect of this collaboration — was designed with Lamy and himself in mind. He calls this his “insulated traveling bubble”.