MAGIC Show

Cartier has unveiled The Power of Magic, its latest exhibition dedicated to the enchanting powers of its creations. Vogue Singapore's watches and jewellery editor reports from Shanghai and speaks with the director of the Cartier Collection.

- GORDON NG

Why do jewels bewitch us so? Put aside the fact that they are made from rare, precious materials that are gifts of the earth—gemstones that are little wonders of nature, and noble metals that gleam. Put aside, even, that jewels are creations of beauty wrought from the mastery of the human hand. No, what it is about jewellery that really speaks to our hearts and souls is that these objects can hold in them stories, emotions, sentimentality, history—intangible yet immeasurably powerful forces that we might call magic.

Well, that’s the thought behind Cartier, The Power of Magic, the latest exhibition by the French jeweller that’s being staged from now to 17 February 2025 at the recently revamped Shanghai Museum East. “There is magic in Cartier items,” explains Pascale Lepeu, director of the Cartier Collection, the brand’s in-house archive established in the 1970s.

The Cartier Collection has staged numerous exhibitions around the world. Already, this is the seventh to be held in China. But there are numerous anniversaries at play too this time. The Power of Magic is the second Cartier exhibition mounted in Shanghai after the first in 2004 and it coincides with 60 years of Sino-French diplomatic relations.

As a way of underlining this relationship, the exhibition features a new degree of collaboration between the French jeweller and its Chinese host city. First, a curation led by Fragy Chu, the deputy head of exhibitions at Shanghai Museum East, that pairs Chinese cultural artefacts loaned from museums and institutions with Cartier Collection pieces. Second, a collaboration with Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang on scenography.