Raising glass to a dream

Fondation Louis Vuitton, the arts center designed by the Canadian architect Frank Gehry for the LVMH Group in Paris. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Driving past the World Trade Center in Beijing, on the west side of the Louis Vuitton store, you will see a huge poster featuring a dramatic structure that looks like a futuristic airship with billowing glass sails or else an iceberg. In fact, this distinctive modern interpretation of the crystal palaces of the past is Fondation Louis Vuitton, the arts center designed by the Canadian architect Frank Gehry for the LVMH Group that opened in Paris last October.

To showcase the museum, which acts as a home for the group's public and private art collections and as a platform for temporary exhibitions and performances by contemporary artists, the foundation has created a traveling version of the inaugural exhibition on Frank Gehry's building, which reflect both the architecture and the stories behind the project, that is being hosted in Beijing through Aug 9.

At the entrance, visitors are welcomed by a video of Lang Lang talking about music and art while playing the piano. The Chinese pianist played at the opening in Paris and also played at the opening of the Beijing exhibition on June 19.

"His video at the entrance is a special welcome to Chinese visitors," says the show's curator Frederic Migayrou, who is a professor at the Bartlett School of Architecture in London and deputy director of Pompidou Center in Paris.

"A few years ago, France brought great paintings by impressionist artists to China. Now we present this masterpiece. We cannot compare the two, but they are of the same level," he says.