Gagosian Rules: Patrons at the opening were only allowed to snap one picture of Vezzoli’s new fragrance. We took four, of course. At least that’s when we stopped counting. (All photos by San Suzie.)
What does Greed smell like? Last Friday night, half of Rome, eager to find out, trundled down to Gagosian to sample the new scent by Milan-based artist Francesco Vezzoli. You may be wondering what the hell perfume hawking is doing in a gallery. So are we. But because we’re suckers for public relations, we nonetheless trudged through the rain and rhinoed our way past a mob the likes of which we haven’t seen since we tried getting into the Vatican Museums on a Friday in July. (Seriously.) The big news: Turns out the perfume was a fake! Nothing inside but aqua colorata.
Even so, we had a great time seeing the local Roman celebs, not to mention Roman Polanski, who directed the fake infomercial video that we got to see before we made it over to the tinted holy water. Our verdict? The idea is a rehash of pieces by Marcel Duchamp and, more recently, by Bulgarian-born, New York-based artist Daniel Bozhkov — with the addition of annoying needlepoint appropriations of female artists’ faces. We did, however, really enjoy the stylish, bordello-red drapes. They gave us the sensation of being someplace really special. Like the Vatican.
Click on images to supersize. Much more (including Roman Polanski) after the jump.
Continue reading ‘Eau de Hype: Francesco Vezzoli’s “Greed” at Gagosian in Rome.’
