Lady GaGa by Damien HirstWhat do you get when you give a celebrity obsessed Italian artist free reign and full pocket to throw the party of the century?
"Ballets Russes Italian Style (The Shortest Musical You Will Never See Again)"
The 30th Anniversary Gala for the Museum of Contemporary Art LA was the product of a bold move by chairs Larry Gagosian and Maria Bell to hand over the event planning to artist Francesco Vezzoli, and the immense creativity of the heavyweights who collaborated on the night.
For those of you that don't already know, Vezzoli is an Italian new media artist who is generally preoccupied with the glamourous iconography of cinema, whose resume already hosts rather impressive collaborations with actors Natalie Portman, Cate Blanchett and Anita Eckberg. The "Ballets" concept was originally conceived in a proposal to Dasha Zhukova's Garage Centre for Contemporary Culture, but hadn't seemed a feasible project given the economic climate. A year later, with a lot more thought and seemingly endless funds, the performance of sorts finally took place.
An enormous tent was erected outside the Arata Isozaki designed museum, draped entirely in red velvet and filled with chandeliers and Constructivist posters of Vezzoli and Lady Gaga- who later performed the 'musical' ("Speechless") on a Steinway Grand painted pink and covered with butterflies by artist Damien Hirst, in a hat engineered by Frank Gehry surrounded by Bolshoi ballerinas costumed by Miuccia Prada.
Inspired.
"Ballets Russes Italian Style (The Shortest Musical You Will Never See Again)"
The 30th Anniversary Gala for the Museum of Contemporary Art LA was the product of a bold move by chairs Larry Gagosian and Maria Bell to hand over the event planning to artist Francesco Vezzoli, and the immense creativity of the heavyweights who collaborated on the night.
For those of you that don't already know, Vezzoli is an Italian new media artist who is generally preoccupied with the glamourous iconography of cinema, whose resume already hosts rather impressive collaborations with actors Natalie Portman, Cate Blanchett and Anita Eckberg. The "Ballets" concept was originally conceived in a proposal to Dasha Zhukova's Garage Centre for Contemporary Culture, but hadn't seemed a feasible project given the economic climate. A year later, with a lot more thought and seemingly endless funds, the performance of sorts finally took place.
An enormous tent was erected outside the Arata Isozaki designed museum, draped entirely in red velvet and filled with chandeliers and Constructivist posters of Vezzoli and Lady Gaga- who later performed the 'musical' ("Speechless") on a Steinway Grand painted pink and covered with butterflies by artist Damien Hirst, in a hat engineered by Frank Gehry surrounded by Bolshoi ballerinas costumed by Miuccia Prada.
Inspired.
original costume sketched by Muiccia Prada
photos courtesy of 
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