ROOT CAUSES

Champagne house Ruinart taps Vik Muniz for its latest artist collaboration

RUINART WAS FOUNDED almost three centuries ago during the Age of Enlightenment and has been collaborating with renowned artists ever since Art Nouveau pioneer Alphonse Mucha created a seminal ad for the house in 1896.

“Art is in the house’s very nature,” says Ruinart’s president Frédéric Dufour. “We are continuing our commitment to art by supporting major contemporary-art fairs, and giving carte blanche to an artist each year.” For Art Basel Hong Kong 2019, the fair’s global champagne partner has teamed up with Brazilian photographer and multimedia artist Vik Muniz for a series of works to be displayed at the Ruinart lounge.

Described as an ode to the power of nature and its creative flow, Shared Roots is the result of Muniz’s stint as an artist-inresidence during the 2018 harvest in Reims, France. The artist used blackened wood and charcoal to depict the uniquely shaped trees that struggle to survive in the harsh conditions of one of Europe’s northernmost vineyards.

Muniz also captures the relationship between humans and nature, as shown in his depiction of cellar master Frédéric Panaïotis’s hands gripping a vine stock. “I wanted to express what couldn’t be conveyed using language and present the complexity that goes into creating the exceptional through a creative flow,” he says, in a possible reference not only to art itself but also to winemaking.