Dua Lipa, Anne Hathaway, LisaAngela Pham/BFA.com
What happens when Bvlgari trades a jewelry vitrine for the New York skyline? Something rather hard to miss, it turns out. On Wednesday evening, the Roman house gathered guests on the High Line in West Chelsea for the unveiling of auruBOROS—Urban Memory and Collective Dream; the latest chapter of Serpenti Infinito.
The installation, which marks Bvlgari’s first public-art presentation in the country, brings the instantly recognizable serpent motif to one of Manhattan’s most trafficked cultural thoroughfares. Among those invited to witness the unveiling for the first time were three ambassadors, which explained the awaiting fans and paparazzi scattered throughout the Meatpacking district. Actress Anne Hathaway, who sported a gossamer gown, baby bump included; newlywed singer Dua Lipa, fresh off a summer spent honeymooning through Italy with husband Callum Turner; and Blackpink singer and The White Lotus actress Lisa.
High above the city streets, guests mingled over caviar and Casamigos as the setting sun bathed their surroundings in an ochre glow. After taking in the view, attention turned to the newly minted installation. Then came the reveal. “I’m blown away,” Lipa exclaimed—pun intended, as the winds were blustery, to say the least.
Yet the installation did plenty of the wowing on its own. Conceived by Berlin-based artists Marco Canevacci and Yena Young of Plastique Fantastique, auruBOROS—Urban Memory and Collective Dream takes its name from the Ouroboros, the ancient image of a serpent consuming its own tail and a symbol of transformation, renewal, and perpetual evolution. “The project emerged through an ongoing dialogue between the artists’ distinctive practice, the urban landscape of New York, and this particular spectacular context of the High Line,” curator Beatrice Galilee explained. The city, in turn, became part of the work, too: “Its reflective surface changes with the lights, the weather, and the movement of the people who encounter it.”
