Chanel Mobile Art- NYC Central Park

Chanel Mobile Art, the project Karl Lagerfeld created to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Coco Chanel’s iconic 2.55 quilted leather handbag, is now in the midst of a whistle-stop tour. It has already landed in Hong Kong and Tokyo, and after it touches down in New York, from October 20 to November 9, it will round out the tour in Moscow, London and Paris.

The art-architecture-fashion collaboration will travel the globe from now until 2010 showcasing the work of twenty leading international artists inspired by a single common theme: Chanel's iconic quilted 2.55 bag.

The line between art and architecture, if it exists, has always been nebulous, and the most striking piece of art on display here is surely the structure itself, like a shiny white alien pod, static and grounded amidst the towering skyscrapers of the city. The look is trademark Hadid – whimsical, fluid and graceful – an aesthetic that would have strongly resonated with Chanel's bold creative director who in the past has likened the value of her designs to 'great poetry'. The curved, undulating walls of the interior serve as a dramatic backdrop to work by the likes of Yoko Ono, Sylvie Fleury, photographers Nobuyoshi Araki and Stephen Shore and the Russian collective Blue Noses.