Cartier exhibition in Zurich: Into the Wild
Cartier & the discipline of permanence
I promise I don’t go looking for fine jewellery exhibitions, they seem to find me. In The Art of Movement by Van Cleef & Arpels, I shared why jewellery is the one fashion category which enchants me, and it has been quite a journey to discover the differences and similarities of various haute joailleries.
A short city break to Zurich over Christmas led us to stumble across Cartier’s Panthere exhibition; immersive and experiential with striking visuals, 360 movie footage, holographic projections (around the jewellery as well as on the walls might I add) and the journey ending with a Cartier gift shop, a branded cafe with complimentary beverages and madeleines.
Like The World of Tiffany and Yves Saint Laurent and The fabulous world of Dior, there was a big focus on the story of of the couture house given it is the stories which draw us into another world and help us see with new eyes; uncovering what’s hidden and projecting what’s buried.
Cartier’s differentiation rests in it’s balance between the primal and refined, creating a brand intersection with tension and play. Getting a glimpse of the artisans, the craft, the method was quite profound and humbling. Labour of love aside, the tactile and meticulous processes require controlled patience; patience which doesn’t subside or become restless.
Jewellery, at this level, is so close to architecture, a discipline of proportion, tension, and permanence, worn to decorate and centre the body. Cartier understands this better than most: that jewellery is one of the few human artefacts designed to outlive its wearer while remaining intimate to them.
What struck me most was not the obvious virtuosity like the stones, the symmetry, the audacity of form, but the self-command embedded in the work. The panther, the flora, the geometry borrowed from distant cultures and eras. Jewellery here is expressive, sovereign, indulgent and deliberate.
The brand’s relationship with nature is revealing; disciplined, stylised and materialised, the wild is something to both surrender and master. This is where so much of Cartier’s work flourishes and where jewellery reveals its deeper role. Unlike clothing, which responds to season and trend, jewellery can resist time. It accumulates meaning slowly through inheritance, repetition and memory. It becomes a form of private continuity, a way of carrying History forward without announcing it.
In a world increasingly obsessed with immediacy, Cartier feels almost anachronistic and that is precisely its strength. It operates on a longer horizon, one where taste and beauty is felt.
Perhaps that is why exhibitions like this matter. Not because they showcase objects, but because they remind us of a different relationship to making, to owning to valuing. Cartier asks to be lived with and by doing so, it asserts a truth that feels increasingly rare: that some things are not improved by speed or trends, they are improved by our relationship with them throughout time…
Art & Aesthetics
