Eran Hadas, Tel Aviv-based new media artist, poet and experimental software designer

Tel-Aviv based poet Eran Hadas uses his skills as an experimental software developer to build ‘augmented poetry’ generators, where algorithms assemble poems. His methods anticipate the dawn of artificial intelligence which will revolutionise concepts of personhood in the future, and demonstrate how poetry will nevertheless retain a vital role in helping us understand and explore these new terrains. In this month’s Poetry Muse, Rhiannon Williams speaks to Hadas about the the Tel-Aviv poetry scene and creative technology.

‘I think [poetry] should both reflect and affect reality,’ explains Eran Hadas in our interview, something that could be taken as insightful not only about poetry but also on the role of technology. Striking a fascinating figure on the Israeli literary scene, Eran is literally reconfiguring poetic function, fusing his technological and literary skills to create radical and intriguing works. For the Mind Your Poem project, for example, Eran used a special headset to record brain waves and create poems from the readings of people’s emotions: a kind of poetry that is as utterly post-modern as could be.

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His innovative projects and poems have featured in the Venice Biennale, the Tel-Aviv Museum of Art and the Warsaw POPełnione exhibition among others. He was the Binyamin Gallery poet in residence in 2016, the 2017 Schusterman Visiting Artist at Caltech and is an exciting part of the biannual Tel Aviv Poetry Festival.

Rhiannon Williams: Could you explain a bit more what you mean by your term ‘augmented poetry’?
Eran Hadas: The inventor of Hypertext, Ted Nelson, said that he felt the four borders of the page were walls of a prison of which he tried to break free, and I feel the same way about poetry. I think it should both reflect and affect reality, and in our time the way to go about it is to step in and out of the printed format, and in and out of the virtual (and mixed) world. For me, poetry involves both print, web and interactive works, involving chatbots, automatic poetry generators, text mixed with other media, but always circling around text and textuality, and striving to explore new possibilities of text.

RW: How did you first become interested in the possibilities for collaboration between
computing and poetry?
EH: I studied computer science, yet poetry has always been my passion. When I got into the literary circles of Tel-Aviv I realised there was some kind of a recurring pattern in the writing of a certain celebrated poet. I decided to devise a simple set of rules that would generate a poem similar to his, but when I got to the technical implementation, it felt so emotional and deep, that I felt I had to do such things for myself, rather than to match or compete against someone else.

The Pop/Kolor exhibition in Warsaw, 2016

RW: What would you say has been one of your favourite projects to work on?
EH: My sixth book Code was programmed to reveal all the Haiku poems in the Pentateuch; The Hebrew Torah. These are the five books of Moses which are the foundation of the Jewish holy law and behavioural code of conduct. The book is comprised of 5341 short poems and all are quotes from the Torah that adhere to the Japanese scheme of 17 syllables in three lines of 5, 7 and 5 respectively. This mechanical rewriting tries to turn the religious text from one that separates people, to one that brings them together. It is written in Biblical Hebrew, and the first poem is: Abyss and spirit / God she is floating upon / The face of waters.

RW: How would you describe the poetry scene in Tel-Aviv?
EH: Tel-Aviv is a very cool city, deeply hated by most of the rest of Israel. Many poets are politically and socially involved. I am a member of a group of poets titled “Cultural Guerrilla”, that organises activities against violence and wars, and supports social causes. On the other hand, because of the small number of Hebrew readers, and the very concentric structure of Israel, Tel-Avivian writers are not always aware of current trends around the world, or even in our Arab neighbouring countries.

Read next: Walking in the footsteps of fashion royalty at The May Fair Hotel

RW: Which writers/artists/playwrights/musicians are you excited about right now?
EH: There is a big hype lately around Artificial Intelligence, and I really admire artists who deal with the core of it without believing the hype, such as poet Allison Parrish who deals with Word Embedding. In the same way that people treat colours as a combination of Red, Green and Blue, she treats the English vocabulary, and her experiments are mind blowing. Artist and researcher Rebecca Fiebrink built Wekinator, a simple to use framework that enables artists to create AI works without coding, but rather by feeding examples of the desired behaviour, and letting the computer generalise from them. Greek conceptual Artist Ilan Manouach has made up a tactile language he uses to create comics for the blind, using various 3d printing methods.

RW: Do you think computers may be the future of poetry? Or will there still be a vital place for page and performance?
EH: I don’t know anything about the future. However, as Machine Learning is growing, there is a chance computers will be able to make better predictions than me… I think humans have to respond to technology, so there is going to be a range of reactions on page and in performance. With the advent of the Internet of Things, technology is going to be more immersive and intrusive in the physical sense, and not just on screens. I really hope poetry remains forever as a state of mind.

Eran Hadas presenting his augmented poetry in Tel Aviv

Rhiannon Williams: Favourite place on the internet?
Eran Hadas: The avant-garde archive, ubuweb, is for me the largest and dearest treasure on the Internet. Amazingly, it is a one-man-show, run by conceptual poet Kenneth Goldsmith.

RW: What do you do when you need to disconnect?
EH: To be honest, I download, backup, mark for using offline, and count the minutes until I connect again.

RW: Favourite city?
EH: Istanbul. It’s so real, it sometimes looks virtual.

eranhadas.com

Model wearing Balenciaga orange coast as buyers inspect a dinner outfit in the background, Paris, 1954. Image by Mark Shaw

As the official London Fashion Week hotel, The May Fair has played host to some of the greatest names in fashion over the years. Now, the hotel, in partnership with the Victoria & Albert Museum, is celebrating the unique vision of the Spanish master of haute-couture, Cristóbal Balenciaga with an exclusive fashion-inspired package. Digital Editor Millie Walton is swept into a world of glamour and striking silhouettes

The May Fair is one of those hotels that Londoners trot past on their way to work, wistfully staring through the glass windows into the plush interiors that seem almost surreal in their gleam. It has a commanding kind of presence that you feel as soon as you walk in the door and stand at the desk in the wide (also gleaming) lobby, wondering how on earth you managed to sneak in and whether all of the glamorous people around you are either famous or work in fashion (they certainly look like they do).

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‘Do you work in fashion, madam?’ the receptionist asks me as he hands across my room key and a chilled glass of pineapple-infused water. I shake my head rather solemnly, but as I wait for the lift, a crisp cream envelope containing two tickets to the Balenciaga: Shaping Fashion exhibition in my hand, I could almost imagine that I do. It’s one of the most wonderful things about staying in a hotel, you step into a different world and time, albeit temporarily.

Alberta Tiburzi in ‘envelope’ dress by Cristóbal Balenciaga. Photograph by Hiro Wakabayashi for Harper’s Bazaar, June 1967.

Our room is a studio suite on the third floor. It’s a mammoth, labyrinthine building with winding corridors and some 404 rooms. The room is spacious and quite dated in design with the back wall covered in a heavily patterned fabric, but its hard not be swept up in the romance and stories of all the other feet who have walked across the carpet. Flushed fashion assistants rushing in and out with armfuls of billowing dresses, catwalk models, photographers, even Cristóbal Balenciaga himself perhaps. The huge, sleek, black walk-in wardrobe was certainly built to hold vast quantities of luxuriant fabrics.

The Amber Suite at The May Fair Hotel

The V&A is conveniently ten minutes by car or tube from the hotel; we arrive in the early afternoon on a week day when there are fewer people, and the atmosphere is more serene. It’s the first ever UK exhibition to reflect on the work and continued influence of Spanish designer, Cristóbal Balenciaga and coincides with the 80th anniversary of the opening of his fashion house in Paris. It’s a fairly compact exhibition, largely centring around the latter part of the designer’s career, in which he literally changed the shape of women’s fashion by introducing new radical cuts such as the tunic, sack, ‘baby doll’ and shift dress.

Read next: Ulysse Nardin CEO on why creativity gets results in the luxury watch market

Many of these iconic dresses are on display along with archive sketches, photographs and short films with clips of current designers such as Molly Goddard and J.W. Anderson reflecting on Balenciaga’s innovations. Most interesting, are the x-ray works by artist Nick Veasey who unveils the inner workings of some of the more complex pieces, demonstrating how the seemingly impossible shapes were created. Balenciaga’s pieces were – and still are, in many ways – strikingly modern, often ignoring the natural shape of the woman’s body to sculpt architectural type installations. The elegance of such voluminous pieces is almost inexplicable. The exhibition serves as both a beautiful homage to the fashion house and a interesting revelation into the true artistry of haute couture.

The May Fair Kitchen, the hotel’s in-house restaurant, serves tapas style plates in a sophisticated setting

Conversations feel more inspired that evening as we sip the sweet, pink Cristóbal cocktail at the May Fair bar. How would Balenciaga design a cocktail, we wonder, deciding that it would probably be in much larger, angular glass, but the setting is suitably elegant. For dinner, we walk across the lobby into the May Fair Kitchen; it’s a treat not to have to brave the bracing January winds and the food here is superb, taking the form of Spanish, Italian and Peruvian tapas plates. We order an indulgent selection – the risotto and squid are the stand-out dishes – and then return to the quiet of our suite to dream of ballooning skirts and unusual silhouettes.

The Balenicaga package at The May Fair Hotel includes an overnight stay with breakfast, two tickets to the exhibition at the V&A. Rates start from £285. themayfairhotel.co.uk

Ulysse Nardin FREAK VISION, launched at this year’s SIHH

The venerable Swiss watchmaker Ulysse Nardin, known for its elaborate and striking timepieces, was purchased by luxury group Kering (owner of Gucci, Bottega Veneta and Stella McCartney) in 2014 and recently appointed Patrick Pruniaux as its CEO. Hailing from Apple‘s smartwatch division, and before that rival brand TAG Heuer, Pruniaux reveals some bold new designs at this week’s Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie fair in Geneva. His challenges: to differentiate Ulysse Nardin from others in a crowded market; to conquer China; and to conquer the Millennial market.

Patrick Pruniaux

LUX: Talk us through your releases at SIHH and also the Torpilleur?
Patrick Pruniaux: The general theme of our SIHH 2018 is #freakmeout! And the watch epitomising at best this mindset is the new FREAK VISION, a true revolution in terms of energy optimisation in a mechanical watch.

The Marine Torpilleur has been launched as our pre-SIHH novelty last October and It’s already a best seller.

LUX: What were the challenges you faced on taking up the position of CEO?
Patrick Pruniaux: Surprisingly, not so many. The foundations were there: incredible products, stunning know-how, motivated teams and great heritage. However, in terms of marketing and communication, we need to improve the storytelling and to create the dream around our products.

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LUX: What are the most interesting aspects of the luxury watch market for you?
Patrick Pruniaux: Challenges are always more interesting than assets. In the case of the watch industry, we have to invest on millennials. They represent the future and they are keener at wearing a connected than a mechanical watch.

LUX: Where are the most vibrant markets, and where do you have most growth potential?
Patrick Pruniaux: The USA, Russia and China are key markets for Ulysse Nardin. Historically, we are very strong in America and Russia. China represents for us a huge potential development.

LUX: Is the luxury watch space becoming too crowded? How do you differentiate?
Patrick Pruniaux: Creativity is the one and only answer.

Carriage assembly of the Tourbillon timepiece

LUX: How important is heritage vs innovation?
Patrick Pruniaux: One needs the other. Heritage always inspires innovations. Take for example our new Marine Torpilleur, its design comes directly from our onboard marine chronometers.

LUX: How important are technological advances and complications? Patrick Pruniaux: At Ulysse Nardin, innovation is driven by the research of horological performance. The best illustration I could give is our “Grinder” technology: a unique winding system we have incorporated in our new FREAK VISION timepiece, launched at SIHH 2018. Thanks to this innovation, every tiny movement of the wrist is optimised to rewind the barrel spring in the most performant way.

LUX: Are women becoming more influential in the watch market? Patrick Pruniaux: They have always been. Most of the time, when a man buys a watch, he always wants to know his wife’s opinion.

LUX: Do you wish to change what Ulysse Nardin stands for?
Patrick Pruniaux: Ulysse Nardin always stands for ultimate innovation, the desire to be different, the urge for exploration, in one word: freedom. This will remain the same, we are just going to express it in a different way.

LUX: Kering is not known for its watch brands – what is it like being a watch company in a fashion-oriented group?
Patrick Pruniaux: Great inspiration because the fashion world is going much faster than the watchmaking world, it’s very creative and drives us always one step forward.

Read next: 6 reasons to buy a high power Mercedes-AMG

Wheel bridge fitting by hand in the Ulysse Nardin workshop

LUX: LUX’s tagline is Responsible Luxury; Kering has a powerful sustainability program. How important is that for your consumers? Patrick Pruniaux: It’s a key value for the group and for Ulysse Nardin. Our territory is the sea, therefore, sustainability is at the heart of our brand positioning.

LUX: What’s your favourite Ulysse Nardin watch and why?
Patrick Pruniaux: Right now, I am totally in love with the new FREAK VISION, I am sure it will be the hero of the whole SIHH.

LUX: Will smartwatches wipe out mechanical watches?
Patrick Pruniaux: I don’t believe it will. At least not in the high-end segment. Why do you think I am back in traditional watchmaking? Just because I think there is not a product that is more contemporary than a mechanical watch.

ulysse-nardin.com

Mercedes-AMG C 63 Estate

The era of fast cars is, surely, over. Traffic jams, speed cameras, environmental concerns, enhanced policing – all are good reasons to be passengers in a Prius, rather than at the wheel of a ripsnorting, overpowered machine.

And yet: human indulgence is about wants rather than needs, and sales of performance cars, from Ferraris and Porsches to Mercedes AMGs, have never been higher. Here are six reasons why you should turn your back on the politically correct, gender-neutral advocates of no-car ownership and buy LUX’s current wheels, the Mercedes-AMG C 63 Estate.

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1.  It’s safe.

High performance means the best technology goes into brakes, tyres, wheels and suspension to keep the car on the road in the event of an upset. If a car has the capability to travel 186mph (as ours does), you can bet you feel safer driving around a corner at 40mph than you would in a Prius that maxes out at 90mph.

Spacious interiors of the Mercedes-AMG C 63

2.  It’s comfortable.

AMG is a former independent race tuner that Mercedes liked so much, it bought it, Remington-style, at the turn of the century. The division still operates quasi-independently, from its own factory, and is completely unlike the racily-badged marketing pieces that crop up from other car companies. AMG rips out the suspension of standard Mercs and replaces it with its own technology, which manages to be both supple and sporting.

3.  It’s fun.

It may be that, one day, it is as acceptable to say you enjoy driving as it is to admit you voted for Donald Trump. But for now, taking a car that is tuned to be driven, rather than mass-produced as an people-moving algorithm, onto empty and exciting roads is a thrilling experience. And the sound of its V8 engine, 6.2 litres driving what is still a ‘compact saloon’, should be bottled. The latest version, shown in our pictures here, has an even more powerful V8 engine with two turbos (because one is just not enough).

Read next: Geoffrey Kent’s hottest luxury travel destinations for 2018

4.  You can race it.

It would be very odd to take a family estate/ wagon onto a racetrack. But that’s where the C 63 AMG was honed. We did it once, and hearing the engine roar, to a consistency and volubility that is just not feasible on the road, and feeling it grip and move in the corners, was a life-changing experience. In the nicest possible way.

The Mercedes-AMG C 63 Estate may look like a practical car, which it is, untilthe engine is revealed

5.  It’s practical.

It might go from zero to sixty faster than a space rocket, but this is otherwise the same car that can fit surfboards, cases of Pétrus, your latest Richter in its plywood case, and your four best friends, into its insides and express you across the continent.

6.  It’s very fast.

Do excuse us if we didn’t make this explicit: but this car, while looking like a solid family sedan, can run rings around Porsches and overconfident giant 4 x 4s. There’s nothing quite like hearing its engine rise in tone as everything gets smaller in your mirrors.

mercedes-benz.co.uk/approvedused

The dramatic landscapes of Chile. Image by Ruben Santander

Geoffrey Kent, Abercrombie & Kent’s chairman and founder, spends around 270 days on the road every year. In this month’s exclusive column for LUX, he pins down some of luxury destinations that will be trending in 2018 and gives his insider tips on where to stay and what to do

Armenia

Armenia is one of Europe’s best-kept secrets. Known as the “Land of Churches”, it’s scattered with magnificent monasteries, ruins full of relics and centuries-old cathedrals. The now-defunct Kingdom of Armenia was the first country on the planet to adopt Christianity. It’s said that two of the apostles – Thaddeus and Bartholomew – spread the religion’s ideas northwards from the Holy Land to Armenia after Jesus’ crucifixion.

Armenia countryside. Image by LEMUR Design

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During my recent visit, the many highlights included visiting UNESCO-listed Geghard Monastery and Zvartnots Cathedral, the Hellenistic-style temple of Garni and Khor Virap, from which there are magnificent views of Mount Ararat. Whilst at Khor Virap, I particularly enjoyed partaking in the tradition of releasing doves in the hope they’ll fly to the mountain’s summit.

The “Pink City”, Yerevan is one of the world’s oldest inhabited cities. It’s home to the Yerevan Brandy Company, which has been producing cognac since 1887. During World War II, Stalin apparently shipped cases of Armenian cognac to Winston Churchill, who first tasted the spirit at the Yalta Conference.

Montenegro

Though small, Montenegro may be the next major thing in the Balkans. With some wondering if it’s the ‘next Croatia’, the country’s tourism star is on the rise thanks to the development of a new multimillion-dollar marina on Boka Bay. When it opens in 2018, Portonovi will lure the Adriatic’s yachters to shore with its siren’s call. The marina’s lifestyle resort will include Europe’s first One&Only resort, a yacht club and an Espace Chenot spa. I’ll be cruising around Montenegro on a superyacht this September, docking at Portonovi and attending a private opera on an islet in Kotor Bay, which is on the World Heritage List.

Montenegro: the new pearl of the Balkans. Image by Faruk Kaymak

Chile

In my experience, most travellers touch down in Santiago and head straight out of town – north for the stark beauty of Atacama or to the wild expanse of Patagonia down south. In this sliver of South America, which will celebrate 200 years of independence from the Spanish Empire in 2018, there’s so much in between.

Read next: Artist Rob Munday’s extraordinary holographic portraiture

Long overlooked, Santiago is worth pausing in. The food scene is piping hot, with restaurants like Boragó at the fore. More and more design-centric boutiques are popping up. As if that wasn’t enough, it’s all framed by the stunning surrounding Andes. With BA’s relatively new nonstop flights to Santiago, it’s more accessible than ever.

Torres del Paine National Park, Chile. Image by Olga Stalska

Once you’ve finished exploring Santiago, I recommend heading to Patagonia to stay at one of my favourite hotels. The Explora Lodge provides some of Earth’s ultimate views. Sitting at the breakfast table on a clear day, the view is one of the most beautiful you’ll ever see – with glaciers, snowcapped mountains and the lake. The trouble is you must get lucky. I’ve been there several times and you might get horizontal snow when it’s windy so that you can’t see more than a foot ahead of you.

Agra

Rudyard Kipling, Disney and the UK’s close ties to the subcontinent obviously have had an indelible effect on our psyches. India’s appeal is evergreen and the classic introduction to this colourful and captivating country is the ‘Golden Triangle’ – Delhi, Agra and Jaipur. Before travellers visit the tangled jungles of Madhya Pradesh, the tranquil backwaters of Kerala or the Bollywood sets of Mumbai, the Golden Triangle is essential India.

Travellers continue to be entranced by the colours and culture of India. Image by James Houston.

Most just dip into Agra for the Taj Mahal, but with the famed mausoleum under restoration-related scaffolding at the moment, there are new cultural attractions emerging. Famed architect David Chipperfield is collaborating with New Delhi-based Studio Archohm on the Mughal Museum. Located near the Taj, this modern marble palace is due to open any day now. I like contemporary architecture so I’m very excited about this.

Egypt

Image by Martin Widenka.

This isn’t the first time Egypt’s been on my ‘where to go next’ list, but it’s back because this ancient country is  buzzing with renewed confidence. It’s been a bucket-list destination for centuries, but there has never been a better time to travel to Egypt. There are new hotel openings to entice, such as the 39-storey St Regis in the heart of old Cairo.

New tombs are being discovered regularly. A trio of rock-tombs were unearthed 125 miles south of Cairo and another was found on the left bank near the Valley of the Kings. And most excitingly, the world’s largest archaeological museum, the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) will open in 2018 in Cairo. Not only that, but its many fabled sites are free of crowds and open to in-the-know travellers. The experience for tourists in Egypt right now is as welcoming and upbeat as I’ve ever seen it, but the ability to see the pyramids without crowds won’t last long.

Find out more about Abercrombie & Kent’s luxury tours: abercrombiekent.co.uk

The Steigenberger Grandhotel Belvédère, Davos

Why should I go there now?

The Belvédère is the hotel for top dignitaries at the World Economic Forum in Davos, held on the last week of this month; many of the most significant events are also held at the hotel, with a high likelihood of bumping into Emmanuel Macron, Bono, Bill Gates or Melania Trump (all at the same time).

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Unfortunately, if you’re not already on the global A-list, you’re not going to get a room at the Belvédère that week, no matter what you pay. But you might well be inspired by TV images of the handsome hotel façade and the mountain view beyond to visit the slopes of Davos at a less hectic time.

What’s the lowdown?

When it’s not hosting world leaders, Davos, along with the neighbouring village of Klosters, is at the centre one of Switzerland’s leading ski areas. The town is in a broad valley with skiing on four separate (and unfortunately not interconnected) mountains. Take the funicular up the most significant one of these, Parsenn, and you are rewarded with some of the prettiest and most varied skiing on a single mountain in the Alps; the long, sinuous red to the Schifer skilift alternates between open mountainside, gullies, and undulating forest.

Davos and Klosters serve one of Switzerland’s prettiest ski areas

And if you go before the end of February, you’ll maximise your chances of being able to complete one of the longest runs in Europe, which extends beyond Schifer, through forested hillsides, all the way down to Schiers, a 30-minute train ride from Davos. The total distance from peak to valley is 12km, all of it relatively easy. And this is Switzerland, so everything from ski and boot hire to lift operation to the buses running the length of the village, is beautifully efficient.

Getting horizontal

Unlike many ski resorts, Davos came of age as a spa town in the 19th century and the grandeur of the Belvédère reflects this era – as does its service, which is more fin-de-siècle luxury than Alpine cosy. We particularly enjoyed dinner in the Restaurant Belvédère, which has recently been modernised: bare wood floors, contemporary art, but still thankfully with tablecloths and traditional waitstaff – this would not be a place for a Soho House-style makeover. There was still a hint of Belle Epoque about the place; and another dinner in the Romeo & Julia Fondue Tavern featured a fabulously sourced and scented fondue.

Dining with a view at Restaurant Belvédère

Our room had a view across the rooftops to the mountains opposite; furnishings were traditional and the balcony was a fine place for a last schnapps of the day. There was also a good pool and spa area.

Davos town, at 1500m, is quite functional; the surrounding mountains are excellent for intermediate skiers

Flipside

Unlike its neighbour Klosters, Davos is a rather functional town, not a village, so you won’t have the cute atmosphere of some of the Alpine resorts; and with no slopes above 2900m, it is best experienced when you are surest of snow – try zipping there before the WEF begins this month (though you’ll have to mind the temporary construction work and security at the Belvédère), or when everything is over in early February. The snow’s fabulous at the moment.

Rates: From 191.20 CHF ( approx. £150 / $200 /€150)

Darius Sanai

steigenberger.com

3D lenticular print of a slipper orchid from the 2016 series ‘Naturalium’ by Rob Munday, launched at Photo London 2017

How would you like your children’s portrait done – in oils, large-format photography,or 3D hologram? LUX Editor-at-Large Gauhar Kapparova meets Tamara Beckwith, the London society art dealer who represents Rob Munday, holographic artist extraordinaire

Artist Rob Munday

If, as a creator of portraits for global high society, you had to choose two subjects to star in your portfolio, you couldn’t do much better than Karl Lagerfeld and the Queen Elizabeth II.

And that is precisely who is on show, in 3D, downstairs at Tamara Beckwith’s chic The Little Black Gallery in west London. Beckwith, who has transformed from It Girl to charity supremo and art dealer over the past decade, represents Rob Munday, the near-legendary holograph and graphic artist.

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Munday was commissioned by Chanel and AnOther Magazine to create a portrait for a limited-run holographic cover for its 15th anniversary issue. And before that, he had worked with graphic designer-artist Chris Levine to create an official holographic portrait of the Queen.

Other subjects have included Angelina Jolie, musicians Noel and Liam Gallagher, sports presenter and former England football star Gary Lineker, and children’s author Michael Morpurgo.

A portrait of fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld by Rob Munday, commissioned for the 15th anniversary issue of AnOther Magazine in 2016 and used for a 3D lenticular image

Now you can have Munday create a holo-portrait of you, your children or anyone else in your life – although not pets. “We are now doing private commissions,” says Beckwith, “and we are getting lots of interest from my friends who are men who have beautiful wives and children.”

 Read next: President of Pace Gallery Marc Glimcher on making art for all

Beckwith is herself a collector of photography. She says she started collecting the likes of Terry O’Neill, Robert Doisneau and Horst P. Horst when she was young and adds that she was taken by Munday’s work because it was portraiture. “I don’t like anything abstract, it leaves me cold. Even if I go around a beautiful exhibition and someone is explaining to me how clever the artist was and how he was the first person to paint something like this, I’m like, really?”

Munday’s 2017 portrait (made with Willy Camden) of actress Angelina Jolie has been used in a Guerlain fragrance campaign

As well as her evident passion for portraiture, Beckwith will also bring her formidable contact book to bear on the project. Munday will not be producing many private commissions –they will be for just the right people. Beckwith, who also runs a society charity event every year in aid of the Gynaecological Cancer Fund, knows exactly who they are.

Rob Munday is represented by The Little Black Gallery, thelittleblackgallery.com

Château Mouton-Rothschild vineyards in autumn Image: Mathieu Anglada Saison d’Or

We all know that collectors of fine art are liable to collectors of great wine: how better to appreciate a Joan Miró painting or Takashi Murakami installation than over a glass of one of the world’s finest wines?

Gerhard Richter. Image: Studio Gerhard Richter, 2017

Château Mouton Rothschild, one of the great estates of Bordeaux, takes the connection further, commissioning a different leading world artist to design its label for its top wine every year. To collect bottles of Mouton from the past sixty years is to be immersed in original creations from the likes of Miró, Pablo Picasso, Jeff Koons, Francis Bacon, David Hockney, Lucian Freud, Keith Haring, Wassily Kandinsky – the list is a who’s who of the world’s great artists.

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So it’s no surprise that the latest, 2015, vintage has been announced to be sporting a label by the great German expressionist Gerhard Richter – indeed, one could wonder what took the collaboration so long. Richter’s other-worldly ability to reinvent himself, to pioneer new genres, and to blend elements of the social commentary so prevalent in contemporary creative culture with the purism of fine art, makes him the most collectible living artist. His works sell for tens of millions – a development which he apparently scorns.

Gerhard Richter’s label for the 2015 vintage

The work he created for his label, Flux, is stunning, alive, compelling, angry and colourful. The technique he uses involves spreading enamel paint on a plate of plexiglass on which he then presses and moves another glass plate to generate a swirling composition of colours. Richter then photographs the still fluctuating colours when he considers their composition to be momentarily harmonious.

It is appropriate that Richter, who turns 86 next year and who spends his summers at the other-worldly Waldhaus Sils in Switzerland’s high mountains, has been paired with 2015, one of the greatest vintages of recent times. Like the 2015 ‘grand vin’, he is an artist whose works will stand the test of decades – and even centuries.

chateau-mouton-rothschild.com/label-art

Artist Sam Winston spent 7 days and 7 nights living and creating art in a darkroom

Darkness heightens our senses, challenges our perceptions and opens up new creative visions, according to London based visual artist Sam Winston. For this month’s poetry muse, Rhiannon Williams learns about the power of the dark for artists and poets alike.

Sam Winston spent 7 days and 7 nights living and creating in a darkroom. Out of this absolute darkness emerged some extraordinary art, and an even more extraordinary installation: ‘Darkness Visible’ at the National Poetry Library at the Southbank Centre in London displays art and poetry that has been created in the dark. It brings to light both the privilege and drawbacks of physical sight, while simultaneously leading you to question what ‘sight’ really is.

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The title of the installation, ‘Darkness Visible’, is a phrase from John Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost‘, the epic poem which Milton wrote whilst he was blind by dictating his verse. The title is apt, as the dichotomy of light/dark is overturned in the paradoxical idea of a darkness you can see. Living temporarily in darkness, Sam Winston was able to explore the boundaries of experience and his body in new ways, as the systems and orders that we impose upon the day and regulate ourselves by were made redundant by the dark. Time, for example, without differentiation between night and day becomes an endless mass. According to Sam it is this ‘walking along the shoreline’ of different boundaries and pushing the threshold of what we can experience which shapes his art.

Sam Winston, ‘Darkness Visible’ 2017

The idea took form after a series of studio experimentations and playing about with misleading ideas about darkness as ignorance, as lack. Instead Sam argues that darkness can and should be viewed in a new way: as a creative resource. As someone who is dyslexic, the way Sam sees words is different, which is reflected in the style of his artwork; a lot of the pieces take the form of intricate text webs, the words forming enormous shapes and shadows, hurricanes across a blank page. In this way, Sam attempts to change at a structural level the discourse that surrounds darkness and dyslexia, suggesting that sensory perceptions not involving sight and light should be explored more thoroughly.

Read next: Leading art dealer Marc Glimcher of Pace Gallery on the value of public art

Subsequently, Sam commissioned ‘darkness residencies’ from leading young poets in London including Emily Berry, George Szirtes and Kayo Chingonyi who all spent time in a darkroom and wrote about it afterwards – their work is currently on show as a part of the exhibition at the Poetry Library. ‘The idea of total darkness is not the same as total darkness. The idea of light is not the same as light’, George Szirtes wrote, linking to the idea that terms of knowledge such as enlightenment and illumination all conjure up imagery of light and vision, whereas terms of darkness suggest oblivion and ignorance. What Winston has created is a poetic inversion, revolutionary in the sense that it performs a full circle on what our notions of darkness-as-limitation are. In this installation darkness is, in a way, art itself.

Poet Kayo Chingonyi on a ‘darkness residency’. Image: Andy Sewell

‘Darkness Visible’ runs until 25 March 2018 at the National Poetry Library at the Southbank Centre; Sam Winston, Emily Berry, George Szirtes and Kayo Chingonyi will be in conversation with other multimedia artists on 11 January 2018 at the Whitechapel Gallery.

The Ritz-Carlton Almaty has a spectacular panorama of the Tien Shan mountains

Why should I go now?

It’s mid-winter in Kazakhstan, a spectacular time to see the biggest and most historic city in this huge and dynamic former Soviet republic straddling Siberia and the Tien Shan mountains – effectively the northernmost edge of the Himalayas.

What’s the lowdown?

Arrive at night, like we did, and you are ushered effortlessly to your room by the staff – they behave as welcomingly as Ritz Carlton staff anywhere in the world, but if it’s a first visit to the country, the Kazakhs looks impossibly exotic, beautifully coiffed, tall, slim, a striking blend of Slavic and Asiatic.

In the morning, draw the curtains expecting to see just another big Asian city, and you are blown backwards by the view from the picture windows in the bedroom. Before you stretch a vast array of peaks, rising to more than 5000m – higher than the Alps, deep frozen in snow, dwarfing any view from Milan, Geneva or Munich. Right in front of the hotel is an Olympic-style ski jump.

Dinner with a view at the VISTA restaurant

You could spend all your time in the Ritz and the uber-luxe Esentai Mall that adjoins it; the lobby, bar and restaurants are all on the 28th floor, with an excellent sushi bar. The aptly-named VISTA hosts a Sunday jazz brunch, with live band, straight out of the Upper West Side: we dined here with old friends, a sad and poignant occasion for very private reasons. The food was pure Manhattan bar & grill, with a little Osteria thrown in (particularly in the wine list, which was a heaven for Italophiles).

It would be a shame, though, not to go and explore Almaty: we enjoyed a night time trudge through deep snow to a couple of luxury fashion boutiques, including gorgeous MaxMara and Armani stores, with staff and clientele seemingly lifted directly from the Via Montenapoleone. And in contrast, in winter, a short drive takes you to the high-altitude ski resort of Shymbulak; skiing at nearly 4000m on the northernmost edge of the Himalayas is one of the world’s more spectacular experiences, and the snow is usually cold and dry (and the runs well groomed, and quite easy).

Getting Horizontal

There’s a beautiful pool and a Six Senses spa to revive yourself ahead of your next round of business conversations. Kazakhstan is a country on the go, and we found its leaders very open to inspiring conversations about developing its future. As for the bedroom, think Ritz modern luxury, with that matchless view thrown in.

An executive suite with a breathtaking view to the south

Nitpicking

This has to be the best luxury spot between Moscow and Beijing. If we had to be critical, we’d say we’re mystified as to why Kazakhstan doesn’t do a better job of selling itself. President Nazarbayev – call on LUX if you need inspiration, because your country is too much of a secret.

Rates: From 90 000 kzt ( approx. £200 / $300 /€250)

Darius Sanai

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