The Cartier "When the Ordinary becomes Precious" exhibition will be showcased at Salone del Mobile in Milan in April.

Celebrating the birth of the new&nbsp;Juste un Clou and Écrou de Cartier collections, Cartier will be hosting an exclusive exhibition at the annual Salone del Mobile Milan fair between 5th to 9th April 2017.

Titled &quot;When the Ordinary becomes Precious&quot;, the&nbsp;exhibition will be hosted at&nbsp;Garage Sanremo, a landmark on Via delle Fosse Ardeatine in the heart of&nbsp;the city.

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A collaborative effort between Cartier and&nbsp;New York-based Puerto Rican visual artist Desi Santiago, the exhibition space will be transformed into a gold themed interior to express a dialogue between mechanics and jewellery, crafts and design.

The golden garage-like space will also feature&nbsp;Cartier grooms in overalls, tools of the trade scattered amongst drawers laden with jewellery and a car suspended from the ceiling with a golden liquid oozing to the floor.

That aside, in conjunction with the set designed by Desi, Cartier has also collaborated with&nbsp;artist Cerise Doucède for a visually stunning art showcase that draws inspiration from the new&nbsp;Juste un Clou and Écrou de Cartier jewellery.

An epitome of something ordinary tools appropriated into haute joaillerie,&nbsp;the two new jewellery collections are translated into a pair of suspended works that are composed of thousands of nails and nuts and&nbsp;bound together by transparent wires mid-air (see above).

And to finish it up, here we have an exclusive short Q&amp;A with the artist Desi himself to talk about this work with Cartier.

What was your idea in developing this concept? 
My idea was to create a seductive experience where the collection would be showcased in an engaging and entertaining way. The Cartier team secured an amazing space so we worked together to develop a concept connecting it to the collection which resulted in The Golden Cartier Garage.

&nbsp;

Why a golden Cartier Garage? 
Since the collection&rsquo;s design is derived from everyday hardware elements like the nail and bolt, I wanted to use the Garage San Remo as the setting to showcase that inspiration.

Taking elements of a garage - such as a car and it&rsquo;s internal parts - and transforming them into gold, I decided to create a non-linear narrative where the whole space felt as precious as Cartier jewellery itself.

&nbsp;

Can you share some anecdotes or inspirations on this thematic? 
Because I grew up in an industrial town on the east coast of the United States, I&rsquo;ve always been fascinated with machines and their moving parts. Working with Cartier on this installation was a way for me to reconnect with that romance.

Q&A with Desi Santiago

Exhibition Photography: Cartier 
Desi Santiago Portrait: <a href="http://desisantiago.com/about">desisantiago.com</a>

Cartier to host exhibition at Salone del Mobile Milano

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