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Article: TAVOLO FINE ART DINNER SERIES - "CLOUD 9" - ARTIST CAPUCINE & THE FRENCH LUXURY QUADFECTA

TAVOLO FINE ART DINNER SERIES  - "CLOUD 9" - ARTIST CAPUCINE & THE FRENCH LUXURY QUADFECTA

TAVOLO FINE ART DINNER SERIES - "CLOUD 9" - ARTIST CAPUCINE & THE FRENCH LUXURY QUADFECTA

  Artist Capucine Safir w/ Hosts Thomas Fuchs & Michou Mahtani

 

Welcome to our ONLINE STORE  and blog. 

As a barware, lighting and  home accessories design company, we at Thomas Fuchs Creative specialize in handmade goods. Every week we give you behind the scenes to the people, places and things that inspire us.

 

This past Saturday night while Miami was buzzing with the vroom vroom of Formula 1, quietly at a private VIP dinner Thomas Fuchs and Michou Mahtani continued to marry art with culture providing a haven for museum directors, gallerists and collectors to convene at their mega “Tavolo Art Dinner Series” installation the brainchild of Michou for their namesake brand “Thomas Fuchs Creative “ the table top, barware and lighting company.

 

Featured Artist Capucine Giving A Background To Her Work 

The Tavolo dinner series centers around artists whose work  connects to the community and civic awareness, showcased in multiple mediums throughout Thomas and Michou’s Miami apartment, a floating glass box in the sky, serving as a platform for creatives outside the traditional gallery or representation model.

The couple gift their apartment to the artist taking down all their personal art and removing all their objects for the evening enabling the artist to reinterpret the space through their own eyes showing how spatial awareness can take on a multidimensional effect. Mahtani says, it's so interesting to see the space we live in transformed into something totally different.

 

 

La Vie En Rose - Capucine w/ her Cloud Sculptures

For the 5th installment in their Tavolo Dinner Series they selected artist Capucine Safir who they met by way of introduction through renown international art curator Gabrielle HB Abada.

Capucine Safir, a multiple disciplinary artist - born and raised in Paris, interior design educated in Australia, and trained in fine arts in her native France - found a new muse and medium in the sunny skies of her adopted hometown of Miami.

Capucine's Cloud Sculptures surround Thomas' Bollincine Hand Blown Glass Murano Chandelier 

The ethereal cloud installations featured at this Tavolo dinner series, titled Madame Reve, are named for Capucine’s original dreamlike sculpture. The artist’s newest work was born out of a need for a lighter, airier sensory experience than her established method of stone carving.

Madame Rêve

The floating sculptures are oversize approximations of the clouds she was drawn to as a child on holiday in Brittany, France, and now, a reference to a modern-day sky above the Florida coastline, where the emotion and mood of the weather and light is just as changeable.

Capucine composes the airy sculptures from ping pong balls she sources and in each white cloud she includes a black dot that has a double entendre. The mysterious sculptures are shiftable, malleable, and, Michou explains, a tangible commentary on the climate change Miami residents are watching unfold in real time.

 

Inspiration - Cloud Formation Overy Biscayne Bay The View From Michou & Thomas' Apartment

“Clouds are formed from evaporation off the sea,” he says. “As the oceans recede, so will the clouds. There is an unavoidable connection between the earth and the atmosphere. There is an underlying message of darkness within the lightness of her works, if you’re looking closely.”

 

 

Cloud Shaped Dinner Place Cards

The dinner’s Madame Reve theme was integrated into the décor in various forms - the upcycled installations, and the tablescape was a yet another one of Michou’s genius ideas in playing with the idea that the table decor was the land beneath the clouds.

 Live Moss Sheet

 

Cloud like sculptures from the Artist Madame Reve Series created to place each dinner plate on creating a multilevel effect

He covered the table in sheets of live moss and then cut a swath down the center of the table pairing Thomas’ hand blown murano drinking glasses that were a collection inspired and created for the event. 

Thomas Fuchs Creative Hand Blown Murano Cloud Drinking Glass

Each glass has cloud like white forms running horizontally making you feel like they are cloud stacks moving through the skies. He goes on to explain, during the pandemic we saw the seas stand still right outside our window and our sunsets became even more vibrant along with the cloud formations (see above photo).

 

The Fab 4 - Baccarat, Bernardaud, Christofle & Rock Angel Rosé

Next came the French luxury quadfecta Baccarat, Bernardaud, Christofle and Chateau D'Esclans Whispering Angel Rosè. Michou says “we wanted to keep it all French matching Capucines heritage". Intentionally choosing to mix and match their Baccarat glasses from their wedding trousseau, the Harcourt wine glasses and Nancy champagne flutes created a star like reflection from sunset to candle light on the table and the clouds above resulting from cuts in the pattern of the crystal glasses.

Baccarat Nancy Wine Cup Purposed As Floral Vase

Cleverly using the Baccarat "Nancy" glasses as well for the wild lavender floral arrangements kept the eye on the table detail without interruption. Their Bernardaud “Organza” dish pattern evoked the same cloud like them with a texture so soft and 3d making you want to touch it.

The NapKing Linen Napkins

 

Thomas' Salmon Burgers Sitting on a Cloud of Phyllo Pastry 

Thomas then went into chef mode designing a home cooked menu inspired by the theme of cloud formations. The dinner started with the brazilian Pāo de Queijo (cheese bread) , then on to a spinach salad topped with molded cloud shaped goat cheese, mustard covered cauliflower heads , salmon burgers sitting on a cloud shaped phyllo pastry and last but not least îles flottantes (floating island) as a dessert.

Thomas Dishing Out His Homemade  Île Flottante 

Thomas' Île Flottante Topped w/ Raspberry Coulis

 

 

Whispering Angel / Rock Angel 

There is nothing better than the world coming full circle, the couple called on their close friend Allyn Magrino of the famed Susan Magrino PR agency to help complete their drink menu with none other than the best Rosè , Chateau D’Esclans Whispering Angel the perfect fit for a night in the clouds. in keeping with themes of the link between earth and sky.

 

The Tablescape 

Throughout the evening the space transformed three times. First with the natural light of the sunset aligned perfectly with 7pm timed arrival of the guests in order for them to behold how the sunlight moved through their apartment interacting the table setting and cloud installation.

Guests: Director of Frost Museum Jordana Pommeroy and Thomas Grasse; Collectors Peter and Bonnie Doktor; Renown Gallerist Gloria Porcella and Ernesto; Journalist Jenny Star Perez; Proprietress of The Polished Coconut Movement Alicia Kossick, Collectors Jessica and Henrik Welle

Once dinner was served the room turned a pink hue to envision the happiness and positivity in nurturing the earth to a happier optimistic future and finally when all the guests were on coffee the pink lights were turned off and the clouds glowed in the dark floating above the city lights of Miami giving attendees a multidimensional experience of “dining among the clouds.”

 

Black Out Illuminated Clouds

As Michou says “objects need context and soul, I can’t have Thomas cooking for hundreds of people but what I can do is invite people who love and appreciate my husbands talent combining it with local artist giving them a platform inevitably resulting in a sale of their artwork which is the true transaction we are trying to achieve for the artists we choose to highlight.

 

A Cloud Descends Down 

Judging from the guests reaction on Saturday night through Sunday morning they were all still on “Cloud 9”.

If I were you, I would covet an invite to their next Tavolo Dinner!

 Have a great week!

Janet Mercel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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