October 01, 2025

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Cultural Camaraderie

In Paris, Vikram Goyal and Sissel Tolaas collaborate for a multisensory art installation inspired by Panchatantra fables.By SHREYA AJMANITales that live in our bones, and smells that hold intersection of the mythic and the material. Just as Jean our memories. Designer Vikram Goyal and de La Fontaine, the French fabulist of the 17th century, Norwegian artist Sissel Tolaas have come acknowledged his indebtedness to the Sanskrit together to collaborate on a multisensory art Panchatantra, Goyal's sculptures channel a lineage of installation, one that speaks in the language of sculpture storytelling. The fables, once oral and fluid, now crystallise and smell. in brass and smell, inviting a multisensory engagement Their dialogue finds its source in a story as old as time: with history and belief.Panchatantra. One of India's most revered fable collections, The Panchatantra itself is an archive of morals often it is a treasury of lessons, told through animals who teach cloaked in humour and surprise, and the stories demand survival, loyalty, and wisdom. These stories have travelled reflection. One scene revisited by Goyal is the tale of the far from their birthplace, translated into Greek, Latin, tortoise and the cranes. The tortoise, carried across the Spanish, Italian, German, and English, cutting across sky by two cranes, is warned not to speak. Overcome by continents and cultures. They have informed generations, pride and curiosity, it opens its mouth and falls. The shaping moral compasses through tales of jackals, moral, simple yet profound: think before you speak. But elephants, and tortoises. in these sculptures, the story gains new complexity. The Now, these timeless characters have been summoned tortoise's expression hovers between awe and defiance. again, not through the written word, but as sculptural It's a moment frozen in brass, full of tension.forms, solid brass embodiments of myth, housed in the Another instance is the tale of elephants and the king former Parisian residence of Karl Lagerfeld. The walls of mice, which cautions, “Never underestimate anybody that once witnessed haute couture now cradle a different by their appearances,” says Goyal. It's here that Goyal's kind of art, one that demands more than just the eyes. work subtly challenges the viewer's expectations. His The work is not simply about form. It is about history. sculptures, while steadfast, harbour gentle personalities of About the invisible currents, scents, and stories that animals that are curious rather than threatening. This surround and shape us. Goyal's sculptures are functional gentle invitation extends beyond the visual, reaching into objects, a tiger that doubles up as a console, a crocodile the olfactory realm, thanks to Tolaas' pioneering practice. transforms into a bench, a tortoise becomes a coffee table, “Animals communicate through smell,” Goyal explains. yet they transcend their utility. They invite the viewer to “Fables and scent are both intangible, but they evoke pause, breathe, and inhabit a space where story and memory. That's what made it such an exciting and natural substance entwine. idea to work with Sissel.”This synthesis of tangible and intangible recalls the Tolaas is regarded as the world's foremost olfactory dynamic collaboration between two French artists, artist, an alchemist of the invisible. She creates entire François-Xavier and Claude Lalanne, whose practice invisible worlds, journeys for the nose, blending art, inspired Goyal's sculptural body of work in this project. science, and society. “I call myself a professional in-Like the husband-wife duo, he uses animal forms as betweener,” she says.metaphors, conduits that speak to something primordial Her process is both meticulous and poetic. Using a and historic. The animals in his work are not mere headspace device—a small, mobile contraption that fits representations; they are vessels, embodying the in her pocket like a camera—she traps the air around her

Legacy in Line

A look back at the life and work of fashion's most disciplined maestro, Giorgio Armani, who indelibly transformed modern suiting and pioneered a revolutionary design language rooted in restraintBy ARUSHI SINHA When Giorgio Armani passed away at 91 in September, it felt more like the fall of a monument than the closing of a career. For half a century, he has been fashion's greatest architect of ease, believing that true elegance was best represented by clarity rather than spectacle. In the hands of Armani, modern sophistication came to become defined more by its structure than by its ornamentation--a suit jacket that sloped just so, a colour palette that was defined by its restraint, and a patently relaxed silhouette that felt ergonomically tailored for modern life. Despite the singular clarity of his vision, Armani's path to becoming a fashion behemoth was anything but straightforward. Born in Italy's Piacenza in 1934, his early life unfolded in the shadow of World War II, which devastated Italy and its people, creating widespread poverty and hardship. Once the war was behind him, Armani enrolled to study medicine at Liceo Scientifico Leonardo daVinci,before abandoning this pursuit in favour of joining the military. As if by fate, he was posted to a military infirmary inVerona-- the textile and clothing hub of Italy--where the modern Italian design landscape was beginning to take shape in the post-War yearsIn 1957, a young Armani began work at La Rinascente, an upscale department store that served as Milan's temple of taste.The eye that he trained here-- on proportion, drape, and silhouette--would go on to become his signature instrument.Despite his reputation as Italy's foremost couturier, Armani had no formal training in design, relying instead on his familiarity with textiles, his experience with retail, and a dedication to understanding his customer as his foundational pillars. By the 1960s, Armani had moved on to working with Nino Cerruti at his label Hitman, designing menswear for the first timeIt wasn't until 1975 that Armani launched his eponymous brand Giorgio Armani S.p.A. At the time, Savile Row's influence on menswear was beginning to wane, as was the sway of traditional Neapolitan tailors, who relied on heavy, woven textiles, layered to form boxy suits that had been given what was known as the "full canvas" treatment.Armani's revolutionary take on menswear arrived softly, but in hard retaliation to its predecessors. He removed the scaffolding--canvas, padding, and that declarative 20th century bulk--and replaced it with a loosened architecture that subverted gender norms and challenged the status quo; it was called the "power suit"Blazer shoulders eased and draped quietly, trousers introduced a masculine swing without any accompanying bluster, and a surgeon's precision undergirded the soft elegance of his designs. The