Distillery Info
The House of Rémy Martin has unveiled an exceptional collaboration with internationally renowned contemporary artist Anish Kapoor: a limited-edition Rémy Martin XO decanter and an exclusive artwork.
“There was a sense from the beginning of this project with Rémy Martin that it refers to my history. My father used to drink it when I was a boy in India, and I carried that with me. I began to think about a work that would sit alongside the Rémy Martin bottle, it has this radiant presence. It shows through. The colour is the most direct way of getting to it. Because it’s a liquid, as the light changes it changes. I toyed with it and decided on a much simpler design.”
THE CREATIVE PROCESS, A METAPHYSICAL JOURNEY
Anish Kapoor does not explore objects, but our relationship with them, the meaning we give them, until meaning itself becomes the subject.
“I’m after that sort of in-between. Somewhere between meaning and no meaning. Objects are not simply as described. Most of them have double lives: the one they say they have and another that is to do with our own sense of what they might be.”
When Anish Kapoor fixed his eyes on the iconic Rémy Martin XO decanter, he asked himself the same questions that his own works solicit: “What is it? Is it art? Maybe it’s not art. What’s my relationship with it? What does it mean? Does it mean anything?” He observed the colour radiating from its solar shape. It was compelling.
He photographed the sculpted glass decanter from every angle, catching the rays jumping off the scoops, receding into the indents, only to splash out elsewhere as the light changed. “Something happened. Something poetic. Something revealing. I began to imagine an art work to sit alongside it.” The artist once again sensed the energy of the void – a recurring theme throughout his oeuvre – a space filled not with emptiness, but with abundance, plenitude, infinite possibilities. He searched for that colour, between darkness and light, a blend of all the shades of Rémy Martin XO eaux-de-vie:
“Since my earliest work, I have been compelled by colour – those that splash out at you but hold deep darkness too, deep interiority. It’s the dichotomy between the elements that jump out and those that recede that draws me. I want to make colour immersive, so it completely takes you over. I don’t want to make nice painted objects. I want lots of layers. The sense that if you touch it, it will change.”
After immersing himself in the colour of Rémy Martin XO Cognac Fine Champagne, its rich depths and dazzling iridescence, Anish Kapoor meditated on the question of reflections. He began to imagine an art work in the image of his signature concave mirrors, which gave rise to a new limited edition decanter design. Working closely with the designers, he revisited the original 70cl glass mould to form a minimalist curve with a concave centre in glowing amber tones. The front surface is smooth and transparent and fuses with the classic scooped design on the back, amplifying its luminous effect, enhancing the solar shape and reflecting infinite possibilities.
Featuring a new copper bottle neck and stopper, it unlocks an alternative Rémy Martin universe, like a magnetic portal to another world:
“When I was working with the designers to make the decanter, relating to this liquid and how it functions, I thought about how I originally knew it through my father, how I’ve picked it up from my past over the years, so it’s become present and real. I wanted to translate these reflections, reflections of reality, reflections of light. I toyed with it and decided on a much simpler design.”
“I’ve been playing with concave mirrors for a few years now. They offer an alternative perception of reality and create endless reflections like Rémy Martin XO. After making hollow forms painted deep Prussian blue to create a void filled with darkness, I began to make the same kind of objects with a mirror: a void filled with reflections. The concavity creates optical illusions. It turns the world upside down and induces interiority. It invites us to think about the inner life of things.”
