Moscow Says Louis Vuitton Doesn’t Go With Red Square

路易威登收到莫斯科紅場「逐客令」

時尚ANDREW ROTH2013年11月29日

莫斯科紅場上，一個LV行李箱外形的巨大展館。

Pavel Golovkin/Associated Press

莫斯科——如果列寧現在活了過來，而不是躺在附近的墓里氣得發抖的話，毫無疑問，他會被紅場上那個兩層樓高的復刻版路易威登(Louis Vuitton)行李箱驚呆。也許，他還會把那篇關於需要一個革命先鋒隊的著名文章的標題從《怎麼辦》(What Is To Be Done)改成《見鬼了，為什麼搞成這樣？》(Why the Heck Was It Done)。

這個巨大的豪華行李箱於本周竣工，距離克里姆林宮的圍牆只有幾步之遙，準備用來舉辦一場慈善展覽，陳列這家巴黎設計公司的箱包。甫一完工，它就在社交網絡上遭到冷嘲熱諷，被國家杜馬譴責，而批准這個臨時展覽的緊靠紅場的奢侈品百貨商店GUM也跟它撇清了關係。

這座行李箱有30英尺高（約合9米）、100英尺寬。在一片譴責聲中，迄今職位最高的批評者是總統行政辦公室的一名官員。幾家俄羅斯官方通訊社報道，此人周三表示，這座臨時展館是擅自搭建的，必須「立即拆除」。

紅場上不僅有列寧墓，而且慶祝蘇聯在二戰中戰勝德國的年度閱兵儀式也在這裡舉行。儘管法律禁止紅場上出現任何「有損歷史原貌」的東西，但是近年來，這裡已經舉辦過音樂會、越野摩托車特技表演，出現過一個商業溜冰場，以及迪奧(Dior)的巨型金屬展館。

「在紅場上發生任何事情都是不可接受的，」60歲的塔季揚娜·費度 索娃(Tatyana Fedosova)說。她穿着艷紅色的冬衣，當時正在午休，說話的時候仰頭凝視着那棟建築。「這是一個神聖的地方。我們以前的領袖就葬在這裡。我覺得，有 個溜冰場已經不太好了，現在這個實在是太過分了。 」

本周早些時候，議員們開始對路易威登發起抨擊。來自共產黨的杜馬議 員謝爾蓋·奧布霍夫(Sergey Obukhov)稱，紅場是「俄羅斯政府的一個神聖之地」。他還說，「有一些標誌是不容貶低或褻瀆的。」亞歷山大·西佳金(Aleksandr Sidyakin)是普京所在的執政黨——統一俄羅斯黨的議員，他要求調查這座建築是否違反了廣告法。

GUM百貨公司周三發表聲明稱，鑒於「部分俄羅斯人的看法」，他們已經要求路易威登駐俄羅斯的代表拆除這個展館。

路易威登在宣傳活動中融入俄羅斯政治元素已經不是第一次了。在2007年的一則雜誌廣告上，前蘇聯領導人米哈伊爾·戈爾巴喬夫(Mikhail S. Gorbachev)坐着一輛車經過柏林牆，身旁的路易威登包里塞滿了俄羅斯自由派雜誌。

可是現如今，人們對莫斯科公共場所的美化特別關注，而且社交網絡迅速聚集了大量批評和PS處理過的圖片——比如列寧墓被惡搞成路易威登包的樣式——公眾的嘲笑迅速引起了官方的威脅。

對於展館是否會被拆除，路易威登公司周三晚上沒有作出回應，不過，時裝模特娜塔麗·沃佳諾娃(Natalia Vodianova)在Facebook上發帖說，「希望這次展覽不會取消，只是轉移到另一個地方進行。」按照計劃，展覽的門票收入將捐獻給她牽頭的慈善基金。

35歲的亞歷山大·杜博夫(Aleksandr Dubov)是一名來自葉卡捷琳堡的遊客。周三時，他在展館周圍的金屬柵欄邊說，自己「跟這個行李箱沒有私人恩怨」。

「至少他們可以讓它留在這裡，直到展覽結束，」杜博夫說。他穿着皮夾克，帶着一個仿鱷魚皮材質的包，圍着展館繞了一圈，間或停下來拍照。

「這是個神聖的地方？」他指着廣場的另一側問，「那裡已經有了一個巨大的商場。」

翻譯：土土

Moscow Says Louis Vuitton Doesn’t Go With Red Square

By ANDREW ROTHNovember 29, 2013

A gigantic luxury replica of a Louis Vuitton traveling trunk on Red Square in Moscow.

Pavel Golovkin/Associated Press

MOSCOW — If Lenin were alive today, instead of spinning in his mausoleum nearby, he no doubt would be aghast at the two-story replica of a Louis Vuitton traveling trunk on Red Square. He might also update the title of his famous essay on the need for a revolutionary vanguard party, asking not “What Is To Be Done” but “Why the Heck Was It Done?”

Since construction finished this week, the gigantic luxury trunk, which is just steps from the Kremlin walls and was set to hold a charity exhibition of suitcases by the Paris-based designer, has been panned on social networks, denounced at the Duma and disowned by GUM, the luxury department store that abuts Red Square and approved the temporary exhibition.

In the highest-ranking condemnation yet of the 30-foot-tall, 100-foot-wide trunk, an official in the Presidential Administration on Wednesday said the temporary pavilion was unauthorized and demanded that it be “dismantled immediately,” several state news agencies reported.

Despite a legal ban on anything that “violates the historical appearance” of Red Square, the site of the Lenin mausoleum and yearly military parades celebrating the Soviet victory over Germany in World War II, the space has hosted concerts, dirt-bike stunt shows, a commercial ice-skating rink and a Dior exhibition in a gigantic metallic pavilion in recent years.

“Everything that is happening on Red Square is unacceptable,” Tatyana Fedosova, 60, who was dressed in a bright red winter coat, said as she tilted her head back to gaze at the trunk during her lunch break. “This is a sacred place. Our former leaders are buried here. I thought that the ice-skating rink here was not great, but this is too much.”

Lawmakers began lashing out at Louis Vuitton earlier this week. Sergey Obukhov, a Communist deputy for the Duma, called the square a “sacred place for the Russian government.” He added, “There are symbols that are forbidden to debase or defile.” Aleksandr Sidyakin, a member of President Vladimir V. Putin’s governing United Russia party, demanded an investigation into whether the structure violated any laws on advertising.

GUM, the department store, said in a statement Wednesday that it had told the Russian representative of Louis Vuitton to tear down the exhibition hall, in light of “the position of a part of the population.”

This is not the first time Louis Vuitton has become enmeshed into Russian politics in its marketing campaigns. In 2007, a magazine advertisement showed the former Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev riding in a car past the Berlin Wall with a Louis Vuitton bag stuffed with liberal Russian magazines.

But with special attention now being paid to the beautification of Moscow’s public spaces, and social networks swiftly churning out criticism and Photoshopped pictures — like one of Lenin’s tomb reupholstered to look like a Louis Vuitton bag — the public ridicule swiftly led to official threats.

The fashion house did not respond Wednesday evening to questions on whether the exhibition hall would be removed, but Natalia Vodianova, a fashion model and the head of the charitable fund set to receive the ticket receipts from the exhibition, said in a Facebook post, “Let us hope that the exhibition is not canceled, but just moved to another place.”

Standing by the metal barriers installed around it on Wednesday, Aleksandr Dubov, a 35-year-old tourist from Yekaterinburg, said he had “nothing personally against the suitcase.”

“At least they could leave it up until the exhibition,” said Mr. Dubov, dressed in a leather jacket and carrying a bag made from fake alligator skin. As he circled the building, he stopped occasionally to snap pictures.

“Is this a sacred place?” he asked, gesturing to the other side of the square. “There is already an enormous mall on it.”