Copy link Copied Copy link Copied Subscribe to gift this article Gift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe. Already a subscriber? Login It’s the opening of the world’s most fashionable craft exhibition and, amid the bustle of guests at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, a Mexican ceramicist stands quietly in front of his imposing work – one of 30 chosen from more than 3900 entries from 124 countries and regions. In about an hour, 33-year-old Andrés Anza will be announced as the winner (unbeknown to him) of the Loewe Craft Prize, but already he is feeling a little “overwhelmed”, he confesses.
Mexican ceramicist Andrés Anza and his winning creation, ‘I only know what I have seen’. In fairness, buzzing around the works on display is a cast of glitterati – artists, curators, editors and designers, not least a towering Rick Owens, in a pair of his own vertiginous platform boots, and his partner, artist Michèle Lamy. A hush falls as a handsome, vaguely cowboy-attired gentleman in double denim and dark glasses pauses in front of Anza’s creation – then repeats the same shuffle-forward, lean-in and peer-around dance that so many guests have already performed before the piece.
After a beat, I ask the ceramicist what it’s like to witness a creative powerhouse such as Pharrell Williams examining his work. “It’s mind-blowing,” he says. Pharrell Williams arrives for opening night channelling cowboy vibes.
The same could be said of the f.