For the second consecutive year, Sebastian Errazuriz was invited to design Audemars Piguet’s VIP lounge at Art Basel, Hong Kong and Miami. The new installation was launched at Art Basel Hong Kong on March, 23 rd 2017, and on view during the entire fair.

The new design is inspired by the vast forests in the Jura Mountains, reminding us of the Manufacture’s deep sense of history and endless growth. “During my visit to le Brassus in 2015, I was captivated by the trees that are native to the region of the Vallée de Joux. It seemed as though they drew a natural symbolic connection to Audemars Piguet.”

The spruce trees that grow near the Manufacture usually look tall and straight, from the trunk all the way to the end of the branches. For the lounge, Sebastian Errazuriz created a tree that had meaning and was not like the others, a tree that was unique in its shape and identity.

This sculpture titled “Second Nature” has gone through several steps: cutting a natural tree once fully grown, removing its bark, slicing it into perfect pieces, machining it to thickness and then smoothing it, before bonding it together once again to create a sculptor’s block. The excess material then had to be removed step by step to carve and polish out a new and completely different tree.

Combining digital technologies with high-end craftsmanship and skills, “Second Nature” is an extremely complex recreation of reality. It is in itself an act of poetry and art. It’s the choice to submit yourself to an illogical task of painfully recreating through exaggerated means what nature so perfectly creates effortlessly.

“In that act, we are choosing to value our appreciation of nature through an attempt to understand its processes. It’s a fascinating task that can only be justified by the promise of the lounge's ability to stop the viewers and remind them of the mystery and wonder that surround them.”

“Second Nature” is a testimony to the brand’s past, present, and future; it is also another example of Audemars Piguet's commitment to helping artists and designers bring their visions to life.