Rimowa and Daniel Arsham Go Back to the Future

Rimowa has unearthed a style from its archives. The high-end luggage company, famous for its aluminum suitcases, collaborated with contemporary artist Daniel Arsham to revisit its cases from the 1950s. It takes after Arsham’s “Future Relic,” a series he began in 2013 that reimagines antiquated objects—boom boxes, polaroid cameras, and cassette tapes—as eroding casts made of volcanic ash, sand, or selenite.

The alterations make mundane items from the near past look like they were recently excavated, as if they were brought back from the future. “I have engaged in a body of work over the past ten years that aims to dislocate a viewer from a particular moment in time,” he says. “All of the fictional archeological objects allow viewers to float in time.”

For the partnership with Rimowa, which coincides with Frieze New York 2019, Arsham is sticking to the same ethos. He combed through the brand’s archives and was inspired by cases that held records, musical instruments, stacks of cash, and other valuable items.

And it would appear that his recreation of a signature Rimowa style falls into that register. The art piece is contained in the brand’s classic Attaché case, effectively melding the past, present, and future.

The Rimowa and Daniel Arsham collaboration will be available for auction at Sotheby’s from now until May 13. It will then be available for $2,200 starting on May 17 at select Rimowa stores and Rimowa.com.