Sous Les Pavés, A Party: Creative Time’s Brooklyn Blowout

The art crowd decamped to the sprawling Brooklyn Navy Yard Thursday night for Creative Time’s annual spring gala. “The space is mind-blowing,” the milliner Gigi Burris said. “The lighting makes the place feel so surreal and Gotham-like.” As it happens, the venue is so incredible it will soon become the new factory for the popular Mast Brothers, who were also in attendance, alongside the likes of Waris Ahluwalia, Anja Rubik, Jeff Deitch, and Daniel Arsham. They were all greeted by attendants in white uniforms bearing the organization’s logo and once inside found sprinklings of art pieces everywhere, such a Sebastian Errazuriz’s chicken lamp. “It gives new meaning to the phrase ‘chicken with its head cut off,’” said one guest as he passed by it. (In place of the head, there was a lightbulb.) There was plenty more art to be consumed at the dinner table, where napkins were printed with the famous, provocative phrase, “Sous les pavés, la plage!” The phrase, which translates to “under the cobblestones, the beach,” was originally used by protesters in 1968 in Paris to mean that it was possible to escape from a regimented life. Two men who might be said to exemplify that sentiment were honorees Craig Robins, the developer and Miami poobah, and artist Rirkrit Tiravanija, who sincerely told the crowd, “I hope you keep supporting Creative Time so that one day we’ll make something together.”