Palazzo Chupi
Series of 21 drawings, 50 x 65 cm 

Video 23' 23''

2008-09

The work is named after Julian Schnabel's extravagant 12-story high redish Venitian Palazzo, built on top of his existing house in Manhattan's Far West Village. The broker in charge of selling the property writes: "Julian Schnabel has created a timeless masterpiece at 360 West 11th Street, where he has envisioned and designed every detail and glorious nuance in this remarkable antithesis to the current glass box era of architecture.  Drama, scale and indulgence direct the design and finishes of what is truly a work of art, unlikely to ever be replicated. At Palazzo Chupi: walls are covered with rough hewn wood, layered with hand-applied plaster or set with ceramic tile, voluminous and grand living spaces with up to 19 foot high ceilings allow for
massive works of art, enormous stone fireplaces and oversized French doors, handmade cast bronze handrails adorn copious and generously sized terraces and balconies with epic and incomparable views of Manhattan". 

Completed in 2007, it is comprised of 5 units (one tripex, two duplexes, and three single-floor apartments), initially on sale for $ 12 million to $ 32 million. One sold to a banker, another one to Richard Gere (for $ 12 million in 2007, he put it back on the market for $ 18 m less than a year later, then $ 15 m, before taking it off the market). Rumor has it that Madonna and Bono were to move in too, but the fact is that the three other units have so far remained unsold, despite a considerable discount.   

Because Schnabel's oversized fake Venitian style didn't quite fit in the West Village, the project has been passionately debated and vehemently opposed by preservation groups. In addition, the construction seems to have been conducted in a very unorthodox manner, let alone legality.

Palazzo Chupi doesn't represent the building itself, which is visible from many vintage points on the Hudson River bank, and on the internet, but comments on it from two distinct perspectives. In a series of 21 drawings documenting the block from the same viewpoint, from 4 billion years BC to 300.000 years into the future, Palazzo Chupi, seen being erected and decaying, is nothing but an insignificant detail on the long-term timeline of history. The video features a few neighbors and passers-by, and Andrew Berman, Executive Director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, summing up the reasons why Palazzo Chupi should have never been built. As for Julian Schnabel, he declined to comment.

Palazzo Chupi addresses issues of architectural legacy, urban permanence, preservation and change, the merger of art and real estate, and the Malibu-isation of the West Village.