pharrell williams and takashi murakami celebrated their 2013 projects during design miami

pharrell williams and takashi murakami celebrated their projects in 2013 at silencio during art basel miami beach / design miami.

david lynch’s ‘silencio’ once again brought the legendary paris nightclub to the heart of the miami design district with a pop-up lounge. it was the hottest party during the art basel miami beach event and was hosted by pharrell williams and contemporary japanese artist takashi murakami. the two artists and friends are at the top of their game — murakami danced in a costume resembling one of his many characters, and when pharrell hit the stage for an energetic performance with his ‘happy’, robin thicke’s ‘blurred lines’ and daft punk’s ‘get lucky’, designboom and the crowd went wild.

pharrell performing
images © designboom

the making of pharrell williams’ happy video
iamOTHER

the party was filled with many notable art collectors and gallerists, artists sean ‘diddy’ combs, damien hirst and shepard fairey were also in the house. the music program was curated by pharrell, with post funk of the 70s, R&B and disco of the 80s, played by DJ mike, DJ DZA, and DJ paze rock. on view were a selection of short films and animations from japanese subculture of the last 10 years, curated by takashi murakami and brought to the audience by VJ manabu. among the older pieces were a commercial for 66 roppongi hills of 2003, kaikai kiki animation and inochi kun commercials of 2004, and the new work included jelly fish ondo dance and eyes trailer of 2013. the party was hosted by miami design district and presented by samsung Ultra HD TV.

pharrell williams

pharrell

pharrell and diddy

artist takashi murakami

takashi murakami is one of japan’s most prolific and well-known contemporary artists. earlier in 2013 he released a feature film, ‘jellyfish eyes’ (in japanese: mememe no kurage), the first of a trilogy of sci-fi computer-generated monster movies. it tells the story of a little boy named masashi who moves to a small town with his mother after his father dies in the 2011 fukushima nuclear power plant disaster.