reguet launches a new artistic collaboration with Jenn Ellis, for the third year of its partnership with Frieze Art Fair. Jenn, a curator with roots in Switzerland and Colombia, is passionate about the considered meeting of art, space and context. Over the last decade, she has created meaningful projects and connections between artists, galleries, and institutions globally. As the founder of the curatorial studio APSARA, she has led projects globally, from the UNESCO heritage vineyards of Burgundy to a grade II listed church in Marylebone.

Ellis’ projects have gained critical recognition in publications such as Art Newspaper, Artforum, Frieze, CN Traveller, BBC and the Evening Standard.

Jenn Ellis was invited to Breguet manufacture in the Vallée de Joux to discover more about the “savoir-faire” of Breguet. During the visit, she was thoroughly impressed by the artisans’ passion and the rich tradition perpetuated by the brand: “It was incredible to not just understand but feel the emotion, care, and technical skill that goes into making each Breguet piece. There is a profound respect for heritage and finding the balance between historical articulation and innovation. [...]”

The 2024-25 partnership between Breguet and Frieze takes the form of a year-long project, exploring evolutionary change by independent curator and founder of Apsara Studio, Jenn Ellis. In Frieze New York 2024, the first exhibition of the yearlong collaboration, Ellis has chosen to work with the Singaporean artist, Dawn Ng, an artist whose work resonates with the geographical considerations and topographical readings of deep time.

“An Atlas of Us” is the inaugural exhibition in the cycle, Dawn Ng’s articulation of time through colour, shape and form, and its emotive associations. Through working with ice, the most ephemeral material available to the artist in her home country, Ng’s work is represented by moving image, a lightbox, photography, and painting.

Over several weeks in her studio, Ng creates 60-kilogram blocks of ice which evolve into a near-geological confluence of pigments, watercolours, acrylics, and dyes. The stratification of these blocks speaks to the topography of our planet, where time is read through age-old formations that are testimony to gravitational pushes and pulls. The effect of these natural forces is a key consideration in the history of watchmaking and evidenced by the design of timekeeping mechanisms.

“In my work I explore time through the ultimate ephemeral material: that is the ice. Pervading my work is the question of what if we described time as a colour, shape and form, through the lens of emotions, rather than strict numerical terms? [...] Collaborating with Breguet, a brand that is vested in not only time but also in the notions of heritage, is interesting and prompts me to think about what predates us, in particular land, topography, and geological formations. Through my presentation, curated by serial collaborator Jenn Ellis, I am excited to unpack thoughts around what makes us ‘us’, how time can be reflected by the surfaces we stand on, but also how it comes, goes, and evolves in a cyclical manner,” said Ng.