Elle Rit!

If industrial iconography is now an integral part of daily life, few such icons have survived over time like that of The Laughing Cow©, whose cheerful smile continues to nourish the collective imagination all around the world. For this reason, the image deserves the iconic status that Lab’Bel—the artistic laboratory of the Bel Group, founded in 2010—strives to reinterpret, by perpetuating the tradition of collaborations between artists and the Fromageries Bel (Bel Cheese Factory), which begun as far back as 1923 with Benjamin Rabier. Launched in 2014, the project known as the Collector’s Edition Box anticipated the one-hundredth anniversary of The Laughing Cow© in 2021, by inviting an artist every autumn to reinterpret the box in their own unique fashion, thereby creating a work of art within a prescribed format. The time has come for the famous cow to blow out her candles and for Lab’Bel to reunite Thomas Bayrle, Mel Bochner, Daniel Buren, Wim Delvoye, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Jonathan Monk, Karin Sander and Rosemarie Trockel under the same roof. In addition to each artist’s Collector’s Edition Box, a selection of their work is displayed. Our trusty mascot is present in some of these, other pieces eclipse it altogether, but all explore and highlight the conceptual dimensions behind each of the different editions. The aim here is not about showcasing the various commissions developed for the brand but rather to present a body of works independent of this association to visitors, and to connect the dots between the different narratives.