Exhibitions
Fujiko Nakaya transforms Paris into an ocean of fog
Fog doesn't usually feature prominently in contemporary art. However, for more than five decades, Japanese artist Fujiko Nakaya has demonstrated that this atmospheric phenomenon can become a powerful creative language. This summer, Paris hosts a new display of her talent with Cloud #07156 , an immersive installation that transforms the historic Bourse de Commerce into a dreamlike setting.
At 93, Nakaya (Sapporo, 1933) continues to push the boundaries of artistic creation through a unique practice that combines technology, observation of nature, and poetic sensibility. Considered one of the pioneers of environmental art, she achieved international recognition in 1970 when she presented her first fog sculpture at the Osaka World Expo. Since then, her installations have enveloped museums, gardens, plazas, and iconic buildings around the world.
The new Parisian installation occupies the large Rotunda located beneath the glass dome of the Bourse de Commerce, home to François Pinault's art collection. Four long lines of nozzles installed in the floor release a fine mist of water that continuously rises, expands, and disappears. The result is a shifting cloud that alters the perception of space and transforms architecture into a sensory experience.
The work also establishes a dialogue between art and science, a constant theme in the Japanese artist's career. The daughter of physicist Ukichiro Nakaya, famous for developing the first artificial snow and for his research on ice crystals, Fujiko inherited a deep fascination with atmospheric phenomena. Her sculptures are not static objects, but living processes that depend on factors such as temperature, humidity, air circulation, and the presence of the public.
“We are in a landscape, in a dream,” said Emma Lavigne, director and general curator of the Pinault Collection, during the presentation of the work. The description perfectly summarizes the experience that Nakaya proposes: an environment in constant transformation where the boundaries between the visible and the invisible blur.
The artist has always championed fog as a material capable of revealing what normally remains hidden. Far from obscuring reality, her clouds make it more perceptible, inviting the viewer to become aware of space, light, and movement. Each installation is unique, as the shape of the cloud changes constantly, making time a fundamental part of the work.
You may be
interested
...
