Exhibition “ame nochi hana” at Le Bon Marché Rive Gauche: a poetic vision of nature’s cycles by the nendo Design Studio

Le Bon Marché Rive Gauche continues the tradition of engagement with the arts started some 160 years ago by Aristide Boucicaut, the founder of the celebrated Paris Left Bank department store. Each year for the past five years, Le Bon Marché has invited leading contemporary artists to create works in the store’s spaces. After Ai Weiwei, Chiharu Shiota, Leandro Erlich and Joana Vasconcelos, this year the nendo Design Studio had carte blanche for a poetic installation.

The only instruction in the brief given to the artists is that their creation should resonate with the beginning of the year “white sale” color theme. “I thought it was a wonderful story how people would buy white things for their everyday lives – sheets, towels, plates – in order to refresh their spirit, their feelings and their emotions at the start of the new year. That became the starting point for our project,” says Oki Sato, founder of the nendo Design Studio.

Using a diversity of techniques from artisanal craftsmanship to 3D printing, nendo Studio teams have created spectacular poetic installations inside Le Bon Marché. Infused with Oki Sato’s ethereal, minimalist style, the “ame nochi hana” exhibition invites visitors to a land of rain and blooming flowers.

Under the majestic glass roofs at the center of the store, a rain shower morphs into raining daisies. On the second level, the “uncovered skies” installation proposes an interactive immersion for visitors. The 20 sculptures in the shape of water bottles in the “rain bottle” installation interpret the multiple nuances of the word “rain” in Japanese, while the water cycle springs to life in the display windows of Le Bon Marché Rive Gauche.

The “ame nochi hana” exhibition runs until February 16, 2020.