Le Bon Marché Rive Gauche continues over 160 years of engagement to the arts with the debut of its latest art instillation, the exhibition by designer Oki Sato’s nendo titled “ame nochi hana”, which translates from the artist’s native Japanese meaning rain flowers.
Aristide Boucicaut, who founded Le Bon Marché was well regarded for his love of the arts now continued by the department store’s owner LVMH. Over the past five years, Le Bon Marché has hosted five creative exhibitions by artists, such as Ai Weiwei, Chiharu Shiota, Leandro Erlich and Joana Vasconcelos. Artists are given carte blanche aside from the one request that the exhibition should sit well in the beginning of the year’s “White Sale” color pattern.
“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,” said Oki Sato, founder of the nendo Design Studio.
Oki Sato’s nendo studio employed a wide range of techniques to develop the “ame nochi hana” exhibition, including 3D Printing. Oki Sato’s minimal style and poetically stunning pieces allow for visitors to explore her instillation of miniature buildings, sculpture, and drawings with a mindset of bliss and complete imagination.
Available to view until February 16th of this year, “ame nochi hana” is laid out across two floors with a highlight being the glass roof above the exhibition. With a focus on water, nearly two dozen sculptures are present each in the shape of a water bottle and a rain shower that “morphs into raining daisies.”
Image credit: © Le Bon Marché Rive Gauche. courtesy of LVMH
