Fujiko Nakaya fills bourse de commerce with vapor cloud Fujiko Nakaya transforms the Rotunda of Bourse de Commerce– Pinault Collection into a shifting landscape of vapor with Cloud # 07156, a site-specific fog sculpture provided as part of the exhibit Clair-obscur. The installation occupies the circular heart of the museum underneath the significant dome and enters into direct discussion with the concrete cylinder intervention designed by Tadao Ando.
Composed entirely of microscopic water droplets, the dense white cloud constantly alters shape in response to air currents, ventilation systems, and visitors moving through the area. The work dissolves and reappears throughout the day, obscuring architectural views while revealing otherwise invisible climatic conditions. For Nakaya, fog has the unique capability to make empty space noticeable, exposing the flow of air and the relationships between bodies, architecture, and environment.
all images © designboom a conversation in between fog and tadao ando’s architecture The setup extends the Japanese artist’s decades-long expedition of fog as a sculptural medium. Fujiko Nakaya recreates natural phenomena through technology. Utilizing high-pressure pumps and specifically engineered nozzles, water is atomized into droplets determining just twenty to thirty microns in size, matching the composition of naturally occurring fog. Nakaya has often described these works as discussions with natural forces, acknowledging that wind, humidity, temperature level, and human presence eventually determine the kind each sculpture takes.
Created particularly for the Paris museum, Cloud # 07156 takes its title from the meteorological station nearby to the Bourse de Commerce, connecting the artificial cloud inside the building to the climatic conditions unfolding above the city. The job likewise resonates with the Japanese principle of ma, comprehended as a period or relational area in between individuals and things. Through fog, the artist changes emptiness into a tangible presence, an active field of encounter instead of a void.
Cloud # 07156 unfolds underneath the historical dome of the Bourse de Commerce inside the clair-obscur exhibit Nakaya’s setup functions as a centerpiece within Clair-obscur, curated by Emma Lavigne with involvement from art and media historian Anne-Marie Duguet. The work links carefully with the Fog section of the exhibition, where artists examine presence, disappearance, and atmospheric perception. Functions by Trisha Donnelly, Bruce Conner, Frank Bowling, and Wolfgang Tillmans similarly explore obscurity, mirage, and the unstable borders in between presence and lack.
The encounter in between Nakaya’s ephemeral cloud and Tadao Ando’s huge architecture highlights a shared interest in time, nature, and perception. While Ando’s concrete cylinder frames and partially conceals the historical rotunda, the fog sculpture introduces a continuously changing weather layer that even more alters visitors’ experience of the space.
the fog sculpture obscures and reveals the geometry of Ando’s circular Rotunda tiny water droplets change the museum’s environment into a concrete sculptural medium sunlight, architecture, and vapor interact throughout the day