A twisting mass of woven bamboo winds its way around the interior of the newly revamped Casa Loewe Barcelona, stretching across the ceiling and down a series of pillars. Y\u016bgo (or Fusion), as the ethereal installation is called, is the handiwork of Japanese bamboo artist Tanabe Chikuunsai IV, who has...
Normally Chikuunsai IV would visit a site to learn about its history and soak up its atmosphere before working on a design, but Covid-19 restrictions meant he had to work on the fly when he arrived in Barcelona. His diaphanous installation for Casa Loewe Barcelona is a fusion of natural forces and the fluid forms of Loewe’s bags and clothing. Like with all his installations, he made it without using glue, relying instead on bamboo’s high tensile strength to support the structure.
by South Korean artist Haegue Yang beside the entrance. Among other design hits inside the building, built by Catalan modernist architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner, are chairs by Gerrit Thomas Rietveld and tables by Axel Vervoordt, offset by 16th-century furniture and a staircase with railings inspired by the Arts & Crafts designs of William Morris.
Like many of the makers that the foundation and the Loewe brand support, Chikuunsai IV is expanding the possibilities of his medium. Bamboo craft stretches back at least 1,000 years in Japan, and his great-grandfather, Chikuunsai I, was the first of the family to take up the art of weaving it 120 years ago. Each generation has pushed the medium in new directions.
‘Tanabe Chikuunsai IV is a one-of-a-kind artist in the Japanese bamboo art scene,’ says his gallerist Philippe Boudin. ‘He is continuing a tradition but imbuing it with an avant-garde approach and creating installations on a monumental scale.’ With his daughter Zoé Niang, he runs Paris’ Galerie Mingei, which helped facilitate the Casa Loewe Barcelona installation and is exhibiting smaller works in its space at 5 Rue Visconti .
For the Japanese, bamboo is more than just a material – and a highly renewable one at that. It has strong cultural roots and inherent spiritualism, says Chikuunsai IV. ‘It gives the Loewe store a sacred quality,’ he adds – fitting for a newly reopened temple to craft and fashion. §
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