Tokujin Yoshioka and his ice sessions: « Nature inspires me and moves me »

The all -Japanese ability to cloak the simplicity of profound meanings is evident in theinstallation Frozen of Tokujin Yoshioka made during the Fuorisalone To accompany the presentation of the latest watches Grand Seiko. In Breast The Japanese designer and artist exhibited « the inconsistent ». Not in the literal sense of the term but with the value of having displayed a concept with those peaks of grace and poetry as only the Orientals know how to reach.

Mandatory stage in Brera Design District, Frozen It consists of a series of Aqua Chairmonumental transparent ice sessions, each of which weighs 850 kg, left at the mercy of events as winter sculptures. Which are transformed and changes with the passage of time and atmospheric agents. Beautiful when they reflect sunlight but also enhance in the evening with the lighting system, in a poetic (and impossible) control over nature and time.

The state of water determines the shape but in Frozen It’s all sublime, passenger, ephemeral, mysterious. Yoshioka, born in 1967, a professional path that crossed that of Shiro Kuramata and Issey Miyake, loves forays into art, design, architecture and fashion. We met him on the occasion of Design Week.

What does the water mean for her?

It is the indispensable element of every human being. Here it becomes the only structure of the session. In Japanese culture it is considered something sacred. It is a mysterious substance, without form, that changes from state.

How did you transfer this emotion into the installation?

Ice cracks, its crystals, reverberation and refraction of light. I have worked so much in the past with transparent materials, which are then the ones who get closest to the idea of ​​light. Considering the latter as a real material, I want to create jobs that transcend the concept of form.

What is your relationship with nature?

His energy inspires me and moves me. There is beauty in its uncontrollable processes. I believe that in the future we will inevitably give them more and more importance.

Why a session?

I have always wanted to make a fact of transparent water. The rounded shapes capture the light like a lens. I wanted to create a work of art that radiates an immaculate light.

And that changes.

Just with the passage of time. And then light, wind and temperature make the rest to make it an organic form.

His works are always poetic, is it intentional?

One thing that happens spontaneously, unwanted.

What project is waiting for it after this?

Something that will go beyond the conventional scale. A project that has to do with space, I could say, relating to the universe.

Tokujin Yoshioka – Frozen

Where: Palazzo Landriani, via Borgonuovo, 25

When: from 8 to 13 April 2025, from 11 to 21

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