This June a new art exhibition commissioned by Saint Laurent will open in Tokyo, displaying the work of internationally renowned contemporary artist Cai Guo-Qiang.
The exhibit, dubbed “Ramble in the Cosmos – From Primeval Fireball Onward,” is set to open in Japan’s capital city on 29th June at the National Art Center, Tokyo (NACT).
There will also be a pre-show daytime firework event , called “When the Sky Blooms with Sakura.”
The unique boundary-pushing show will appear above the same coast where Guo-Qiang explosion event “The Horizon from the Pan-Pacific: Project for Extraterrestrials No. 14” was realized thirty years ago.
The theatrical nature of Guo-Qiang’s work is influenced by his early training, when the young artist worked in set design for the Shanghai Theater Academy. Following his stint with the company, he turned his focus to working full-time as a professional artist in Tokyo before moving to New York.
He has previously held solo exhibitions at several of the most prolific galleries in the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art (2006) and the Guggenheim in New York (2008). The artist also held the esteemed role of being the curator for the first Chinese Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2005, before serving as the Director of Visual and Special Effects and Fireworks for both the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics and the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
Guo-Qiang has been fascinated by the wider universe and the unseen world, along with ideas such as feng shui, astrology, and the ancient Eastern philosophies, which provides a central focus of the creative work in his new exhibition. He is also inspired by science and technology, and he regularly uses gunpowder as a medium in his outdoor explosion projects, installations and large-scale paintings.
Commenting on the new launch, a spokesperson for Saint Laurent said “the special commission and involvement in organizing Cai Guo-Qiang’s exhibition reflects the latest instance of Saint Laurent’s ongoing mission, under the initiative of Anthony Vaccarello, to support excellence in various creative fields including visual arts, cinema, and music”.
