Place Vendôme
2019
Each year, FIAC Hors les Murs invites an artist to imagine a specific project for the Place Vendôme, which provides both powerful inspiration and an exceptional framework for contemporary creation. Like a jewel set in stone, built in perfect classical symmetry, the Place Vendôme exemplifies creation, excellence, and savoir faire. For the 2019 installation, Yayoi Kusama expands on several of the most recognizable motifs of her visual language: the pumpkin, the polka dot, and the inflatable. For Kusama, the repetitive expression of forms reaching to the infinite is a key part of her aesthetic approach, as are her versatility and virtuosity in making these motifs in different media and for different contexts. Kusama has incorporated inflatables in her work for the past twenty years, but her proposal for Place Vendôme is by far the largest work of this type she has proposed to date. With this project, Kusama extends her imagery into the architecture and landscape, encouraging an engaged viewing from all angles. Yayoi Kusama wants to share her message: ‘I would be pleased to show my art in Place Vendôme, such an important and beautiful historical place, and further wish to convey the message of love and peace of my art to the people of Paris and the world.’