“The wonder 500 ” exhibition at “Les Docks – Cité de la Mode et du Design” for the Paris Design Week / 2015.
The exhibition, part of the program of the Paris Design Week 2015, is a spin-off of an event called “The Wonder 500” devised by the Japanese Ministry of Economy to promote products “made in Japan” worldwide.
The exhibition design, by Archiee, was inspired by the aesthetics of late-Renaissance “wunderkammers” (cabinet of curiosities), rooms filled with exotic and precious objects.
Thus, the display cabinets were conceived to create the illusion of a never-ending multiplication of the objects inside. This effect is obtained using a light-emitting base and three glass panels with different levels of reflection, one 100% reflecting, one semi-reflecting, and one fully transparent.
Along with the exposed artifacts, the exhibition also compares French and Japanese cultures, adopting the metaphor of a sports match.
Indeed, each of the 6 display cases is divided into two sectors (symbolically separated by a net resembling a ping-pong one) which contain Japanese objects selected by 12 acclaimed professionals – chefs, novelists, designers, journalists, illustrators, artistic directors – six French and six Japanese, thus revealing their different cultural approach.
Objects were chosen by:
Amélie Nothomb and Ryoko Sekiguchi / Writers
Florent Chavouet and Hirohiko Araki / Illustrators
Frédérique Morrel and Ken Okuyama / Designers
Pierre Gagnaire and Atsushi Tanaka / Chef
Natacha Polony and Eriko Nakamura / journalists
Sarah Andelman from “collette” and Shinichiro Ogata from “simplicity” / Artistic Directors
Organizer: Japanese Ministry of Economy
Producer: Revamp corporation
Ei Publishing Co.,Ltd Id10 Japan corporation; Maison wa
Exhibition Design: ARCHIEE / Yusuke Kinoshita and Daisuke Sekine, www.archiee.com
Photos: Takeshi Miyamoto
Images and drawings: courtesy of Archiee
Cover image: courtesy of Les Docks, Paris.