‘100 Colours‘, a project inspired by the Japanese traditional sliding screens was first conceived in 2013 for the Shinjuku Creators Festa by Tokyo-based French architect Emmanuelle Moureaux. While the first installation was indoors, Moureaux has taken the second edition of her ‘100 Colours’ outdoors, transforming the water plaza of Tokyo’s Shinjuku Central Park into a vibrant, pulsating space.
“When I first arrived in Tokyo, I was fully fascinated by the colors overflowing on the street. In that very moment, my mind decided to move to Japan. Overwhelming number of store signs, flying electrical cables, and flashes of blue sky framed by various volumes of buildings, created three dimensional ‘layers’ in the city.” explains Emmanuelle Moureaux.
The outdoor installation is created using a full spectrum of floating colours, 100 to be exact, and 1,875 strands of textile hand-dyed one by one.
“Having high rise buildings in the background, the 100 colored strands dance in the breeze, as if they are breathing in and out, creating a dynamic motion.” says Emmanuelle Moureaux. She adds, “The flood of various colors pervaded the street built up a complex depth and intensity in the space. These indelible experiences of colors and layers in Tokyo were the inspiration and essence of my design concept of ‘shikiri’, which means dividing (creating) space with colors. Valuing the emotion inspired from Tokyo, I want to show the beauty of colors to the fullest extent.”
Through the outdoor installation, Moureaux shares her blissful emotions of being surrounded by overflowing colours in the middle of a space dominated by skyscrapers. She encourages visitors to experience a similar feeling and spot their favourite colour amongst the ‘100 Colours’.
100 colors | Shinjuku Central Park by emmanuelle moureaux from emmanuelle moureaux on Vimeo.
