100 COLORS NO.48 “100 COLORS BUTTERFLIES” by Architect, artist and designer Emmanuelle Moureaux
For Lancôme’s Art of Absolue 2023 exhibition, Somexing Artistic curated a commission with Emmanuelle Moureaux. The French architect and artist expands her ongoing 100 Colors series with 100 Colors Butterflies. Through this immersive installation, she explores color as a spatial and emotional medium.
Moreover, the installation reflects Lancôme’s vision of beauty as a harmony of diversity and emotion. It transforms space into a vibrant landscape where color becomes a language of joy and contemplation.
100 Colors N°.48 “100 Colors Butterflies”
Entitled 100 Colors N°.48 “100 Colors Butterflies”, the artwork is a monumental paper-cut installation. It is composed of 40,000 butterflies in 100 meticulously selected hues, suspended to form a vibrant, layered composition. As part of her ongoing 100 Colors series, the piece transforms space into a floating chromatic landscape where color, light, and air become the architecture itself.
Each butterfly is hand-cut and arranged in precise color gradations. As such, it embodies Moureaux’s concept of shikiri: the art of dividing space through color. Measures 1950 × 1950 × 1000 cm, the artwork creates an immersive environment that invites visitors into a meditative encounter.
Through Somexing Artistic’s curatorial mediation, “100 Colors Butterflies” bridges architectural precision and poetic abstraction. It turns fragile, ephemeral materials into a monumental exploration of color, nature, and sensory experience.
Paper-cutting
1950cm x 1950cm x 1000cm
Emmanuelle Moureaux
Emmanuelle Moureaux is a French architect, artist and designer. Profesor at Tohoku University of Art and Design, and the founder of Emmanuelle Moureaux architecture + design. Inspired by the layers and colors of Tokyo that built a complex depth and density on the street, and the traditional spatial elements like sliding screens, she has created the concept of “shikiri”, which literally means “dividing (creating) space with colors”.
Her work extend to a number of projects, including architectural design for Sugamo Shinkin Bank, art installations for UNIQLO and ISSEY MIYAKE, “100 colors” art installation series and etc.
