Gallery's Picks for the Month（Bunpei Kado at Ginza Maison Hermès, Tokyo）

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Island Hopper

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The window displays at Maison Hermès Ginza serve as a theater opened to the city, showcasing the Hermès ethos through the unique perspectives of various creators.

The theme for Hermès in 2023 is "Surprising Discoveries". Utilizing the space of the window, we invite you into various dream-like worlds.

Island Hopper at Maison Hermès Ginza
© Photo by Satoshi Asakawa / Courtesy of Hermès Japan / Created for Hermès Maison Ginza Windows, Summer 2023
("※" represents the same credit)


In today's globalized society, the unique characteristics of different places seem to be homogenized, making urban lives and landscapes look uniformly familiar, regardless of the country. As cities evolve three-dimensionally alongside technological advancements, the silhouettes of human life within them also transform.

This time, Kado incorporates the dynamic motion of climbing into the urban window display, prompting a change in the mundane everyday scenes of people traversing the vertical city.

By integrating climbing into his artwork, Kado has adopted sports as a form of relational contemporary art. Moreover, he captures the unique forms of climbing reminiscent of the physical beauty admired in ancient Greece—emphasizing the tension and extension in the body's movement and form, aiming to sculpturally represent the ultimate beauty of the human physique. This ordinary daily life is transformed into an art piece that sparks intellectual curiosity through a clever combination of place and content.

The climbing holds are designed like floating islands, and the mannequins representing climbers are dressed in the latest fashions. This window display, set between towering buildings where ordinary people engage in bouldering, hints at an energetic approach to changing the current social fabric, backed by a narrative of island-hopping.

In the current era of travel restrictions due to the pandemic and divided international relations due to politics, people are reconnecting.

Despite delicate issues between countries, Kado believes that art, fashion, and sports can freely navigate these divides, expressing this potential through his window display.

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Climbing Series

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Bunpei Kado's Climbing Series first debuted with Kabeniwa t the sanwacompany Art Award 2020。Subsequently, in spring 2021, he showcased this series at Art Front Gallery in the solo exhibition The Garden / Secret Room, and in 2022 at Shibuya Hikarie in the solo exhibition The Ark in Space, using the entire space for his installation.


The Climbing Series links the dynamic imagery of climbing with Kado's theme of "contemporary living environments", stimulating people's imagination.

Exhibition view of The Garden, 2021, Art Front Gallery
Left wall: Floating Islands / Right wall: Kabeniwa 2019, exhibited at the sanwacompany Art Award 2020

Floating Islands #04, 2021, 900x1000x120mm, painted plywood, MDF, cap bolts
price: ASK

Stone Garden #02, 2021, 500x900x60mm, painted plywood, MDF, cap bolts
price: ASK

The Island Hopper window display at Maison Hermès Ginza is available for viewing until September 27th (Wednesday). For more details, please visit the official website.
Watch Bunpei Kado’s interview video now available online!
Click here for the official website