Tokyo-based French architect, artist, and designer Emmanuelle Moureaux makes her Dutch debut with 100 colors no.45 "8760 hours", an installation for art museum M. in Almere. The spatial installation, commissioned by the museum for immersive art and land art, and will be on display from July 20th in the museum's pavilion in new town Almere. Visitors walking through the installation will experience the passage of time in unique and colorful ways.

Emmanuelle Moureaux

Emmanuelle Moureaux has lived in Tokyo since 1996, where she founded 'emmanuelle moureaux architecture + design' in 2003 (now emmanuelle moureaux INC.). The vibrant colors of Tokyo inspired her to create a palette of 100 colors that she developed herself. Based on this, she makes installations worldwide under the name '100 colors' that visitors can walk in, under, or through. Through her design concept of "shikiri", which literally means "dividing (creating) space with colors", she uses colors as three-dimensional elements and layers to shape and compose spaces. With her work, she wants people to experience colors with all their senses to become more aware of the colorful, everyday environment around them.

A first for Almere

100 colors no.45 "8760 hours", is number 45 in the '100 colors' series. The artwork was commissioned by artmuseum M. in The Netherlands' most famous new town, Almere, and marks the first time that Moureaux's work will be displayed in the Netherlands. The installation comprises 8760 paper clocks in 100 colors, with each clock representing one hour. Together, all of the clocks depict the number of hours in one year. The installation itself is stationary, but the hands of the clocks appear to be moving as visitors walk through.

M.'s round pavilion was designed by architects duo Studio Ossidiana as a round observatory in which the solstices can be experienced. The pavilion, combined with Moureaux's installation, creates the illusion of an instrument in which visitors experience the concept of time, its passage, and the influence of color upon it.

"M. experiments with making art accessible to become a museum where everyone feels at home," explains Olga Ruitenbeek, Artistic Director of M. "Almost everyone can see color, but what color does to you is very personal. Emmanuelle Moureaux's installations demonstrate this time and time again. With 100 colors no.45 "8760 hours" we want visitors to look differently at their environment. The effect of the explosion of colors in which the visitors find themselves will be taken outside afterwards. It will allow them to look differently at the colors around them."

Emmanuelle Moureaux created '100 colors' installations in Tokyo (Shinjuku Central Park, Roppongi Hills), Buenos Aires (Usina Del Arte), New York (The Color Factory), Dubai (Downtown Boulevard), Cannes (Hotel Martinez), and Oslo (Public Library), among others locations around the world. She was nominated for various design awards and received, among others, the Architizer A+Award (USA), The Aesthetica Art Prize (UK), Le French Design 100 (France), and the Public Space Design Award (Japan). In addition to the installation series '100 colors', she designed buildings for Sugamo Shinkin Bank, spaces for ABC Cooking Studio, and art installations for UNIQLO, ISSEY MIYAKE, The National Art Center, Tokyo, and the Taiwanese city of New Taipei, among others. She is also a Professor at Tohoku University of Art and Design and a member of the Tokyo Society of Architects, the Architectural Institute of Japan, and the Japan Institute of Architects.

100 colors no.45 "8760 hours" will be on view in art museum M. in Almere from July 20th.