Chiharu Shiota. Labyrinth of Memory

For my exhibition at La Sucrière in Lyon, I imagined a specific project based on the architecture and identity of the building itself, using the ceiling and the pillars as structures in an immersive environment. Sixteen dresses will be hung from the ceiling, between the pillars across the whole space. The dresses appear to be suspended individually, but are in fact all joined by a single white fabric. The black thread goes round the dresses, weaving a web around the pillars creating a dense atmosphere. Visitors can walk around the layout or inside it, and navigate through the space created by the weave of the thread.' Chiharu Shiota Oct 2011

Dresses are like a second skin. Sometimes, this second skin describes us even better than our own skin. The 'second skin' dress is inside us. I think everything is inside the body – family, grassroots, nation and religion.... This is an intrinsic relationship; sometimes it is comfortable, but sometimes it can be restrictive and even paralysing. Using the black thread that goes around the 'second skin' dress, I create an environment that describes these relationships. The web of thread blurs the spectator's view, and the dresses become more difficult to see. Visitors are completely immersed in the layout; they navigate inside the relationship between the dress and the web of threads, and walk through a labyrinth. This experience aims to highlight the complexity of the human being, by confronting visitors with themselves and the work. Space, time, gravity and human thought form relationships. All of these relationships are represented in my exhibition.

In 2011, the group GL-events, historical partner of major cultural events in Lyon, aware of the strong ambition of the new aera 'Quai Rambaud' in Lyon, gambles on managing La Sucrière. The monumetal installtion had require 1000 metres of satin cotton and a truckload of black wool (600 kilometres of wool). Each dress is made by the fashion creator Mongi Guibane.

Chiharu Shiota
Labyrinth of Memory
Monumental Installation