Story

april 27, 2016

Text Fredrik Austad Photos COS Copyediting Maren Serine Andersen

Continuing last years success at Salone del Mobile in Milan, where the Swedish brand COS had collaborated with the NYC based studio Snarkitecture, the brand had for this years design week teamed up with the Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto on an installation called “Forest of Light”, taking inspiration from COS fall winter 2016 collection.

Sou Fujimoto, born in 1974 in the Japanese island Hokkadio, is an architect well known for his work reflecting interactions and connections between humans and nature. Growing up in the Northern part of Japan, in an environment know for its stunning beauty, it is easy to see that Fujimoto has taken inspiration from his home country playing with light, big airy spaces and wood in his work.

COS has been inspired by Sou Fujimoto for many years. Often focusing on negative space and the concept of bringing the outside in, some of Fujimoto’s most well-known architectural projects, such as the 2013 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, blur the parameters of space with edges dissolving into their surrounding environment.

“Forest of Light” was an interactive installation located in Cinema Arti, a former theater, in the San Babila district of Milan. The installation took the visitors into an everlasting forest of abstract light trees made by cones hanging from the ceiling in a dark infinity room created by mirrors, a phenomenon also known from the wold of the popular Japanese artist Yayomi Kusama. The cones were set to react to the visitors’ movement making the beholders an important part of the piece itself, something that we often see among the works of contemporary artists.

Sou Fujimoto said of the installation, “The COS pavilion is the purest realization of the forest concept. This forest is not static, but light and people interact with one another. This interaction connects fashion, space and forest as a form of architecture”

Between 12th – 17th April, the collaboration with Sou Fujimoto marked the fifth year of COS installations during Salone del Mobile, and built on the brand’s previous art and design collaborations with renowned global art establishments such as the Serpentine Galleries, Frieze Art Fairs and the Donald Judd Foundation.