Fujiko Nakaya's Fog Sculpture Engulfs Mies van der Rohe's Neue Nationalgalerie

Japanese artist Fujiko Nakaya has installed a site-specific fog sculpture in the sculpture garden of Berlin's Neue Nationalgalerie, running through October 25, 2026. The installation, curated by Klaus Biesenbach and Lisa Botti with assistant curator Nikola Richolt, fills the 90-meter-long garden with slowly moving clouds of pure water mist that drift between trees, sculptures, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's transparent steel-and-glass museum building. Nakaya, who pioneered fog as a sculptural medium at Expo '70 in Osaka, treats weather as a malleable material. The fog emerges from opposite sides at regular intervals, converging toward the center before dissipating. Its form constantly shifts with wind, humidity, and temperature, making each activation unique. The mist temporarily obscures and reveals the museum's precise geometry, as well as sculptures by Henri Laurens, Wolfgang Mattheuer, and Alicja Kwade. Visitors can view the changing atmosphere from the collection galleries or walk through the garden itself. Nakaya's practice exemplifies atmosphere as an active partner to architecture, with no permanent form or fixed outline.