Tadashi Kawamata Creates Three Works for Ruinart's Conversations with Nature

Japanese artist Tadashi Kawamata, known since the late 1970s for temporal installations from salvaged materials, is the latest participant in Maison Ruinart's annual Conversations with Nature program. For 2026, he has created three works—Tree Hut, Nest, and Observatory—at the Ruinart estate in Reims. The works form a "symbolic ecosystem" of protection, elevation, and observation. A dedicated in-situ work will also appear at the Ruinart Champagne & Art Bar at PalaisPopulaire in Berlin during Gallery Weekend (April 30–May 3, 2026). Kawamata's practice, inspired by structuralist theory (Foucault, Merleau-Ponty, Barthes), emphasizes process and relation over object. His installations, often made from thousands of reclaimed items like wooden crates or chopsticks, are built with local communities and later dismantled for reuse. Past Conversations with Nature collaborators include Tomás Saraceno, Nils Udo, and Julian Charrière. Kawamata's Observatory, a six-meter-tall wooden structure shaped like an inverted champagne bottle, references Ruinart's Roman chalk cellars. The works will also be presented later at Frieze London, Art Basel Paris, and Art Basel Miami.