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On June 26, contemporary artist Cai Guo-Qiang released the daytime firework display ‘When the Sky Blooms with Sakura’ at Yotsukura Beach in Iwaki City, as commissioned by Saint Laurent’s creative director Anthony Vaccarello.
An area that has been devasted by the 2011 Japan earthquake and resulting tsunami, Iwaki observed a deeply moving dance of 40,000 pigmented smoke-like fireworks. Over approximately thirty minutes, shells were launched between the sea and the sky, creating a mesmerising spectacle that spanned 400 metres wide and 130 metres high.
As part of the commitment to creative excellence beyond fashion and driven by the admiration for Cai Guo-Qiang’s art and forward-thinking vision, Vaccarello and Saint Laurent worked closely with the Iwaki Executive Committee of ‘When the Sky Blooms with Sakura’ to see this project come to life, just as Guo-Qiang imagined.
The event marked Japan’s first daytime fireworks display and also preluded Guo-Qiang’s solo exhibition ‘Ramble in the Cosmos—From Primeval Fireball Onward’ at the National Art Centre in Tokyo, which opened to the public on June 29.
Living in Japan for nearly nine years from December 1986, the Chinese artist arrived in Iwaki, which took on a special place in his life. The coastal town of Fukushima, which used to be a coal mining hub until the ’60s, became another hometown of Guo-Qiang. In 1993, he lived for seven months along Yotsukura Beach in Iwaki, preparing for From the Pan-Pacific, his first solo exhibition at a public art museum in Japan.
In 2023, the artist’s story with Iwaki continues. ‘When the Sky Blooms with Sakura’ began solemnly, representing a requiem for the departed as well as the damage humans have inflicted upon nature. The scene ‘Black Waves’ confronts the pain of the past, while the white ‘Memorial Monument’ symbolises a grand mourning for the suffering experienced during the pandemic and throughout wars. In the latter half of the display, a romantic cluster of Sakura clouds—portrayed through vibrant pink fireworks—conveyed a collective sense of hope.
The bloom above Fukushima echoed the work of the ongoing ‘Project to Plant Ten Thousand Cherry Blossom Trees’, an initiative by Guo-Qiang’s friends in Iwaki, carried out with the artist’s support. It aims to realise a future where the land devastated by the nuclear power plant after the 2011 earthquake becomes a pink sea of Sakura when viewed from afar.
On the day of the daytime fireworks, the visionary artist expressed his gratitude to the people and inspirations behind the project. “Thank you to the beautiful sea and sky of Yotsukura and the rare cooperation and companionship of the sound of the wind and waves in this worrisome June,” he said. “Mankind today is facing various challenges, such as coexisting with the pandemic, economic decline, deglobalisation, and increased national and cultural conflicts.
“Through the sakura in the sky, I was expressing the story of the friendship between the people of Iwaki and me, which transcends politics and history, and I hope that the artwork will inspire the world with faith and hope.”
Watch the full display of ‘When the Sky Blooms with Sakura’ at the video below.
