Tadashi Kawamata Transforms Ruinart’s Storied Estate with Nature-Inspired Installations
Helming the annual “Conversations with Nature” series, the Japanese artist brings his sculptural wooden tree houses and nests to the first Champagne house in the heart of Reims
When Japanese artist Tadashi Kawamata first descended into maison Ruinart’s hand-carved crayères, chalk cellars stretching like spiderwebs nearly five miles below the Champagne capital of Reims, “it was a different world,” he tells Galerie. The environment plays a leading role in Kawamata’s in-situ pieces, but at maison Ruinart, the first Champagne house with a legacy dating back to 1729, he wanted to channel both the labyrinth of crayères—which serve as natural cellars aging hundreds of thousands of bottles—and the history above ground.
He strolled through the vines and sketched around the property with pencil and paint, mapping out designs for the trio of wooden plank installations he crafted for maison Ruinart’s “Conversations with Nature” series as the 2026 artist in residence. Observatory towers nearly 20 feet high over Ruinart’s sculpture garden at 4 Rue Des Crayères, with a spiral steel staircase leading to a 360-degree viewing platform overlooking the maison, nearby vineyards, and a stretch of the city. Designed to appear like an inverted champagne bottle while also mimicking the shape of the cellars, this piece was the toughest of the three. “My work is always the same, but in a different location, different time, different people,” he explained, describing his style as spontaneous since he’ll adjust a piece on location so it fits perfectly in place with nature and the surrounding architecture.
Growing up in Hokkaido, where his father worked as a coal miner, the artist often plays on his background, interpreting nature in an urban context, from wooden cabins balancing on trees around Madison Square Garden to a hut perched on the edge of the Centre Pompidou’s steel and glass facade. Each piece Kawamata constructs begins with an initial sketch and model before evolving on site, where it’s altered by factors like weather conditions, the same way centuries-old buildings and vines are impacted. Aligning his artistic vision with engineering constraints is often the most challenging part of the process. When asked how much he had to sacrifice in terms of artistic style to cater to the engineering specs for Observatory, Kawamata laughs, saying, “So much—sometimes I wanted to quit.”
Nest was an easier feat, taking only two days to build the oversized shelter under the roof, the same way a bird piecemeals a nest, one plank at a time. “It’s a fantastic illustration of how a touch of modernity can transform a historic building,” says Frédéric Dufour, maison Ruinart’s president.
Tree Hut is another one of Kawamata’s signatures, a temporary refuge suspended in nature to feel harmonious with the environment and local ecosystem. He also integrated this notion of an impromptu shelter into the design of a sculptural wooden case assembled like a nest around a Ruinart Blanc de Blancs Jeroboam—available in 22 limited editions. Kawamata’s models, sculptures, and collage-like Site Sketches—crafted with scraps of wood and cardboard from previous projects—will also be on display this year at 20 of Ruinart’s partner art fairs around the world, and he’ll create six in-situ installations at fairs like Art Basel Miami.
“Kawamata transforms a place not in a shocking way but in a natural way,” said Fabien Vallérian, Ruinart’s international director of arts and culture, referring to both the installations at 4 Rue Des Crayères and more fleeting pieces like his cascading, 66-foot-wide Tornado—part of his recent showcase debut at Paris’s Palais de Tokyo. “People will feel this has a meaning and long-term vision even if it will only be around for a short time.”