Eugene Museum in Bali Announces Collaboration with ISSEY MIYAKE
Set to open in 2026, the Eugene Museum in Bali, designed by architect Andra Matin, has announced a collaboration with ISSEY MIYAKE for a permanent installation. Bringing a breakthrough in innovative technical textiles, this collaborative project is inspired by Eugene Kangawa's important work, Light and shadow inside me (2022—), a series of photograms, which will first be exhibited in a special exhibition organised by A-POC ABLE ISSEY MIYAKE at Art Basel Paris in October 2025.
The Eugene Museum itself is scheduled to open in Tabanan, Bali, in the summer of 2026. Located in a UNESCO World Heritage site, the museum will feature more than 15 paintings and permanent installations by Kangawa, including existing works and new commissions. The project was initiated by a community of art collectors across Asia and is being developed by a local organisation.
In an official press release, Eugene Kangawa stated: “I would like to express my gratitude to Mr.Miyamae and the A-POC ABLE ISSEY MIYAKE team for our thoughtful collaboration in translating my artistic vision into fabric, and to Mr. Tane for designing the spatial elements to experience the collection in Paris. Issey Miyake’s human-centered philosophy resonates deeply with my work, particularly in exploring themes of existence. Light and shadow inside me (2022—), the work that inspired the collection, began as a series of green paintings created together with sunlight, using fading as a medium, and later evolved into a monochrome photogram series using only paper and light. I am excited to present it alongside the collection in Paris, and for visitors to encounter it at the Eugene Museum when it opens in Bali next year.”
Kangawa's signature work, Light and shadow inside me (2022—), is a series of two-dimensional works created entirely through light. Previous variations consisted of water-based dye-coated paper, folded into origami-like polyhedral shapes and dried for several weeks, resulting in natural gradations. The subsequent variations that inspired this collection feature monochrome compositions, where photographic paper is folded into similar shapes and selectively dried under artificial light in a darkroom, creating photograms. Kangawa's technique relies entirely on light and shadow as both material and medium, reflecting our physical existence and beyond.
Inspired by this artwork, the team from A-POC ABLE ISSEY MIYAKE developed innovative bit-level textiles for this collection, rearranging the smallest units of silver particles on photographic paper as an analogy to the intersection of threads in fabric. In translating Kangawa's artistic vision into fabric, the gradation from black to white is achieved entirely through variations in weave density—without using different thread colours or dyes—marking an unprecedented development in textile design.
Yoshiyuki Miyamae, designer of A-POC ABLE ISSEY MIYAKE, said: “We are delighted to present an exhibition in Paris in collaboration with Eugene Kangawa / EUGENE STUDIO. A-POC ABLE ISSEY MIYAKE has consistently returned to the essence of materials and structure, exploring new possibilities in clothing. For this project, we were inspired by Mr. Kangawa’s aesthetic philosophy, which derives rich expression from the fundamental elements of light and shadow, offering us a new perspective in our creative practice. We returned to the smallest unit of fabric: a single thread. Using only black and white threads, we explored light and shadow through variations in weave patterns and density, translating the phenomena of photographic paper and light into the language of cloth. We look forward to sharing this exploration with visitors in the historically and culturally layered city of Paris.”
