For its third consecutive participation at Art Basel Paris, Louis Vuitton marks the triumphant return of a legendary collaboration. Nearly twenty years after their first encounter, the Maison and Takashi Murakami reinvent their shared universe through the Artycapucines VII collection, unveiled within the monumental setting of the Grand Palais.
Founded in Basel in 1970, Art Basel has become the beating heart of global contemporary creation. Galleries, artists, and collectors meet here across Miami, Hong Kong, Basel, and now Paris. More than a fair, it is an avant-garde stage where art converses with fashion, culture, and emotion, an ideal playground for Louis Vuitton, which once again celebrates the fusion of craftsmanship and artistic vision.
At the heart of the Balcon d’Honneur, visitors encounter a spectacular installation imagined by Murakami: an eight-metre-tall monumental sculpture of an octopus inspired by Chinese lanterns. Its colourful tentacles spill into the space, guiding the public into a vibrant artistic universe infused with humour, exuberance, and poetry. Atop its glowing head, the artist’s recurring Jellyfish Eyes motif evokes the fear of being watched while transforming that anxiety into wonder. Surrounding this central piece, eleven creations from the Artycapucines VII collection showcase the seamless fusion of Murakami’s imagination with the Maison’s savoir-faire. Each bag, from the Capucines BB Golden Garden to the Capucines Mini Mushroom, features the Japanese artist’s signature motifs.
This collaboration forms part of an artistic story that began in 2003, when Murakami reimagined the Louis Vuitton Monogram in an explosion of colours and pop motifs. A true icon of the 2000s, this encounter between the Japanese artist and the Maison marked the beginning of an era in which fashion fully embraced art. Twenty years later, their creative affinity reaches a new height, extending the dialogue between contemporary art and luxury.
Through this presentation, the Maison reaffirms its role as a bridge between fashion and contemporary art, a tradition dating back to Gaston-Louis Vuitton, who invited artists to collaborate on window displays and art objects in the early 20th century. Today, that vision endures through the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Frank Gehry’s architectural masterpiece, and the Louis Vuitton Espaces around the world.
