The idea of cultural exchange lies at the heart of a new exhibition, ‘Beyond our Horizons: from Tokyo to Paris’, the sequel to a show that premiered last autumn at the Mori Arts Center Gallery in Tokyo, attracting around 75,000 visitors over its three-week run. Presented at Chanel’s La Galerie du 19m, this is a tour de force of objects born out of collaborations between 40 French and Japanese artisans. It reveals creations from the encounter of savoir-faire across different cultures, united by a commitment to craft, curiosity and creativity.
The gallery is housed within a creative hub founded by Chanel in north-east Paris in 2021. Since 1985, the fashion house has acquired nearly 40 maisons d’art (the artisanal workshops that produce its buttons, embroidery, and more, some in operation for close to two centuries) to ensure their survival. Eleven of these are housed in Le 19m, where nearly 700 craftspeople can be found working on haute-couture projects and interior decorations, for both Chanel and a roster of other luxury houses. ‘[It is a way to] ensure that the maisons d’art innovate and perpetuate their crafts, and to usher them to work with as many clients as possible, in a way for their creativity to be challenged,’ Bruno Pavlovsky, president of Chanel and Le 19m, told us last year in Tokyo. La Galerie du 19m is a space where the spoils of this creativity can be viewed by the public.
‘Beyond our Horizons’ at La Galerie du 19m, Paris
Miyoko Yasumoto’s Les Filles de l’Air, inspired by kokedama moss balls, hangs above a series of shoji screens by Fujita Gasodo. Illustrating Japan’s 72 micro-seasons, the screens were created in collaboration with Atelier Montex and Lesage Intérieurs
Just as Le 19m’s approach fosters dialogue across disciplines, ‘Beyond our Horizons’ enriches expressions beyond a single workshop. Its various sections are not divided by walls, but instead, the scenography, by Paris’ Atelier Tsuyoshi Tane Architects, navigates visitors through the space as if weaving a thread.
Surprising encounters with craft remain unchanged from the Tokyo edition. Paper lanterns, traditionally hung outside restaurants and shops in Japan as signage, welcome visitors. Crafted by Kyoto’s Kojima Shoten, a business spanning ten generations since the Edo period (1603-1868), they bear the names of the resident workshops and take the shape of wooden hat models from Maison Michel, a hat and head accessory workshop founded in 1936. Elsewhere, screen partitions, crafted by the Kyoto-based Fujita Gasodo, established in 1935 and specialising in framing, feature floral embroidery by Atelier Montex and Lesage Intérieurs. Instead of fusuma sliding doors mounted with paper, Fujita Gasodo’s encounter with French artisans saw these use translucent organza adorned with beadwork, creating a boudoir-like space far from the image of a traditional Japanese house.
Detail of Fog Screen, an installation by Studio MTX and Mikiya Toyoshima of Design Tochi. In the background is a stage curtain designed by Xavier Veilhan and Atelier Montex
Shuji Nakagawa, an expert in creating wooden bath tubs and drink buckets by laminating wood splits into a circular form, has fashioned a series of containers for displaying artworks. Peeking out from Nakagawa’s approximately 4m-tall wooden structures are circular handles by button workshop Desrues, and metal objects shaped like bramble stems and leaves, a collaboration between Parisian architect Thomas Takada and jewellery workshop Goossens. This display evokes the scene of the birth of Princess Kaguya in The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, an ancient piece of Japanese folklore dating back to the Heian period (794-1185).
Each work, while rooted in traditional materials and craftsmanship, brings a sense of wonder through these new contexts and exchanges. However, such cross-cultural exchanges did highlight some differences: ‘French artisans, if they see a blank space, will suggest adding a corsage there. We Japanese, on the other hand, want to pare down elements as much as possible and value negative space. It wasn’t a question of superiority or inferiority; the challenge was how to hit the balance,’ says Koh Kado, an artisan from Kamisoe, who creates decorative paper using woodblock prints, and collaborated with the corsage workshop Lemarié. Yet, it is precisely these differences that foster a willingness to understand others. Film director Momoko Ando – a member of the exhibition’s editorial committee – visited Le 19m many times, where she observed an ‘open-mindedness’ among the French craftspeople at work: ‘They don’t say we can’t do it. Instead, they respond with “wow” and embrace it. They have unconditional respect for other crafts.’
Silver embroidered bees by Lesage Intérieurs hang in a wooden tree trunk crafted by Shuji Nakagawa
At La Galerie du 19m, regardless of expertise or background, anyone can come in and engage in crafts themselves. Underlying this is the belief that craft is not reserved for a select few; while skill levels vary, craft is an enriching gesture that anyone can undertake. At the Tokyo exhibition, during a charm-making workshop, participants from children to adults worked diligently using their hands. Creating something from nothing brings a sense of fulfilment, and once you improve, you want to do more. ‘Our craftspeople include a former banker and a ballet dancer,’ said Pavlovsky at the time.
‘Beyond our Horizons: from Tokyo to Paris’ is on show until 26 April at La Galerie du 19m.
A version of this story appears in the April 2026 Global Interiors Issue of Wallpaper*, available on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News + now. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today
Glazed tea bowl by Eiraku Zengoro, a prestigious dynasty of Kyoto potters, embroidered by Atelier Montex