The Eugene Museum in Bali, scheduled to open in summer 2026, has announced a collaboration with ISSEY MIYAKE. The project will feature Light and shadow inside me (2022—), a permanent installation based on the work of Japanese multidisciplinary artist Eugene Kangawa.
The collaboration will be previewed at Art Basel Paris in October 2025, where A-POC ABLE ISSEY MIYAKE will present the work in a special exhibition.
The series began in 2021 with paintings shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo. It later evolved into photograms, now central to the exhibition and the forthcoming museum collection.
Kangawa and Yoshiyuki Miyamae, designer at A-POC ABLE ISSEY MIYAKE, have worked together for three years, exploring how light and shadow can be expressed through both fabric and art. Their partnership began when Miyamae first saw Kangawa’s Light and shadow inside me paintings in Tokyo in 2021.
Located in Tabanan, Bali, the Eugene Museum will hold more than 15 permanent paintings and installations by Kangawa. The project is led by a community of collectors in Asia and developed by a local organisation. Architect Andra Matin has designed the museum on a one-hectare site, with 5,000 square metres dedicated to galleries and facilities.
The layout preserves rice fields and existing trees, while the façade uses terracotta bricks made by local artisans. The museum will also provide overnight accommodation, allowing visitors to experience Kangawa’s works under changing light conditions.
Kangawa said the project allowed him to expand his practice into new media. “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,” he said.
From Photogram to Textile Innovation
Kangawa’s Light and shadow inside me series is created entirely with light. Earlier works used paper coated with dye, folded into geometric forms and exposed to sunlight for weeks.
Later works used photographic paper, folded and exposed selectively to artificial light, producing monochrome photograms. These works reflect on human existence through the interplay of shadow and illumination.
Inspired by these methods, A-POC ABLE ISSEY MIYAKE developed a new textile. The design translates the silver particles on photographic paper into woven fabric. The gradient from black to white is achieved through density of weaving, without dyes or coloured threads.
Miyamae said the collaboration returned the design process to its most basic elements.
“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,” he said.
He explained how the work informed the weaving technique.
“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.”
