27.02.19

The Monet room & its floor

Shoes must be removed before entering the Monet room in the Chichu museum. A traditional Japanese custom, it’s a gesture that symbolises leaving the outside behind. More than that here, however, it allows visitors to shift their mindset and be fully present with the scene before them.


Inside the room, their feet meet a floor composed of 700,000 beautiful marble cobbled tiles. Natural light floods in through the ceiling, and the experience of Monet’s Waterlillies becomes one that shifts perceptibly with the time of day and the seasons.


The combination of the cool and soft sensation underfoot, the light, the art and the serenity provided by the surrounding nature amounts to a revelatory experience. A feeling of perfect harmony that stays with visitors forever.The deeper the meaning of things and the reason for every details the longer things stays with you. As intimate as an alcove as solid and sacred as the marble, quarries of Carrara.


We experienced this room of Naoshima at different times during the eight years we lived in Japan. We were deeply moved by it, and the common revelations formed the start of a bond that also fuses French and Japanese culture.


It is our sincere hope that ALCARA will evolve with the countries we are now living in, the people we will soon collaborate with and the inspirations and experiences we will share along our journey.