Champagne House Ruinart Brings Tadashi Kawamata's Work to Art Week Tokyo

Champagne house Maison Ruinart has invited the Japan-born, Paris-based artist Tadashi Kawamata to make a new work for Art Week Tokyo, The Art Newspaper reported on 2 November. The piece is called Conversations with Nature 2026, and it is installed at Ruinart's pop-up champagne and art bar in Daikanyama, a neighbourhood in Shibuya ward, central Tokyo.

The bar, the Ruinart Champagne & Art Bar, sits inside the Daikanyama T-Site Garden Gallery at 16-15 Sarugaku-cho. It is open from 28 October to 8 November. Art Week Tokyo itself runs from 4 to 8 November 2026, according to the event's official website, which lists the bar as one of its exhibitions.

To prepare the work, Kawamata visited Ruinart's vineyard near Reims, the French city at the heart of the Champagne region. His pieces for the house respond to what he found there: morning mist, wind, birds and insects. Art Week Tokyo describes his works as lightweight and site-specific, meaning they are made to suit one particular place.

Kawamata was born in 1953 in Hokkaido, the large northern island of Japan. He lives and works between Tokyo and Paris. He is known for installations built from wood and furniture parts, and his practice explores the links between art and architecture, according to Ruinart's artist page.

Ruinart has also worked with him on a limited-edition wooden case that reimagines its Blanc de Blancs Jeroboam, a large-format bottle. The house says it takes part in more than 30 international art fairs around the world, so the Tokyo project is one of many places where its partnerships with artists are shown.

For anyone in Tokyo, the practical detail is simple. The bar is open until 8 November, the final day of Art Week Tokyo, and the installation can be seen while it is there.