Photo : mika ninagawa, Courtesy of Tomio Koyama Gallery
Alive with Shadows by Mika Ninagawa at the Grand Palais
The Grand Palais presents this winter an unprecedented exhibition in Europe by Mika Ninagawa, a major figure in Japanese visual arts. Through photographs, videos, and installations, her universe unfolds on a grand scale, inviting the viewer to cross the thresholds of an intensely sensitive world.
Grand Palais (Paris 8th)
About
Feast your eyes! Mika Ninagawa, winner of the most prestigious photography awards, arrives in Paris this winter with a body of work that stands at the crossroads of contemporary imagination and Japanese aesthetic memory. In her images, nature emerges where one least expects it, captured in the heart of urban tumult or carefully cradled in spaces shaped by human hands. Gardens, bouquets, artificial flowers, vibrant petals, suspended butterflies, drifting goldfish, and fragments of cities form a fragile constellation in which every motif becomes a mirror of a beauty destined to vanish.
With her collective of associated creators, EiM (Eternity in a Moment), she shapes lush, enveloping, and almost surreal environments. These spaces, heirs to a sensitivity nurtured by the theater—which she discovered in childhood through her father, the director Yukio Ninagawa—invite you to enter into a living, sensory, and deeply immersive experience. It is no longer just about seeing, but about feeling and passing through, like a meditation.
While her compositions explode with the saturated and contrasting colors that are the immediate signature of her visual language, this exhibition also reveals more intimate nuances, the more secret breaths of her work. Another voice can be heard here, perhaps more fragile, but just as luminous. Alive with Shadows evokes the shadows that inhabit us and shape, as much as the light, our way of being in the world.
Our take on this event
Expect a riot of saturated colors that transform a prestigious space into an immersive, living forest of light and shadow. This exhibition invites you to lose yourself in the photographer’s dreamlike vision where flora and urban motifs collide in perfect harmony. Step inside for an emotional, multi-sensory retreat from the bustling city streets.
Experience the vibrant world of Mika Ninagawa at the Grand Palais with the exhibition Alive with Shadows, running from 16 December 2026 to 20 March 2027. Created in collaboration with the collective Eternity in a Moment, this sensory journey blends photography and immersive installations to explore the interplay between nature, urban life, and human shadow. The exhibition is designed to be fully inclusive, providing specific accessibility features for visitors who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind, visually impaired, or have cognitive disabilities, as well as being wheelchair accessible.
Discover the striking visual language of Mika Ninagawa, where saturated colors and intense contrasts define a meditation on life's fragility. Alongside the EiM collective, the artist crafts lush, dreamlike environments that invite you to step inside her photography. Drawing inspiration from her father, the renowned theatre director Yukio Ninagawa, she transforms flowers, gardens, and city fragments into an immersive experience that goes beyond simple observation.
The exhibition is open from Wednesday, 16 December 2026, to Saturday, 20 March 2027. Visiting hours are from 10:00 to 22:00 on Fridays, and from 10:00 to 19:30 on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Please note the venue will be closed on Friday, 25 December 2026. Entry is subject to a fee and requires advance booking.
Accessibility is a priority at the Grand Palais. The venue is wheelchair accessible and features specialized support for visitors who are deaf or hard of hearing, including sign language services. Furthermore, the exhibition is adapted to welcome individuals with cognitive disabilities as well as those who are blind or visually impaired.
