Visionary Journeys | OMA - Office for Metropolitan Architecture

Louis Vuitton: Visionary Journeys is now open to the public. Staged across 2,200 square-meters Nakanoshima Museum of Art, eleven thematic galleries are organized to communicate foundational aspects of Louis Vuitton’s identity in four interrelated zones: history, timeless codes, process behind the craft, and cultural dialogues. Rooms are envisioned as distinct sets of a continuous story to provide a spatial diversity that reflects the diversity of the House’s creativity.

Shohei Shigematsu, Partner, OMA: “I’m happy to continue our collaboration with Louis Vuitton – this time in Japan, for the first Visionary Journeys exhibition in a museum. We approached the show as a spatial translation of Louis Vuitton’s legacy—a journey not just through objects but through ideas. The scenography celebrates the trunk not only as a container of belongings but as a vessel of imagination, stories, and cultural exchange.

Osaka, with its historical role in trade and craftsmanship in Japan to the world, provided a fitting stage to explore and communicate the Maison’s identity – from its history of craftsmanship to the ever-expanding diversity of reinventions.”

Upon entering the museum, visitors encounter eight monumental lanterns suspended from the ceiling of the five-story atrium. The sculptural columns stack trunk-like forms wrapped in Monogram washi paper in six configurations. The 12.5 meter tall lanterns emphasizing the grand height of the five-story space, while emitting a soft glow that makes a welcoming first encounter to the exhibition.

The journey continues through a dramatic hemispherical installation at the exhibition’s entrance. Made from 138 authentic trunks and mirrored by the glass floor, this structure forms a complete globe—a nod to the theme of exploration. The self-supporting structure is held together solely by the structural integrity of the trunks, showcasing the balance of strength and lightness that defines the Maison’s construction techniques.

Throughout the exhibition, Japan plays a significant thematic role. A dedicated Louis Vuitton and Japan gallery explores the deep artistic and cultural exchanges between the brand and the country—ranging from traditional garments and samurai armor to kawaii culture. Historic and contemporary artworks, garments, and objects from the House and on loan from museums around Japan are carefully choreographed using a simple, modular platforms reminiscent of tatami mats.

Louis Vuitton’s creative legacy and distinct codes are explored in rooms that trace their evolution. In the Origins room, six eras in the brand’s history are woven together on a custom armature hand-woven from real bamboo.

This basket-like construction speaks to the shared appreciation for craftsmanship among Louis Vuitton and Japanese culture. The iconic Monogram canvas is explored in two galleries – from first development and inspirations, including pieces from Japan, to classic and contemporary applications.

In Expeditions, stories of travel unfold within an inflatable hot-air balloon that serves both as a display structure and surface for projection. Materials creates a dense, transparent archive of foundational materials, with pieces appearing to float in an infinite display. The mansard roof of the Paris Maison Vendôme flagship is translated into a backdrop for Atelier Rarex pieces displayed in a theatrical boulevard recalling Haussmann’s Paris.

Workshop extracts elements of Asnières – arched windows, sawtooth roof, work tables, and tools – creating a set for live demonstrations by craftspeople who can also be observed through mirrored “skylights” from any part of the room. Testing highlights the machines behind the craft, bringing the Louis Vuitton lab to the museum with live testing pieces for strength and durability.

In Collaborations, the House’s ever-evolving partnerships are materialized within four mirrored domes, where works of Sprouse, Supreme, Kusama, and Murakami are reflected and reconstituted in a kaleidoscopic display.

Scenographic elements are conceived not just as display mechanisms, but as active participants in the storytelling—drawing from the House’s core design principles and its capacity to reimagine tradition. Trunks become architecture, display becomes landscape, and visitors become travelers through a world shaped by over 170 years of creative evolution.

Asnières

Asnières traces the House’s origins from the Vuitton family home, and workshops which are still active today. Elements of Asnières – stained-glass bay window and tiles, wood chevron floor and rug, and horseshoe chairs – are recreated at scale. Embedded within the realistic set, a timeline of historical photographs to contemporary illustrations faces a large-scale depiction of an historical etching.

Origins

Louis Vuitton’s history of creative vision and evolution coalesces as an inhabitable archive of 320 artifacts and 316 cutouts. A continuous narrative unfolds within a basket-like armature, hand-woven from bamboo in the spirit of craftsmanship. The organic structure is manipulated to form pockets that define six eras of the House, from 1821 to present day.

Expeditions

Taking inspiration from Louis Vuitton’s evolution with the changing modes of travel, an inflatable hot-air balloon is inserted into the gallery and adapted for display. Comprised of 14 modules, it integrates platforms for 66 artifacts. The interior “dome” becomes a surface for projection. The iconic collapsible Tilbury anchors the gallery, rotating on a moving platform. Opposite the inflatable structure, sketches and illustrations from Louis Vuitton travel books line the wall.

Louis Vuitton and Japan

Louis Vuitton and Japan explores the deep artistic and cultural exchanges between the brand and the country through five lenses – early Japonisme inspirations, contemporary collaborations with Japanese artists, traditional tea ceremonies, and kawaii culture. Historic and contemporary artworks, garments, and objects from the House and on loan from museums around Japan are carefully choreographed using a simple, modular platforms reminiscent of tatami mats. Varying in size for the diverse content, and suspended at different heights, the platforms enhance curatorial configurations and dialogues. The same system continues on the ceiling, creating a horizontal landscapes above and below the objects.

Materials

Four Louis Vuitton materials – wood, metal, leather, and canvas – are explored in a library of their creative applications.

Bags, accessories, games, and wares are displayed in modular cubes in seven different sizes.

The transparent cubes are clustered into four “stacks”, each dedicated to a different material, creating a dense field of suspended objects.

Monogram Canvas

The history and reinvention of Louis Vuitton’s iconic Monogram canvas is presented in two parts. The first room charts a timeline on a suspended, sinuous platform displaying 40 artifacts from its development – from first inspirations, including pieces from Japan, to first applications. In the next room, contemporary applications are exhibited as a constellation of 112 Monogram bags. Like planetary orbits, five concentric, rings rotate around a central vitrine encasing the original swatch for the 1897 Monogram canvas patent.

Workshop

The Workshop extracts elements of the Asnières home and atelier – arched windows, sawtooth roof, work tables, and tools – creating a set for live demonstrations by craftspeople behind the creation. Viewers can observe the process of building trunks and personalization through mirrored “skylights” from any part of the room. Behind the worktables, 740 tools from the workshops are flat-laid under arched windows. Complementing the processes behind the craft, bespoke trunks made for Sho Hirano and VERDY highlight new creative potentials.

Testing

Instruments from Louis Vuitton labs perform various tests on bags for strength, flexibility, and wear. Two robotic arms named “Louise” and “Louisette” are focal points of the room, set up to open and close a selection of bags on large circular tables. Embedded along one wall, a set of devices lift and drop bags to test durability. Wood tables and flooring, with concentric rings reminiscent of Japanese rock gardens, add a soft, warm counterpoint to the lab’s mechanical nature.

Atelier Rarex

Atelier Rarex showcases “rare and exceptional” looks crafted at Louis Vuitton’s Maison Vendôme in Paris. The Maison’s mansard roof is reinterpreted in ribbed fabric on opposite sides of the room, serves as an environment for 20 notable celebrity looks. The Maison Vendôme building’s upper two tiers of windows become display niches, the interiors of which are informed by tripartite dressing room mirrors. Reflected in the room’s mirrored walls, this 15.1-m-long installation expands into a continuous roofscape, recalling the endless, theatrical boulevards of Haussmann’s Paris.

Collaborations

Four domes of varying sizes merge into a single gallery featuring collaborations with Yayoi Kusama, Stephen Sprouse, Supreme, and Takashi Murakami. The interior is composed of 1,467 mirrored facets that reflect and reconstitute 92 artifacts and movement of people. The resulting kaleidoscopic display constantly changes as one moves through the space. Display shelves are integrated through holes near the vertices of these structures.

Photography: Louis Vuitton