Shinsuke Kawahara & Jean-Guillaume Mathiaut

24 Seasons

12 February – 21 March

30 galerie de Montpensier

Jardin du Palais Royal

24 Seasons is an exhibition born from a collaboration between Shinsuké Kawahara and Jean-Guillaume Mathiaut, inspired by Koyomi, the traditional Japanese calendar used prior to the introduction of the modern calendar in the 1870s. This calendar was divided into twenty-four solar terms, Nijūshi-sekki, each marking a distinct seasonal phase. The year thus unfolds into twenty-four periods of approximately fifteen days, each corresponding to observable changes in flora and fauna. It invites us to observe flowers, plants, animals and insects; to feel the temperature, the air, the light; and to breathe in the scents of nature in order to understand time through the rhythm of the living world.

Respect for nature lies at the heart of both artists’ practices. For Shinsuké Kawahara, this sensibility is also nourished by the Japanese concept of Kachō-Fūgetsu—flower, bird, wind and moon—four elements that embody the beauty and spirit of the living world. The rabbit, a discreet animal that inhabits his universe, became his artistic emblem upon his arrival in France: through the airplane window, he glimpsed a hare running across the runway at Charles de Gaulle Airport.

Jean-Guillaume Mathiaut’s oak works radiate a singular strength and presence—vital and inhabited. Shinsuké Kawahara perceives within them a form of spirituality rooted in the forest, resonating with his own deep connection to nature.

The wooden cabin at the back of the gallery extends the sensory experience proposed by the artists, serving as a chashitsu, the traditional room dedicated to the Japanese tea ceremony. It becomes a space that invites slowing down and contemplation, where art, nature and time converge.

Shinsuké Kawahara (born in 1963) is a multidisciplinary Japanese artist working between France and Japan. Trained at Musashino Art University in Tokyo and interested in fashion and design, he settled in Paris in the 1980s. His work was the subject of the solo exhibition The Other Side…On The Other Side… at Eleven Steens (Brussels, Belgium, 2021), and has also been presented at the Monnaie de Paris, the Musée des Arts et Métiers (Paris), and the Nishi Honganji Temple in Kyoto (Japan). He has collaborated with houses such as Hermès, Christofle, Fabergé, Louis Vuitton and Pierre Hardy.

Jean-Guillaume Mathiaut (born in 1975) is a French sculptor, conceptual designer and architect. His practice, deeply influenced by nature, centers on woodwork. He lives and works in the heart of the Fontainebleau forest, where he collaborates closely with the French National Forestry Office to give new life to trees that have fallen naturally. His universe is populated by anthropomorphic figures he calls “Menschs” and “Fetishes”. He has collaborated with Saint Laurent, Hermès, Alain Ducasse and Baccarat. In 2025, the Ducasse Baccarat restaurant, whose interior he designed, was awarded “World’s Most Beautiful Restaurant” by the Prix Versailles.