Bijoy Jain / Studio Mumbai. The Breath of the Architect - Release date 08/Jan./2024
Bijoy Jain, Taka Satoh, Hu Liu and Aleva Ebüzziya Siesbye
The spirit of the place
Designed without compromise down to the smallest detail, the architecture imagined by Studio Mumbai bears witness to a deep concern for the relationship between humans and nature, while also reflecting on the importance of the genius loci (“the spirit of the place”). Negotiating with the climate, the rain, the rhythm of the seasons, considering nature, people, slowness, and making use of local expertise—this is the heart of Bijoy Jain’s approach. Whether for furniture or architecture, water, air, and light form the cornerstone of each of the studio’s creations.Studio Mumbai’s works have been the subject of exhibitions in numerous galleries around the world, as well as acquisitions for the permanent collections of the Canadian Center for Architecture, the MOMA in San Francisco, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. The Victoria and Albert Museum in London (2010), the Sharjah Biennale (2013), the Venice Architecture Biennale (2010 and 2016) have also presented the studio’s projects.
Studio Mumbai has been the recipient of many awards, including the Dean’s Medal from the Washington University in St. Louis (2021), the Alvar Aalto Medal (2020), the Gold Medal from the Académie d’architecture de Paris, France (2014), the BSI Swiss Architecture Award (2012), the Spirit of Nature Wood Architecture Award given in Finland (2012), the Aga Khan Award for Architecture (2010) where the Studio was a finalist for the eleventh time, and the Global Award in Sustainable Architecture (2009).
Born in 1965 in Mumbai, India, Bijoy Jain, director and head architect of Studio Mumbai, holds a Master of Architecture from the Washington University in St. Louis, United States (1990). After working in Los Angeles and London, he returned to India in 1995 and the following year, established Bijoy Jain & Associates. In 2005, the architect changed his production model and founded Studio Mumbai, a human-centered infrastructure where architects and artisans work between tradition and modernity using local resources.
Bijoy Jain has taught at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, at the Yale School of Architecture, and at the Academy of Architecture of the Università della Svizzera Italiana in Mendrisio, Switzerland. His work has also been shown all over the world, mainly in the architecture biennales of Venice (2010 and 2016) and Chicago (2017).
Taku Satoh is one of Japan’s most renowned graphic designers. In 1979, he is graduate of the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music (now Tokyo University of the Arts), design department, and he obtained his master’s degree in 1981. In 1984, he founded Taku Satoh Design Office (TSDO).
Among his many works, he designed Pleats Please Issey Miyake with Issey Miyake, and created the logos for the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa and the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo. With the designer Naoto Fukasawa, he is one of the Director of the 21 21 Design Sight museum, founded by Issey Miyake in 2007.
In early 2023, Bijoy Jain invited Taku Satoh to collaborate with the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, directing the artistic creation of its exhibition catalog
Hu Liu
A Chinese artist born in 1982 in Xinyang, Henan Province, China, Hu Liu graduated from the Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts in 2004. She now lives and works in Beijing.
Her work reveals a great interest in Taoist philosophy, and her immense canvases, covered with several layers of black pencil, are an invitation to other worlds.
Her work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions in China, Europe and the UK. In 2013, she was awarded the New Youth Pioneer Artist of the Year prize.
In 2018 and 2021, the Fondation Cartier is presenting several of her paintings in group shows at the Power Station of Art in Shanghai (A Beautiful Elsewhere and Trees) and at Triennale Milano (Les Citoyens).
For her Paris show, Bijoy Jain wanted to create a dialogue between her works and three of the artist’s paintings from the Fondation Cartier Collection.
Alev Ebüzziya Siesbye
A native of Turkey, ceramic artist Alev Ebüzziya Siesbye lived in Germany and Denmark before setting up her studio in Paris in 1987. Dedicating her life and art to one of the world’s oldest ceramic traditions, she creates bowls that may appear simple, but which bear witness to a communion between the craftsman and the material.
Named Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France in 2009, Chevalier de Dannebrogordenen in Denmark in 2000, Alev Ebüzziya Siesbye was also awarded the Prins Eugen Medal in Sweden in 1995. Her work can be found in the collections of the V&A Museum in London, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, LACMA in Los Angeles, the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York and Boymans van Beuningen in Rotterdam.
She has been invited by Bijoy Jain to exhibit around ten of her ceramics in conjunction with the Indian architect’s exhibition at the Fondation Cartier in 2023–2024.