Omotesando Hills, a shopping complex in central Tokyo, has entered a new stage in its 11th year, with an aspiration to create and transmit “culture”.
To materialize this vision, Omotesando Hills has collaborated with Emmanuelle Moreaux to bring fusion of Illumination and “Art” into the mall for the Christmas season. Emmanuelle’s first illumination has become a fantastical space filled with gentle and warm lights created by her 100 colors.
The illumination “Christmas Forest in 100 colors” was inspired from the scenery of layers of trees lining up along the main boulevard in Omotesando, in which this scenery was recaptured into the void of the large stairway of Omotesando Hills. 1500 mini trees in 100 different colors filled the whole void in 13.4m high, and the “Forest of Colors” spread overwhelmingly.
Each mini tree wrap the light bulb in colored papers, like a lantern, to make 100 colors themselves to emit a soft and gentle light. Inside this colorful forest, the main tree is located at the center of the large stairway with a height of 7m, which is formed by a collection of mini trees that light up in white during the open hours.
From each level, different views of the illumination are captured, to encourage visitors to walk up and down the slope naturally to make the most of the main characteristic of this building, the slope. Santa Claus and reindeers that appears inside the main tree are hidden in the forest, add playfulness to the illumination for the visitors to search around.
At the special show “Emotional Reflection” held every 30 minutes, the main tree changes its colors from white, yellow, pink, green, blue and to rainbow, with other mini trees lighting up rhythmically with the music specially composed for this occasion.
Colors, music, and light resonate and respond to each others, inviting visitors into the warm and magical Christmas.
“Christmas Forest in 100 colors”
Venue: Omotesando Hills (Main building, large staircase)
Illumination period: November 8th (Wed.) – December 25th (Mon.) / 11:00 – 23:00
Special show: Every 30 minutes for about 3 minutes (first show from 11:30, last show from 22: 30)
Photo courtesy: Daisuke Shima
