At Tate Modern, Henri Matisse’s ‘The Snail’ becomes choreography, pleated garments and a shifting composition in the second edition of Homme Plissé Issey Miyake’s OPEN STUDIO.
Colour and movement reshape the space as pleated forms emerge, shift and return to the floor. The second edition of OPEN STUDIO by Homme Plissé Issey Miyake takes Henri Matisse’s 1953 ‘The Snail’ as the starting point for an experiment that turns his cut paper shapes into garments activated by the body.
Matisse constructed the work from sheets painted with gouache, cutting and arranging areas of colour into a loose spiral. Homme Plissé translates that logic through its pleating process: individual forms become garments that can lie flat before expanding around a moving figure.
Inside Tate Modern’s Tanks, performers from the Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company gradually revealed pieces concealed beneath a felt floor. The choreography incorporated ‘One One One’, Ioannis Mandafounis’ improvisational format built around the encounter between one dancer and one spectator. As the garments were worn and repositioned, Matisse’s composition slowly appeared across the space.
The gesture also echoes his working method. Matisse moved his cutouts repeatedly around the studio before fixing their final positions. OPEN STUDIO releases those forms once again, allowing them to change through bodies and choreography.
The accompanying Homme Plissé Issey Miyake for Tate capsule extends the idea into pleated clothing and accessories, translating the same relationship between colour, construction and motion into pieces designed to be worn.
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