Oki Sato's Nendo has designed three displays at Paris department store Le Bon Marché, including a series of kinetic blossom-like raindrops in the central atrium.
The installation, called Ame Nochi Hana, intends to explore the connection and interrelation between the universal elements of rain water and blossom. It is on show at the Bon Marché Rive Gauche department store in Paris until 16 February 2020.
Nendo focuses on these "manifestations of life" in installations on various floors of the store and in window displays, where they appear as "naturalistic reveries".

The most dramatic feature of the take-over is a series of "rain flowers" that hang in the atrium of the department store, between the escalators that customers use to access upper floors. "I think I was inspired by something Issey Miyake said to me one day: 'you can evoke all sorts of emotion in art: anger, sadness, fear... but as a designer, you have to deliver happiness and joy'," said Sato.
The numerous white forms are designed to look like stylised versions of flowers, with petals that close to transform into raindrops.
As well as opening and shutting, the "rain flowers" can be raised and lowered in the atrium to create a kinetic display.

The installation serves to draw attention to the store's white-goods sale that takes place each January. Called mois du blanc, or month of white, the sale sees prices slashed on fridges, freezers and washing machines.
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