A Sixth Ring: Mariko Mori’s Waterfall Installation Unveiled for Rio Olympics
Rendering of Mariko Mori’s Ring: One with Nature (2016) presented by the Faou Foundation. Courtesy Faou Foundation.
Transcendence is something that has always preoccupied Mariko Mori, and her art is an enquiry into collective consciousness. In her latest work, part of the Celebra Cultural Program of the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games, employs the rich cultural heritage of the ring that is synonymous with the Games, and remains the grandest and most far-reaching symbol of unity, completeness, and the unstoppable eternal rhythm of nature that we possess.
Over the past decade, Mariko Mori – who made her name in the 1990s with works in dialogue with the iconography of contemporary culture in the East and West – has turned her focus to the environment, her questioning becoming increasingly ontological and cosmological, influenced by the primordial art forms and prehistoric cultural symbolism that she has researched for decades.
Mori’s Ring: One With Nature – to be unveiled as the Olympic Games kick off in Rio de Janeiro this week – is a monumental permanent installation at the top of the Véu da Noiva waterfall, located in Muriqui, Mangaratiba, Rio de Janeiro State. The sun will illuminate the work from different angles, changing the ring’s color from hues of scintillating blue to gold, bouncing off the lush green of the surrounding rainforest. It is her most ambitious work to date, and part of the mission of Faou Foundation, which was established by the artist, in 2011, to gift six site-specific artworks to each habitable continent on earth. Mori’s ring is not only an artistic response to the Games, but a manifestation of Faou’s ethos: “one with nature.” In a time of violent schisms all over the world, Mori’s ring takes on a particular poignancy: painful, yet positive and hopeful.
As she prepared to reveal the work in Brazil, where she will also participate in the official torch relay, Mori talked to MutualArt via Skype about how her epic new work was conceived from a vision in a dream and how she managed to install an artwork at the top of a 58-meter-high waterfall in the rainforest.
Artist Mariko Mori. Photo by David Sims. Courtesy Faou Foundation.
Charlotte Jansen: Could you tell me more about the Faou Foundation and your work?
Mariko Mori: The foundation was established in 2011. We wanted to create six art installations to honor nature on each continent in the world that would then be gifted to the locals. We are a non-profit, non-commercial organization, and set up the Foundation to also be able to organize educational programmes in response to the needs of the places we're working.
CJ: You must be a large group, given the scope of your activities!
MM: No, actually there are just three of us!
Rendering of Mariko Mori’s Ring: One with Nature (2016) presented by the Faou Foundation. Courtesy Faou Foundation.
CJ: So this installation, Ring: One With Nature, is a continuation of the Foundation's ongoing project. I believe this will be the second installation, the second continent?
MM: Yes. Ring: One With Nature is preceded by Sun Pillar on Miyako Island, Japan.
CJ: How does Ring: One With Nature connect with Sun Pillar?
MM: I had researched prehistoric culture since around 2003; both works will be aligned with the sun during the winter solstice.
Rendering of Mariko Mori’s Ring: One with Nature (2016) presented by the Faou Foundation.
Courtesy Faou Foundation.
CJ: How did Ring: One With Nature come about?
MM: Seven years ago, I had a vision in a dream about a waterfall. It was a very powerful dream, very strong… I kept thinking about it afterwards.
In 2011 I had a touring exhibition in Brazil that traveled to São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia. At the same time, Sun Pillar was installed in Japan. So when I began to think about the next installation I thought it could be in Brazil, that could be the work for the South American continent, and I began to ask people about a location.
It is not 100% like the vision in my dream, but it is quite close!
CJ: Ring: One With Nature seems to bring some of your ideas about energy, oneness, connectivity and the cosmos together in quite a climactic way. How does it also relate to the Olympic Games?
MM: The Olympic five rings symbolize the five nations coming together. I wanted to add another ring, which represents unification, the connection between humans and nature. The Olympic Games is the perfect moment to show this work to the world.
Rendering of Mariko Mori’s Ring: One with Nature (2016) presented by the Faou Foundation.
Courtesy Faou Foundation.
CJ: How has it been installed, technically? It's suspended at the peak of a 58-meter-high waterfall that must have been quite challenging!
MM: The location has changed twice, for various reasons!
The sculpture is made from layered acrylic that is used to build the water tanks you find in aquariums. It is a special, pure material, produced in Japan, that has a very high durability and is very stable: it can withstand sunlight, water, and weather conditions. The support structure is then coated with zinc and Teflon – for this part we worked with topographers, geologists, and hydrology engineers.
The technique is developed from the Sun Pillar work and took around two years to evolve, to get the color effects and the different angles of the light.
We installed it using helicopters, to try to make as little disruption to the flora and fauna as possible.
CJ: Who will be able to visit the site, and how accessible is it?
MM: It's located in a State Park, about six minutes trek into the park, and so it is quite accessible. It's about 1.5 hours drive from Rio, along a historic highway. The piece will be gifted to INEA and the State of Rio, so I hope many people will have the chance to visit.
Artist Mariko Mori. Photo by Christophe Kutner. Courtesy Faou Foundation.
CJ: You're also going to be a torchbearer at the official Opening Ceremony for the Olympics: how do you feel about that? What does it entail?
MM: I am told I will have to run about 200 meters and to do a torch kiss – that is taking the flame from the previous person and passing it to the next. It's very rare for an artist to take part in this ceremony, so I'm very honored, and I'm excited to carry such a historic flame from Greece! It is not something I ever imagined. It feels like a one-in-a-lifetime experience so I'm very happy to have this opportunity.
Ring: One with Nature will officially premiere August 3, 2016.
—Charlotte Jansen
