Louis Vuitton Taps Takashi Murakami for Immersive Art Basel Paris Installation
Key Takeaways:
- Louis Vuitton unveils its seventh Artycapucines collection in collaboration with Takashi Murakami.
- An eight-meter octopus sculpture anchors the brand’s installation at the Grand Palais.
- The project fuses Murakami’s visual language with Vuitton’s craftsmanship, featuring 11 collectible bag designs.
- The activation underscores Vuitton’s long-term strategy of embedding contemporary art into brand storytelling and product design.
Louis Vuitton returns to Art Basel Paris 2025 as an associate partner for the third consecutive year with an ambitious new collaboration: Artycapucines VII – Louis Vuitton × Takashi Murakami. The latest iteration of the house’s artist-designed Capucines series serves as both product capsule and immersive installation, reaffirming Louis Vuitton’s ongoing commitment to contemporary art as a pillar of brand expression.
The centerpiece of the installation is an eight-meter-high octopus sculpture by Murakami, inspired by Chinese lanterns and staged on the Balcon d’Honneur at the Grand Palais. With tentacles sprawling across the space, the creature becomes both environment and exhibit, enveloping Murakami-designed Capucines bags and guiding visitors into the artist’s surreal universe. A custom carpet echoing the octopus’s motifs extends the experience, while scenography sketches and plush sculptures lend depth to the surrounding atmosphere.
Eleven new Capucines designs, each referencing Murakami’s signature characters—from Mr.DOB and the Superflat Panda to his iconic smiling flowers—sit at the heart of the installation. Highlights include the Capubloom and East West Rainbow models, displayed alongside kaleidoscopic “Plush Ball” sculptures, which revisit Murakami’s longstanding interest in playful repetition and optical illusion. Other bags integrate references to his previous works, including The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg and Dragon in Clouds Indigo Blue, reinterpreted through Vuitton’s technical lexicon in embroidery, strass, and 3D printing.
The project also marks a reunion: Murakami first collaborated with Louis Vuitton in 2003, when he was invited to reimagine the house’s Monogram canvas in 33 colors—a precedent-setting partnership that blurred the lines between fashion and art merchandising. This latest chapter arrives on the heels of Murakami’s 2024 The Flower and the Child sculpture presentation in Paris’s Jardin d’Acclimatation, as well as the reissue of earlier collaborative works.
For Louis Vuitton, the Murakami takeover reinforces a legacy of high-profile artist collaborations that stretches from Gaston-Louis Vuitton’s early 20th-century commissions to contemporary alignments with figures like Yayoi Kusama, Richard Prince, and Sol LeWitt. The brand’s cultural platform now extends globally through the Fondation Louis Vuitton and its network of Espaces Louis Vuitton exhibition venues.
As brands increasingly compete on narrative and cultural capital, Vuitton’s Art Basel activation operates as a case study in long-horizon brand building. The house continues to treat art as more than an embellishment—it’s infrastructure for how luxury is produced, presented, and perceived.
